1660s silk bodice adapted as evening dress for a Christmas Function

Yet another full length evening outfit for yet another ladies' night mess function was required. This time for a Christmas Function.

Bjarne Dews made me a 1600s dark red silk bodice - as can be seen in so many Dutch paintings - in 2001, to go with my authentic costumes.

I was lucky to have several meters of the same silk left, which had bee earmarked for a 1660s/160s front split skirt. I never made that one and there was no use hoping I'd one day go back to living history, thus I decided to make my favourite evening skirt out of it, the fishtail pattern from the Guy Laroche evening suit.

The challenge was to adapt the fully boned bodice first, because in 2002, when I was wearing it in the picture, I was about 3 sizes bigger than I am now. Thus I took several bones out and made it overall smaller. It worked quite well. It also meant that the bodice became quite comfortable to wear, which was vital for someone with my problem - I get very sick when I wear 17th/18th century stays and eat or drink anything at all.