1790's Drapery
Dec. 23rd, 2025 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
atherleisureThere's talk of the local costumers' guild going to a museum that has a Roman marbles exhibit on now. Either Roman dress or Regency. I decided it was a good time to make the 1790's drapery that I've had planned for years.
Back in the early 1990's, I had one of those silk broomstick skirts - the ones where you tied them in a knot and threw them in the washer and dryer, and they came out artistically crumpled. The fabric wore out along the elastic waistband decades ago, but since it was actually silk, I hung onto the rest of the skirt, though I didn't know what I was going to do with it. Then several years ago (I wrote down 2019, though maybe that's accurate, and maybe it's not) I decided to make one of those Roman or Greek inspired Regency pieces out of it.
Now I finally did it. Since the skirt itself is gored, my drapery ended up being gored instead of cut in straight panels as I think would have been more period accurate. I didn't really care. The skirt is cut evenly all the way around (or as even as I could get lightweight, wiggly silk) and turned over a half-inch cotton tape at the waist. The bodice was draped on the stand and pleated to another piece of tape as a stay at the shoulder and then stitched to the waist tape as well. The cord is a remnant from back when I worked at JoAnn, which was more than 20 years ago.
The whole thing is hand-sewn because machine-sewing it would have been way more trouble than it's worth.
I'll get pictures of it on me when we go to the museum. If we go to the museum. I hope we do because I've enjoyed the other museum visits we've had.
Back in the early 1990's, I had one of those silk broomstick skirts - the ones where you tied them in a knot and threw them in the washer and dryer, and they came out artistically crumpled. The fabric wore out along the elastic waistband decades ago, but since it was actually silk, I hung onto the rest of the skirt, though I didn't know what I was going to do with it. Then several years ago (I wrote down 2019, though maybe that's accurate, and maybe it's not) I decided to make one of those Roman or Greek inspired Regency pieces out of it.
Now I finally did it. Since the skirt itself is gored, my drapery ended up being gored instead of cut in straight panels as I think would have been more period accurate. I didn't really care. The skirt is cut evenly all the way around (or as even as I could get lightweight, wiggly silk) and turned over a half-inch cotton tape at the waist. The bodice was draped on the stand and pleated to another piece of tape as a stay at the shoulder and then stitched to the waist tape as well. The cord is a remnant from back when I worked at JoAnn, which was more than 20 years ago.
The whole thing is hand-sewn because machine-sewing it would have been way more trouble than it's worth.
I'll get pictures of it on me when we go to the museum. If we go to the museum. I hope we do because I've enjoyed the other museum visits we've had.
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