No-Sew Tudor Costume Challenge and Review

By Lauren Moyer

It’s been awhile since I did a No-Sew costume challenge. While this isn’t a $50 challenge like previous ones, when I saw this Tudor costume available on Amazon in many colors and sizes and that GBACG is hosting a Renaissance event, I knew I had to buy it, review it for you all, and see how to “accessorize” it to be more historical.

For those of you new to these posts I’ve done, here’s the background, being in the hobby for 7+ years now I spend lots of time at events and talking to people online about costuming, expectations, and confidence in the hobby. Many times I hear sentiment like:

“I don’t know how to sew, and people all sew their costumes.”

“I don’t have money to buy from sewists.”

“I don’t have any good costumes, so I didn’t think I could attend.”

“I can’t find my size in patterns or at thrift stores.”

I want as many people with different skillsets, backgrounds, and interests to feel they can participate and encourage them to find their own style of costuming whether it’s handsewn historical, steam punk, cosplay, mashups, or store bought; everyone should feel welcome to express themself and most importantly have fun. As for myself, although I sewed many of my past costumes, back injury has made it hard for me to sew now, which many people also experience these limitations with sewing.

With that the $50 New/No-Sew Challenge was created — making a great costume that can be repeated without sewing a stitch or spending a ton of money! Check out the previous installments:
Mid Victorian Part 1
Mid Victorian Part 2
Regency Challenge

This time I am not limiting myself to $50, I know, but I had to try out this dress. Here are the rules of the past challenges: 

• Absolutely no sewing, safety pins only (the costumer’s holy grail).
  Many people do not have sewing machines, or space for them, or finances to purchase, or the confidence to use them. Why should they feel they can’t participate in dress up?
• Store-bought new.
  Although I generally prefer thrifting to buying new, I understand that perfect thrift store finds are time intensive and not easy to replicate. So for this challenge, I bought new clothes through Amazon which is more accessible to the masses. This way you can buy the exact same pieces, or use the look as an inspiration to buy/thrift something similar!
• $50 max budget.
  I did not keep to this, the Amazon dress I bought at $104. I understand that this is unaffordable to some, so I also wanted to review this dress so if people were interested and had the funds they could buy one. I did however not buy any additional accessories, using what I already had (some from previous challenges).

And as always at the end I will show how to “Elevate the Look”. Taking the base costume challenge then how one can add more historical undergarments or accessories to make the look more accurate to the period you are costuming.

The Base Costume

This is the basis of the challenge, taking a base dress, showing how it is on it’s own, then how and what you can add to it to make the costume look more accessorized and “accurate”. I’ve never dressed in Tudor dress, so this was a challenge for me. To note Amazon prices fluctuate and change.

The Dress, Dickie (or Under Partlet), and French Hood – $104

This purchase makes up for the entirety of the base costume and what I purchased this time. I chose this dress because they have 4 different color options and go from XS-3XL. I ordered the Large and took about a week to ship, much faster than anticipated.

The quality:

Honestly this quality was MUCH better than previous dresses I’ve bought from amazon. The dress had a full overskirt and full underskirt (half with the gold fabric and half with another blue). I wasn’t expecting that. There even were sleeves under the large velvet sleeves in the matching underskirt fabric. The fabric had stretch to it, but still was a bit awkward to get on and off with the side zip. If you have some shoulder mobility issues it could be an issue. The fabric also was thicker than expected, but a little itchy. I couldn’t figure out how best to iron it, and couldn’t find my steamer, so I left it as is, a bit wrinkly… just more lived in amirite?

The SLEEVES. Ok these were my favorite part, the velvet actually was very soft. I absolutely loved spinning in them. The undersleeve was pretty loose however, could use a safety pin or snap to make the wrist more fitted.

The undershirt/dickie was a nice addition because it added a bit more polished touch to the final look. The top however is an itchy fabric and did ride up a bunch. When I wore the dress with stays, I pinned the bottom of it down to keep from riding up.

The french hood, and I say that very broadly. It’s just a headband with fabric. I folded the fabric to add some dimension.

Here is the dress I purchased and some possible alternatives with more than 50 reviews and with prices (at time of posting)!

• 1791’s lady The Other Boleyn Girl Dress Gown Anne’s Costume – $118 (I paid $104). Great quality, 4 different styles and many sizes.
• This option is more affordable, but I think a great base to add to, could totally see gluing some lace or trim to the larger collar. – $47.95
• This reminds me of some more German and Dutch Renaissance paintings just glue more trim to it, and gives off a bit of fantasy style if you like that. – $44.99
• I love the dark color of this with contrast skirt, the french hood looks a bit more substantial. – $74.99 

Elevate the look

If you want to add more to your base costume using other costume pieces or things around the house, I will show how just a few add-ons can change the whole look of the dress.

Undergarments

Corsets and stays are expensive and time consuming if you make them. Many times it seems overwhelming to think you need a new style for every time period. For this look I used my Georgian stays from Redthreaded to give me a similar shape to the Elizabethan stays. By putting my petticoat under the front tabs and over the back tabs, I tried mimicking the long front and shorter back of the period stays. 

Petticoats are something that many times you just need a good one and you can reuse them for almost every costume. This I bought years ago and is my go to. I bought it used from etsy, it’s just a linen skirt.

Bum roll, this is a part of the shape in many Tudor dresses. To achieve this bum roll with no sewing, I took a knee sock and stuffed rolls of more socks in it. Then wrapped around my waist and tucking under the front of the stays. I have to say I was pretty happy with how this turned out!

Farthingale, this is actually the same bridal hoop skirt I used in my Dickens/Mid-Victorian No-Sew challenge! Many bridal hoops have adjustable hoops. I adjusted the hoops to give the shape more of a cone shape rather than a round shape of the Victorian era. Putting it over the bum roll and again under the stays front I was extremely happy with the shape!

Accessories

For jewelry I used so inexpensive costume jewelry I’ve collected throughout the years. The earrings are plastic and I use also with Georgian looks. The necklace and belt are from the 70’s, they added the appropriate bling to the look.

My hair I parted and pinned back my bangs and put it in a braided bun. To help the look of the french hood, I safety pinned a black Mantilla I had to give it more of a historical look.

There are also many other great looking Tudor dresses on Amazon and other retailers, that I hope you can take some of my ideas to help elevate and accessorize your dress for the future. Tag GBACG and myself, @madamedestroyer on instagram if you use any of these tips! 

Happy Costuming!