After Glowing Up the Wild Cherry Linen bodice, I realized I had similar issues with my Intergalactic Silk 1490s Venetian underdress. At the point in time when I started this remake, I had lost about 45-50 lbs from the original construction of this dress. I had already taken it in once, about an inch on each side on the front and the back as well as removing most of the 2-inch lacing gap on each side. Even with that alteration, it was still perilously loose. In addition, the oval of the neckline was not as wide as I would like, and the straps were VERY thick to accommodate the trim. While pleated trim is correct for this time and place, the thickness of this trim and the forced thickness of the straps is not. The straps needed to be significantly thinner, which would also help carve out the oval more.
In addition, pushing the straps a little further off the shoulder as compared with the first Glow Up would also widen that oval more. I also needed to raise the bottom center front some to help minimize wrinkling at the join of the skirt and bodice as compared to both the Framboise silk dress and the Glow Up Wild Cherry Linen dresses.
While redrafting the straps and oval of the neckline, I did an initial mock-up in cotton duck to check the fit. The straps were narrowed, carved out on the inside, and pushed further off the shoulder, which greatly opened up the neckline oval. Though, with the amount of bosom I have, the oval effect can only go so far.
The guts of this bodice were 3 layers of Fabric-Store.com IL090 Canvas Bleached Fs Premier Finish Very Heavy (8 oz/yd2) linen that was then machine quilted at ⅛ inch. It was lined with a purple quilting cotton.
I had remnants of silk taffeta from the original construction. Once pressed out, I wrapped the guts with the silk taffeta and whip-stitched it to the lining and guts. To get the armscye curves nice and tight, I snipped into the first fold of the double-folded edge and pressed with a LOT of steam to ease that curve and get a nice crisp curved edge.
The assembled but not trimmed new bodice beside the old bodice. You can see that the total circumference of the bodice was decreased considerably. In addition, the straps are much narrower and pushed further off the shoulders to give a more period-accurate silhouette for 1490s Venice. Trim still needs to be added to the new bodice, which will be 2 rows of navy blue soutache with a gap between them, based on the trim seen in Titian’s Sacred and Profane Love. The lacing cords from the original bodice will be reused on the lacing rings on the new bodice.
In the remade construction, you can see that the wrinkle at the center bottom of the bodice, where it attaches to the skirt, has been diminished. It is still somewhat present because of the limits of what can be done with my anatomy. While that skirt was not remade, it was slightly modified. In the original version of this dress, the skirt did not have slits at the sides where the bodice front and bodice back laced together. This made it necessary to squish the bosom through this choke point. I added a several-inch-long slit on each side of the skirt in the center of the walking gores to help ease getting in and out of the bodice. I faced both these slits and hand-tacked the facings to the inside of the skirt, as can be seen in the side view photo above. The skirt was then repleated and whipped to the bodice.
I was very successful in this remake in getting the back of the neckline to sit close to the body across my dowager hump.
The seated image at the top of the blog post and the standing photo directly below were taken by Ludwig Maltz at An Tir’s Kingdom A&S and Queen’s Rapier Championship 2026. The bodice still needs a second row of soutache added, and the sleeve tie loops need to be adjusted(shortened) to pull the sleeves up further. The overdress worn in these photos was made to go with a different underdress, but with the power of GRANIMALS, it works well with this underdress as well. I also–desperately– need to make a second body linen that is made with updated bodice measurements so it lies better at the neck.
