Materials: cotton and linen

Pattern: 14th Century Women's Kirtle and Cotehardie by Reconstructing History

First Event Attended in it: TBD, aiming for St. Paddy's Day Bloodbath hopefully.

I did say that a red dress would make a come back in my closet. And predictably, I impulse shopped at Joann's because that's who I am as a person. I do it at Miriam's too (also came home with red!). But I digress. I found a lovely printed cotton fabric that is light but sturdy and will make for an excellent short-sleeved summer dress. While cotton is not normally my preferred fabric I love the print on this and it's still a natural fiber so it will stay breathable through the summer.

This project is that this is going to be my first piece of garb that I am hand-sewing. I am very intimidated by this fact. I want my seams to make sense, I want the hem to work (that's what the dress form is for though so that'll help) and I want it to have longevity in my SCA closet. It's a tall order all around. I've been reading articles left, right, and center on starting with hand-sewing but I think sticking to what I know is going to be the best call. I'll be using a backstitch for the structural seams, frenching them, and then using an invisible stitch for the neckline and hems.

Because it's going to be a new process for me, I want to start documenting this from start to finish. The patterns are on their way, the fabric is currently pre-shrunk, and I'm trying to make my important decisions on construction.

One thing I kind of like about this fabric is that it's double-wide (I believe it's 105" wide). I think it will allow for a bit more flexibility in positioning the pattern pieces on the large stretch of fabric while I'm cutting, which I would appreciate. Ideally, it will help me line up the print better than a thinner fabric would.

The pattern I am using for this project is the 14th Century Women's Kirtle of Cotehardie from Reconstructing History. I have decided on the following variations for the garment:

• Scoop neckline. I do still want to be able to show off my blackwork and I tend to get stuffy and uncomfortable in high necklines like the boat neck.

• Short sleeves. The goal here is to be as heat-friendly as possible, and that means I want my nice airy linen smock to deal with the heat issue instead of a stiffer dress.

• Front opening. This is probably going to be a regular staple for summer events and I won't always have help getting dressed. I need to be able to get into and out of this on my own.

Different interpretations of this cotehardie use buttons or lacing. Lacing is easy and flexible if this needs to go on top of something else, but buttons are something different, that I've never tried before. I will probably do lacing for ease and speed, and then when I decide to do a version of this gown with actual sleeves, I will do buttons. I've also found that the versions I've seen with buttons tend to look a little more formal, and I do want this to be fairly casual.