1760's Teal Robe a la Anglaise
Jul. 10th, 2013 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
atherleisureFor trips to Ingles Ferry in 2013, I made a teal en fourreau gown with a matching petticoat and stomacher. Unfortunately, I found out after the fact that Ingles Ferry was taking 2013 off so wearing the dress was delayed until Independence Day at Smithfield.
Materials:
6 ¼ yd teal linen/rayon (from JoAnn)
1 1/8 yd bleached muslin (from JoAnn)
3 yd 1” cotton twill tape (from Burnley & Trowbridge)
Patterns:
The bodice lining was the same modified version of the Simplicity Pirates of the Caribbean gown (S4092) that I used for the 1750’s indienne print sacque last year. The only change was sloping the back to a point at the waist edge of the center back.
The gown itself was draped on the dummy following the general outlines of patterns in Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Englishwomen’s Clothes 1660-1860 by Janet Arnold. The sleeves were taken from the 1770-1775 sacque on pp. 34-35, mostly because I already had that pattern piece printed out from previous gowns. The cuffs are taken from the 1760-1770 jacket on pp. 26-27.
The petticoat is made in the same way that I make all 18th century petticoats. I learned this way from the 18th century petticoat tutorials on Katherine’s Dress Page and A Fashionable Frolick and now don’t even really consider that I’m using a pattern.
The stomacher is just cut to the same shape as the stomacher from the 1750’s indienne print sacque.
Construction:
The sacque, petticoat, and stomacher are made of a teal linen/rayon blend. The bodice, sleeves, and stomacher are lined with muslin. The gown is entirely untrimmed as it is meant for wear to a site that interprets life on working farm in the 1750’s.
The bodice lining seams and long skirt seams were sewn by machine. Everything else was hand-sewn. The bodice lining was assembled first, and the linen was mounted on it. Unlike the sacque I made last fall, I was careful to keep the hem on-grain this time. I hemmed the gown between attaching the skirt front panels to the gown back and attaching the skirt to the bodice. Also unlike the sacque, I did not try to mimic the period’s narrower fabric widths by sewing false seams. I used the full width of the fabric for the back, and two full widths for the skirt.
The back pleats are sewn into place with a spaced back-stitch. All hems are turned toward each other and sewn with the ever-popular point a rabattre sous le main, which takes forever but looks very nice. The skirt waist is folded over and whipped to the bodice, then the skirt pleats are roughly backstitched together above that since I didn’t trust the whipping to have caught all layers.
I made an error when tearing the fabric for the skirt fronts and made them so that they were just barely long enough. While I had intended that they should have enough fabric to turn down 1”-2” at the top, they ended up with only a ¼” seam allowance, if that. If it had been any shorter, I would have had to tear out the side seam and hem and pieced in a strip at the bottom edge of the skirt, but I really didn’t want to go through the effort when it was just barely long enough. If the dress were likely to see a lot of hard wear, I would have done it anyway, but I’m not actually going to be interpreting, just visiting. I also cut it a little close on the shoulder of the first bodice front that I draped. It just barely covers the back, turning under a seam allowance rather smaller than usual. I was more careful with that on the second bodice front.
I really love draping a gown over the lining since it gets rid of so much laying out and cutting and worrying about fit. Once the lining fits, the dress comes easily.
Undergarments:
I wear this gown and petticoat over a chemise (Simplicity 3635), fully boned stays (Simplicity 3635), pockets (Patterns of Fashion), and a petticoat based on the same tutorials as the linen petticoat.
Thoughts after wearing:
Mistakes aside, I’m very happy with how this looks and fits. It is a simpler addition to my 18th century wardrobe. The only thing I didn’t like too much was that my stomacher didn’t want to lie flat. Now I want to make little tabs for it so I can wear it without a stomacher and just have tabs holding down the fichu. (If someone knows a better name for those tabs, I’d be happy to hear it.)
Materials:
6 ¼ yd teal linen/rayon (from JoAnn)
1 1/8 yd bleached muslin (from JoAnn)
3 yd 1” cotton twill tape (from Burnley & Trowbridge)
Patterns:
The bodice lining was the same modified version of the Simplicity Pirates of the Caribbean gown (S4092) that I used for the 1750’s indienne print sacque last year. The only change was sloping the back to a point at the waist edge of the center back.
The gown itself was draped on the dummy following the general outlines of patterns in Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Englishwomen’s Clothes 1660-1860 by Janet Arnold. The sleeves were taken from the 1770-1775 sacque on pp. 34-35, mostly because I already had that pattern piece printed out from previous gowns. The cuffs are taken from the 1760-1770 jacket on pp. 26-27.
The petticoat is made in the same way that I make all 18th century petticoats. I learned this way from the 18th century petticoat tutorials on Katherine’s Dress Page and A Fashionable Frolick and now don’t even really consider that I’m using a pattern.
The stomacher is just cut to the same shape as the stomacher from the 1750’s indienne print sacque.
Construction:
The sacque, petticoat, and stomacher are made of a teal linen/rayon blend. The bodice, sleeves, and stomacher are lined with muslin. The gown is entirely untrimmed as it is meant for wear to a site that interprets life on working farm in the 1750’s.
The bodice lining seams and long skirt seams were sewn by machine. Everything else was hand-sewn. The bodice lining was assembled first, and the linen was mounted on it. Unlike the sacque I made last fall, I was careful to keep the hem on-grain this time. I hemmed the gown between attaching the skirt front panels to the gown back and attaching the skirt to the bodice. Also unlike the sacque, I did not try to mimic the period’s narrower fabric widths by sewing false seams. I used the full width of the fabric for the back, and two full widths for the skirt.
The back pleats are sewn into place with a spaced back-stitch. All hems are turned toward each other and sewn with the ever-popular point a rabattre sous le main, which takes forever but looks very nice. The skirt waist is folded over and whipped to the bodice, then the skirt pleats are roughly backstitched together above that since I didn’t trust the whipping to have caught all layers.
I made an error when tearing the fabric for the skirt fronts and made them so that they were just barely long enough. While I had intended that they should have enough fabric to turn down 1”-2” at the top, they ended up with only a ¼” seam allowance, if that. If it had been any shorter, I would have had to tear out the side seam and hem and pieced in a strip at the bottom edge of the skirt, but I really didn’t want to go through the effort when it was just barely long enough. If the dress were likely to see a lot of hard wear, I would have done it anyway, but I’m not actually going to be interpreting, just visiting. I also cut it a little close on the shoulder of the first bodice front that I draped. It just barely covers the back, turning under a seam allowance rather smaller than usual. I was more careful with that on the second bodice front.
I really love draping a gown over the lining since it gets rid of so much laying out and cutting and worrying about fit. Once the lining fits, the dress comes easily.
Undergarments:
I wear this gown and petticoat over a chemise (Simplicity 3635), fully boned stays (Simplicity 3635), pockets (Patterns of Fashion), and a petticoat based on the same tutorials as the linen petticoat.
Thoughts after wearing:
Mistakes aside, I’m very happy with how this looks and fits. It is a simpler addition to my 18th century wardrobe. The only thing I didn’t like too much was that my stomacher didn’t want to lie flat. Now I want to make little tabs for it so I can wear it without a stomacher and just have tabs holding down the fichu. (If someone knows a better name for those tabs, I’d be happy to hear it.)
