I recently cobbled together a renaissance wench outfit from Butterick 5757 (circle skirt with elastic waistband and pockets) and Butterick 4669 (simple bodice).
The skirt was fully lined with generous pockets. I chose gorgeous linen blend fabric in teal (outer) and navy blue (lining), not realizing at the time that the whole shebang would be extremely heavy. (It’s actually not that heavy when you’re wearing it.)
To hide the hem stitches, I used a length of beautiful teal, black and gold ribbon that I found on sale at Joann’s.
After making the skirt, I went back to Joann’s intending to purchase extra navy blue linen for a kerchief overskirt, then decided that the existing skirt really needed a matching bodice. Lucky for me, Butterick 4669 was in stock, so I got that and additional teal and navy blue linen, as well as some red seam tape and red lacing to add a little bit of contrasting color and break up the sea of blue. The bodice pattern did not call for boning, but I needed it for support so I added it to the front and side seams. An easy way to add boning is to sew it into the seam allowances. As long as the seam allowances are wider than the boning casing, you can just sew it into the lining by following the stitches in the casing, sliding the boning back into the casing, and then sewing over the ends of the casing. I sewed it into the lining seam allowances as opposed to the outer fabric, because sometimes boning can poke through. If it pokes through the lining you can patch it easily, but if it pokes through the outer fabric you are pretty much screwed. I bought boning caps but forgot to use them. Oh well. I also used the leftover ribbon from the skirt to trim the neckline and the front of the bodice.
The finished outfit:
Needle Wielding Badass 
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