Anne Boleyn Half-Scale

This was a school project where we had to pick a garment from history, research it and produce it as historically accurately as possible, while still adding in some theatrical closures (ie, you're making this for the stage, it needs to be able to get on and off fairly quickly.), in the half scale.

I chose [link] as inspiration (That's actually a picture of Jane Seymour), but as I'm not very partial to reds and golds, I used the dress that Natalie Portman wore as Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl as inspiration. [link] [link] [link]

The colour of the dress is actually much closer to the Boleyn dress in the posters than it looks. My camera didn't want to capture the colours properly.

Underneath the skirt is a Spanish Farthingale and a bum roll, that's what's supporting the skirt shape. The silver forepart is attached to the over skirt so that it's one skirt, and does up in the centre back, there's a placket with poppers and a hook and bar.

The bodice is two pieces. It laces up in the front and then the stomacher snaps on over top of it. I didn't make a corset as madeleines don't squish. (for those that don't know, madeleine is the name for half-scale mannequins)

I think I mainly picked this period because of the sleeves. I've always been fascinated with medieval sleeves. The pattern piece was crazy cool too, I don't think I could have come up with it on my own.

I didn't make the necklaces, my mom did.

Sewing in half scale was an interesting experience as I'm used to full-scale proportions. It was nice that it used way less fabric than a full-scale though, and took way less time.