The Emerald Green Anne Boleyn Dress

Inspiration Dress

Wow, after a lot of work, the Anne Boleyn dress is finally remodeled. And It went from something that I wasn't crazy about wearing to one of my favorite dresses. The Anne Boleyn dress is the first thing I ever sewed, and because of that there was a lot of trial and error in the dress. After all, everyone makes mistakes when they are learning. When I went to make my first noble dress, my favorite person at the time was Anne Boleyn. Who couldn't help but admire the feisty women who became the mother of Queen Elizabeth. I knew right away, I wanted to follow her lead. About this time The Other Boleyn Girl movie had come out, and I was very inspired by Natalie Portman's green dress.

Anne Boleyn

So because of this, my first dress was made with a beautiful Emerald Green Brocade. After buying the fabric I did hours of painstaking research, reading about other people's experience with Tudor dresses. I wanted this dress to be perfect. But as with first dresses that isn't always the case. A dress like this requires many layers to get it to look just right. When I wear one of my noble dresses, I am wearing: tights (helps with chafing and cold weather), drawers (not all that historically accurate, but your legs get cold anytime there is a breeze), a smock, corset, modesty petticoat, farthingale (or hoops), and my bum roll. That's before we get into the layers of the dress. Therefore it can be very intimidating for the first time costumer. But I tackled it with a since of excitement, but the result was not what I really desired after the thrill of finishing the dress wore off. This is what the dress looked like when I deemed it finished.

 

I'll admit, it's not terrible. But as I looked around at the other dresses I saw, I was disappointed in it. So I threw it in my costume trunk, and created my Katheryn Howard dress. That one I was much more pleased in, and so this dress became something for my sister to wear when she came to the faire with me. But as time went on I realized the potential this dress held, and decided to remake it. The first thing to go was that horrible gold trim. It was cheap, and it looked cheap and I didn't like it at all. So I went along ripping it off, and what an improvement it made. We added a small gold trim around the neck line and a gold broach, and the difference was obvious.

You can see the difference it made. The Brown dress is my Katheryn Howard Dress, for a sneak peak of what's to come.

And that was all the work it got for a while, we moved and only after I got cast in the Renaissance Faire did I pull it back out to make a few more modifications on it. Here is the end result.

I would say a big improvement. The first thing I did was remove the hanging sleeves. They always looked like they were trying to hard, because I had the ratios off when making them. I replaced them with the original sleeves I had put on the dress for a while until I finished the hanging sleeves. I then took away the low neck smock and added the high neck one. I have started to prefer the high style over the low. It looks more elegant and modest, and keeps one from getting sun burnt quite as much.

I added in a few pearls to decorate the gold trim around the neckline. I reused the same necklaces as before. The pendent on the choker came off the clearance rack at Kohls, and I restrung it on a band of pearls. The long necklace was one my great-grandmother picked up at a yard sale and gave me. But this time instead of tucking it into the bodice, I let it hang over the pendent to add some design to the simple bodice.

The only new piece of jewelery that was made for the dress was the belt. The old one was plain and to small. I didn't really care for it, so I added this one that I like much better.

The cross at the bottom was recycled from the old belt.

The French Hood also got redone. I was having a major problem with my hoods staying stiff. They were collapsing, even when I used wire and several layers or heavy canvas. Then I decided to add a layer of poster board in between two layers of canvas. That worked great and the new hoods are holding their shape wonderfully. The beads and veil were reused from the old hood, and the fabric was saved from the old sleeves that came off.

I was also able to find this pleated ribbon at Hobby Lobby which resembles the pleated band we see peeping out from underneath hoods. I think this really helps add authenticity to the outfit. Overall, I am very satisfied how the dress turned out. I can't wait to wear it, and my sister has gone from complaining about wearing it to begging to wear it. Below I will attach a few more photos.