After spending so much time with my files the last thing I want to do is spend more time in my files.

But I’m also not really up for making anything as I keep avoiding working with heavy fabrics and the Nordrhein fashion is nearly all heavy winter gear.

I do have small hand sewing projects though.

And I could use the summer as an excuse to make a fluffy dress.

So what do I mean? I mean the kind of dress that may have a normally fitted bodice but the sleeves and skirt are simply gathered not made with much structure at all.

This is not the same effect as is seen in the very finely pleated but very structured skirts seen from Westfalen through Saxony and south.

This is my favourite. Hanging sleeves made of gathers? I mean this is gloriously unpractical and yet really would be quite comfortable. I had initially dismissed this as a copy or of a stylised portrait. But it is clearly meant to be Sibylla of Cleves.

So much going on here but this is a perfect example of the softness of the gathers. They crumple. I get a very similar effect with my wool crepe dresses I made years ago. But these could be silk or linen.

And this one I think is by the same previous artist from the same region.

Isabella of Denmark.

This is part of a set of illustrations of women by Holbein. I think this is an example of the same kind of dress.

So now I am reconsidering this gown worn by Anna Meyer. The main difference here is the fit of the sleeves. They are classic two part fitted sleeves not a series of bands. In the full portrait her skirt has fairly deep pleat creases, like the illustration directly above.

Though really I should make a fitted chemise and finish the short chemises as well. I do need them desperately.