I made this costume for one of my good friends Anna back when I went to Ren Faires. It was based on an Italian Renaissance portrait and to a degree on the sleeve I made for my first upper class Ren costume.
On the first sleeve I got some things right, it was based on having velvet sections with pearls at the points. But when I went back and really studied the portraits that Anna’s entire gown was based on I realized the sleeve was one piece of fabric with bound slashes. I had to figure out the pattern of the slashes and how one might do that with modern fabrics.
Anna’s gown was based on this gown from a portrait of Laudomia de Medici by Agnolo Bronzino. Well, there are three slightly different versions of this portrait, this time I studied all three trying to figure out the sleeves. In this one the lower sleeves on the right and left seem to be different enough as to be impossible to justify that they are matching sleeves. I went with the right sleeve while my original sleeve is more like the left sleeve.
On the left, Is the finished sleeve folded flat. To the right is a drawing of the pattern without seam allowances. The red lines are cut lines. After the entire cotton velvet sleeve was cut it was backed with an iron-on tricot interfacing then, slashed. The interfacing is just to help with any fraying that might happen with the cuts.
Finished sleeve from the back. In order to edge the slashed with silk I added bias strips of double sided bridal satin as wide as the distance between the slashed. The velvet edge of the slashed got turned under and appliquéd down. I chose double sided bridal satin because it’s almost the only fabric that can be pinked and not ravel. You have to look closely to see the clips but they are there both on the slashed and the sleeve opening. You have to look on the finished garment as many of the progress pictures were taken before the pinking.
All the panes of the upper sleeve are also lined with bridal satin which is wider than the velvet strips so ~1/2″ on both sides. Also the loop tabs along the waist and the collar. The rest of the bodice is also lined with bridal satin.
There is a band to the upper sleeve that has pearls between sections velvet. If I made these sleeves again I would skip this because it’s too bulky and just have a simple band.
Jewelry
I made the jewelry to look something like the portrait but simpler.
It consisted of a necklace, girdle jewelry, earrings and decorative hairpins. Also there are many 4 pearl clusters, I added those down the front and on the sleeve.
Zibellino
Zibelline are animal skins usually ferrets with decorative gem incrusted heads that were worn attached to girdle jewelry. Instead of trying to get a ferret skin and trying to create a jeweled head for it, we opted for three tails with a large fancy cone bead on a string of pearls, which is resting over her arm. This could be clipped onto the girdle jewelry.