The Jaffa Dress

I made this dress in 2009, and I’ve written this write-up with the assistance of my old livejournal.  One thing I learned in posting this on livejournal is not all countries have the lolly known as the Jaffa.

A Jaffa is a lolly that is round with dark orange chocolate in the middle and a thin coating of candy stuff on the outside that is a dark orange/red colour.  Like an m’n’m but bigger and rounder.  This is how the dress got it’s nickname!

I chose the colours by the following method. I had orange linen/cotton that was brighter and a little lighter in weight than I hoped. A friend was raising money by selling fabric so I ‘helped’ her by buying 13 metres of brown linen which I’m still using to this day—it is the same linen I used in the interlining of the red gamurra. I found putting the brown under the orange dulled the colour slightly.

This is my first and only fully lined Gamurra, usually I only line the bodice.

My first step is I altered my existing bodice pattern, I had the version of the pattern I had used for my yellow gamurra before I rose the waist so I just had to raise the neckline. I did this by tracing the pattern onto my fabric but drawing the neckline a little higher. I didn’t mock it up.

To construct the bodice I used my usual method of finishing the pieces and whipping them together.

I used my normal method for cutting the skirt. I had four rectangles and my Z measurement was 30cms and the rectangles were 135 wide in total.

I cut the rectangles by pulling a thread in the orange linen/cotton

The brown linen didn’t want to pull a thread easily, so I cut one straight line and then used the orange as a pattern for the other. I pinned the selvages together at the top, the sides down the side where I had pulled the thread on both and the other two sides I smoothed till they looked right.

It was at this point my mother looked down and said it looked like a jaffa, hence the name the jaffa dress.

Before cutting I pinned the layers together around all edges, especially along where I was going to cut. The last thing I needed is cutting along the bias and then the fabric not matching up again.

For the sewing of my skirt I decided to use a seam I don’t normally use. I’m not a fan of running stitch, and if I leave the finishing to the end then it will never get done. Which is why I usually finish and whip. This time I decided to run and finish with a difference.

I sewed the wrong sides together then finished the seam on the right side of the fabric by folding it out to one side

and folding it under.

and tacking it down with a whip stitch. Off the top of my head I can only remember this (as in the finishing on the outside)  done on linen (ie, undergarments), but I chose this method so I would have to finish the seams before I wore it, not wear it unfinished and have the seams fray to pieces. For the record—this worked.

I sewed the skirt in cotton quilting thread that looked like linen thread. I chose white to be similar to bleached linen thread which I was reading at the time would have been used rather than expensive dyed silk thread for lower class garments. I like the finished look.

Here is a closeup of my stitches. I couldn’t make them smaller due to the thickness of the fabric- would have had to do stab stitch to get them smaller.

The skirt once sewn together. Yes, the panels are all the same size, it’s just the middle ones are closer and all.  Still to do was to cut and finish the seams, hem the top, cut and hem the bottom and whip stitch it to the bodice.

Well, first thing I did was cut the hem of the dress even. To do this I laid it out on the floor, eyeballed what the curve would be and cut it panel by panel, using the first one I cut as a template but adjusting it where needed.  I made sure I pinned above the cutmark before cutting so the lining didn’t shift.  Then I hemmed the thing and it didn’t take as long as you might think but by the end of the nine metres (or whatever the hem is) I was jolly sick of the whole thing!

It took me a couple of days to figure out the pleating. I had wanted to hem the top then do tiny box pleats, but as at the seams there would have been about 21 (if my maths is right) layers of fabric it really meant that none of the folds of the pleats could fall on the seams. I considered pleating it then binding the top with something, but decided not to. In the end I hemmed it, and pleated it with larger pleats fudging it where needed to make sure they didn’t fall on the seams where needed.

Here is my (almost) finished bodice

I usually prefer to use lacing rings to close my bodices because I am lazy and hate (making) hand bound eyelets  and lacing rings are period. But at the time I couldn’t find any lacing rings as it was re-enactment season and the fishing shop had none of the solid rings we used to buy for $4.20 a pack of 12 (this is why my shop now stocks lacing rings, because I want them when I want them and for much cheaper than fishing shop prices! It does mean I miss out on getting flustered old men at the counter in the fishing shop saying “why are all you ladies coming in and buying them! You’re the third!”)

I didn’t have a shop back then so I had the choice of waiting until my father finished work to ask if I could raid his stash or making eyelets, so I chose the latter.

I finished the dress by whip stitching the skirt to the bodice edge. At the time I worried about the weight of the skirt damaging the fabric at this seam but eight years on it is fine and I still wear this dress.

Click here to go back to the finished gamurre page.

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To Make a Red Gamurra

You can read the full write up about this dress in The Fifth Annual Italian Renaissance Costuming Challenge.

I usually make my gamurre bodices by cutting out the lining the finished size, the fashion fabric including the hem allowance, hemming the pieces and whip stitching them together. For my red gamurra I tried something a little different in response to reading about quilted bodices and also having a VERY fine red wool for the dress.

I cut my white linen including seam allowance, then brown linen and red wool without seam allowance. Finally another layer of red wool with seam allowance. The white, brown and first red layer I quilted with tinny running stitches. Then I basted the final red wool layer over the top.

Then treating all layers as one I sewed together with a small running stitch, ironed seams to one side and sewed down.

Here is the pattern I used for the bodice. I’ve been using the same pattern over and over since I had a friend draft me a Flemish pattern as a teenager and I’ve just altered it over and over again.

In the picture below a quilted front piece (left) is ready to have the fashion layer (right) basted to it. You can see how fine the red fabric is in this photo and just make out all the layers.

And a closer up picture of the quilting

And an inside view of the quilting

Here are the back pieces finished (but not sewn together) you can see how sheer the fabric is and why I wanted to have a layer of red wool under the red wool.

Here is the bodice at a try-on able stage.

and the inside for posterity. My stitching is nothing to write home about, but it does the job.

Here are photos of me doing the final fitting the bodice and ‘hemming’ the skirt. As you can read in how I cut and sew my skirts I hem them first, but this skirt did need balancing from the waist—I lengthened the bodice dramatically so I had to make sure I pinned the skirt at the waist so it hit the ground straight. Because I am not straight up and down this means my bodice waist seam isn’t straight when I have a lower waist. This isn’t such an issue with a higher waist.

The brown hanging down was the left over linen that I used to reinforce the skirt top, I have since cut that off.

Click here to go back to the finished gamurre page.

How I Construct my Gamurre Skirts

Over the years I have tweaked something each time I’ve made a gamurra, but one thing that hasn’t changed is my basic skirt construction.

We don’t have archaeological examples to go by so I follow what looks right, archaeological evidence from other times/eras and thinking about what would have worked for their fabric widths and ‘wast not want not’.

I tend to use this with wide fabric, as I don’t bother cutting my fabric narrower, but it works for narrower, you just need more panels.

Firstly I think about if I want single or double pleats. Then I look at how many ‘drops’ I have for my skirt. Then I work out ‘Z’. Z is the measurement of my bodice waist, multiplied by 3 (or 5 for double pleats) divided by twice as many ‘drops’ as I have for the skirt. I then cut each skirt drop as per the below diagram.

It is important that ‘Z’ is smaller than the side market ‘hem’. If it is not then the skirt won’t flow. I had this problem only once and my solution was to switch from double pleats to single pleats.

You may notice I don’t add any seam allowance. I include hemming allowance in working how long to cut each drop (120cm for me) but when I hem the top of the skirt (the side at the bodice edge) it makes the length of this edge longer and it all just works out.

I cut my panels into the trapezoid shape, I usually use string and a ruller as a guide.

I then sew them straight edge to slanted

I mark the hem with string and pins (I pin straight into the carpet to anchor my pins).

I then cut the hem straight. Sometimes I cut by eye without marking first. The skirt is now ready to hem.

You will notice I don’t allow my skirts to hang. Using the selvage edge on every seam, even though it’s just one edge per seam, I think helps. It means I can hem my own dresses and have a look at the below image—my hem is very even.

Click here to go back to the finished gamurre page.

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Gamurre

A gamurra is the layer worn over the camicia and were suitable for very informal situations such as wearing around your own home when you weren’t receiving visitors.

Gamurre were very tightly fitted and laced up the front. Occasionally you see side lacing which would be very beneficial for pregnancy. Sleeves could be sewn on or attached with pins or lacing ties.

Read about how I cut and sew my gamurre skirts here.

My blue gamurra was the first I made

I based my brown gamurra on this portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci by Leonardo da Vinci

The skirt panels on this dress are rectangles and it is double box pleated.

My yellow gamurra has a slightly lower neckline and higher waist and was inspired by some of the Venetian styles. You can read about the construction here.

My fabric was a very pale pink so I dyed it in the bath with some fibre reactive dyes. It turned out a beautiful yellow.

The finished dress.

My orange gamurra has been nicknamed the jaffa dress as it is lined in brown linen. If you’re not familiar with it, a jaffa is a lolly that has a chocolate centre and is coated in an orange candy coating. You can read about the construction of the jaffa dress here.

This has a higher neck and a lower waistline than my yellow gamurra.

My red gamurra is made out of a beautiful, light-weight wool.

You can read about its construction here.

Red Wool Gamurra from Cathelina’s Wardrobe

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