Maeve: Medieval Irish Princess
Ladie Faire Doll Designs
Home | Medieval/Renaissance Designs | Antebellum "Belles" | Victorian and Edwardian Designs | Other Period Designs | Faerie/Fantasy Designs

5th OOAK Design

Maeve
maeveface.jpg

"Hero's daughter, Leinster's loveliest!
Child of kings!
Mingling in one glow her ringlets
and her rings."

--Medieval Irish verse

Maeve
maevemantlefront.jpg

"There was a time I was in Tara,
With Niall on Emain's Green;
He strove to do me honor
And together we shared his wine.

There was a time I was in Limerick,
With Niall, beloved of Ailech;
Lovely was my colorful dress
Among the princes of the west."

--from "Gormlaith's Lament" in the Book of the Dean of Lismore

This ensemble was made with careful attention to detail in a style dating to the twelfth-century and embellished with authentic Celtic designs. This is truly a unique outfit as I designed it myself, without the use of a manufactured pattern, and comes in three parts:  a mantle, an under-dress or chemise, and an over-dress or tunic.

maevemantleback.jpg

The floor-length mantle is decorated inside and out with stamped or hand-painted Celtic designs in gold fabric paint. The inside is ivory satin with a hand-painted Celtic chain across the bottom and stamped triple circular designs over the rest. The outside of the mantle is dark green taffeta with the hand-painted chain across the bottom, a Book of Kells-inspired circular serpent design in the middle of the back and three stamped Kells designs at the shoulders and back; the neckline is trimmed with red, gold, and green ribbon with an interlocking Celtic design, and a circular "gold" clasp fastens it at the throat.

Kells
kells.jpg

Maeve
maeveside.jpg

The doll in this design is Mattel's "Princess of Ireland": an absolutely wonderful doll for doing Medieval designs with her long, full auburn hair, pale skin, and gentle features. I have not retouched the face paint; her green eyes and russet lips worked well for this design. Her hair was given a perm so that it hangs in long ringlets down her back; two sections on each side of her face were twisted with gold ribbon and wound into an intricate design around her head.

Maeve
maevefront1.jpg

The overdress is elaborately decorated, rich green taffeta; it has a square neckline revealing the gold trim of the underdress, fitted bodice and dropped waist; the full skirt is cut with a train in back. The fashion for wealthy women of the time were extravagantly long sleeves--often so long they had to knot them to prevent them from dragging the ground! Maeve's sleeves are fitted shoulder to elbow, then open wide and long to reveal the sleeves of the chemise and sweep the floor at the bottom. The inside of the sleeves are lined with ivory satin and trimmed with a chain-design gold ribbon. Down the front of the dress, around the hips and the outside of the sleeves is ribbon trim in a red, gold, and green Celtic design. A gold-plated chain belt wraps once around the hips and then a second time to hang down the front of the dress, ending in two filigreed, bell-shaped ornaments.

Maeve
maevechemise.jpg

The underdress is of ivory "crinkled" silk made with extra-long, close-fitting sleeves that would be scrunched up to create delicate folds up the arm. The bodice and waist are fitted, while the skirt is full; neckline, wrists and hem are trimmed in gold.