1690's/1700's Mantua
Mar. 31st, 2017 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
atherleisureI have a couple more pictures of the mantua I made last fall. I posted some construction and dummy pictures here. It was a lot of fun to wear.
It's worn over a full-sleeved shift and reed-boned stays with a wood busk.
I wore pockets, but I don't know how easy they may have been to access because I didn't actually try. I also wore a plain petticoat and my 18th century stockings and shoes. That's it! It's a casual style with a very vertical silhouette.
While you can put the dress on by yourself, you really can't arrange the folds of the skirt properly alone. I had to have help.
I can't say how well the folds would have stayed in place because the hooks kept coming loose from the belt, and we never refolded it. (I have since bent the hooks so they shouldn't do that the next time I wear it.) At that, I still haven't quite figured out how it's supposed be folded over the hips.
The train was rather astonishingly well-behaved. The taffeta I made the dress out of was not the heaviest weight I've used, but it was of a good weight and body. I think that is what made it behave so well; when I turned, it stayed behind me instead of getting wrapped around my feet. The folds in the back are the precursors to the folds of the robe a la anglaise, and in the skirt (even when not properly folded) they give enough bulk and body to keep it in place.
Here are a few detail shots.
The pleats in the back are tacked down at the waist (though I don't think they were on the originals) and across the shoulders with a strip. Other than that, they're just loose. The belt holds them down.
The skirt hooks onto a thread loop on a ribbon belt. The ribbon just pins in place into a V in the front. The hooks pull it into a nice V in the back.
The sleeves are the only part of the dress that were machine-sewn. The cuffs are just straight strips doubled and attached to the ends of the sleeves. They're set like later 18th century sleeves.
I had so much fun wearing this dress. It's definitely an amusing style to wear.
It's worn over a full-sleeved shift and reed-boned stays with a wood busk.
I wore pockets, but I don't know how easy they may have been to access because I didn't actually try. I also wore a plain petticoat and my 18th century stockings and shoes. That's it! It's a casual style with a very vertical silhouette.
While you can put the dress on by yourself, you really can't arrange the folds of the skirt properly alone. I had to have help.
I can't say how well the folds would have stayed in place because the hooks kept coming loose from the belt, and we never refolded it. (I have since bent the hooks so they shouldn't do that the next time I wear it.) At that, I still haven't quite figured out how it's supposed be folded over the hips.
The train was rather astonishingly well-behaved. The taffeta I made the dress out of was not the heaviest weight I've used, but it was of a good weight and body. I think that is what made it behave so well; when I turned, it stayed behind me instead of getting wrapped around my feet. The folds in the back are the precursors to the folds of the robe a la anglaise, and in the skirt (even when not properly folded) they give enough bulk and body to keep it in place.
Here are a few detail shots.
The pleats in the back are tacked down at the waist (though I don't think they were on the originals) and across the shoulders with a strip. Other than that, they're just loose. The belt holds them down.
The skirt hooks onto a thread loop on a ribbon belt. The ribbon just pins in place into a V in the front. The hooks pull it into a nice V in the back.
The sleeves are the only part of the dress that were machine-sewn. The cuffs are just straight strips doubled and attached to the ends of the sleeves. They're set like later 18th century sleeves.
I had so much fun wearing this dress. It's definitely an amusing style to wear.
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