Category Archives: Planning and Design

1780s Silk Taffeta Stripe Gown: Planning and Construction

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Today’s topic falls under the subject of outfit planning. Out of the seemingly infinite varieties of fabrics, trims, styles and ideas floating around out there, how do you decide what to make? There are several ways to approach this. This outfit is a great example of:

Start with the Most Difficult to Find Element

Sometimes you find an element of an outfit that is just to awesome to pass up. It’s rare. It’s unusual. It’s the perfect color. You never thought you would find it! Don’t pass it up! Buy The Thing and built an outfit around it. It could be anything: a piece of jewelry, fabric, shoes, any element of the ensemble really. It’s The Thing that often makes an outfit, and it is much more difficult to find The Thing to go with it, when the outfit is already made.

The Thing: This journey began with amazing necklace I bought from Dames a la Mode:

Bluish Green Collet Necklace with Clear Crystal Accents

This unusual blue/green color is one of the best colors for me, and I was so excited to find this necklace! I have worn it a lot with modern outfits, but as I soon realized, I didn’t have any 18th century gowns that match this, or even look good with it.

So I went through the fabric stash and found a yardage of striped silk taffeta I bought on eBay some years ago. It is a balanced stripe (meaning the stripe patterns are symmetrical) with a lighter shade of the same odd blue/green color, a yellowish gold, cream, and a narrow dark red stripe:

I only had 5 yards of it! I believe it was leftover from someone’s expensive home décor project, as it only had a salvage on one side. It must have been quite wide in its native state as it was still a healthy 48 inches wide. I knew I had enough for a gown (just barely) but not enough for a petticoat. So I had a choice – make a round gown or an open robe that would always be worn with a solid color petticoat. I chose the open robe. The fabric looks very nice with off white and I have some quilted silk in the dark red color that should also look nice with it. I still hope to find some yellow/gold that matches and make another petticoat. I think it is pretty near impossible to find this shade of blue green in a solid taffeta. I tried several samples I had on hand and none of them were even close.

Nevertheless, here is the primary image that is the inspiration for this dress:

1780s Blue and Cream gown sold through Daguerre Auctions.

I also have a pair of dark red shoes from American Duchess that I think will look wonderful with this fabric:

I already have the JP Ryan English Nightgown pattern fitted to myself, so I can cut this dress out and be sure it will fit me.

The pattern comes with two sleeve options and I am using the longer sleeve that has an optional cuff. Instead of using a cuff, I will put pinked trim on in two rows to create a faux cuff, like this:

Cuff detail of gown from museums.fivecolleges.edu/

As I cut the bodice on the bias to achieve the V shaped stripes on the center front, I adjusted the pattern to have no overlap in the front. I used hook and eye tape to close, as this fabric leaves very bad pin marks! I will cover the seams from the closure insertion with pinked trim.

  • Front
  • Front Closure

To save fabric, I faced the hem with bias tape:

And here is a photo of the pleating on the back. There are a few pin holes, but I know of no way to do an en fourreau back without using pins!

Pleated and sewn en fourreau back.

Here is the finished gown.

Black Cotton Voile Mourning Chemise a la Reine – Planning Stages

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I barely had time to make a first draft of my sewing Kanban for 2018 when my life was completely blown apart.  My 19 year old son, Henry Campbell, was killed in an accident on March 24, 2018.  I have not sewn anything for two months, but now that I am at the very beginning stages of adjustment, I am planning to wear mourning for costume events for at least the rest of this year.

My son Henry at his high school graduation in 2016. He was in his second year at the Community College of Allegheny County, majoring in Accounting with Mathematics minor.  He was brilliant, he was kind, and I will miss him forever.

This reminds me of a few years back when several prominent costume bloggers did posts about what was going on in their lives at the time costume photo shoots were done to show they are human and have the same struggles as everyone else.  This would qualify as my belated entry.

I do not have the option of skipping out on costuming – we have music gigs booked and the show must go on.  The first few gigs I wore either my dark blue silk gown with black accessories or my white chemise a la reine with black accessories, but I wanted to do a black gown.  Most of our events are late 18th century so I decided a black chemise a la reine would be a good choice.  Several years ago I ordered what I thought was dark blue cotton voile and when it came it was black, but it was so nice I didn’t return it.  Funny how life works.  This fabric will now become my mourning chemise a la reine.

First, inspirational photos.  I spent many hours pinning 18th century mourning things on Pinterest.  It was not as developed then as it was in the 19th century with the black crepe wearing for long periods of time.  In the 18th century it was more wearing somber colors with some black accessories or black with white accessories, and sometimes lilac or mauve which are considered second mourning colors.

This example is a Redingote, which I am not doing, but I love the ruffle around the hem and I do plan to do the same to mine.  Also note her lavender sash.

This is basically what I plan to make, but without the neckline ruffle.

The next two examples are not chemise gowns but do show how a black gown can be accessorized with white:

The first question always is, pre-wash or not pre-wash?  For a white cotton gown this would be a no brainer – they need to be washable.  However this black fabric has a very subtle sheen to it that would probably wash away, so I decided to make this one dry clean only.  Black will not show dirt.   For the same reason I am going to give this gown a moderate train.

Black Cotton Voile Fabric

For the lining, I decided to use black cotton organdy.  I thought about using some of the black linen / cotton blend fabric I bought to make Henry an 18th century suit for this coming year, but decided to keep that piece intact for now.  The cotton organdy will be lighter, which will help when I have to wear this in July.

Black Cotton Organdy

I was concerned that two sheer fabrics would not provide enough coverage to prevent my stays from showing through.  I have been wearing my white pair with elastic sides which enables me to play flute, but I’ve lost some weight and they are fitting pretty loose these days.  So I tested it over my red silk stays:

Layer of black cotton organdy and black cotton voile on top of one another – together they are opaque!

This made me confident enough to start cutting it out.  For the pattern I am using Laughing Moon Mercantile’s #133 Chemise Gown pattern:

As I want this dress to be more early 1790’s I am going with View B, fully ruffled but with the high neckline, long tight sleeves, and no ruffles.  I choose the closest size.  Since I have lost some weight – but are likely to get it back someday – I used one size up from that.  For the normal sized pieces I trace them with pattern ease to preserve the sizes.  The large skirt panels I measure and cut out without the pattern piece, so I do not waste pattern ease tracing these huge pieces.

As I tend to be long waisted and I do not want the waistline high taking it more into the late 1790’s, I lowered the waistline by one inch.  The pattern says the waist should be 1/2 way between your underbust and natural waist.  I felt this was too high for early 1790’s.

Here is the front lining being cut out:

And here are all the lining pieces cut out.  I will use these as a mockup to fit the pattern.  If they fit, they will be used to make up the dress.  If too many alterations are required I will update the pattern and cut out another one.

I sewed the lining together for a fitting.  Not bad!  The waist was a little loose so I took in the side back seams 1 3/8 inches on each side.  This left 1 1/2 inches of overlap in the back at the top and the bottom.  The pattern says it is supposed to just meet in the back – this makes me nervous.  I plan to let mine overlap 1″ and if I gain some weight back, I can adjust this without having to take the whole thing apart.  I also plan to hide a few hooks and eyes up the center back to prevent it from gaping open as I move.

Front of mockup with neckline fitting darts sewn down.

 

Back of mockup pinned 1 1/2 inches overlap in back.

Next step will be cutting out the fashion fabric and assembling the bodice …

On to Part Two …

Outfit Planning – Time to Cut the Expensive Silk!

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FWAP – Fabric With A Plan

Figuring what to make out of what fabric is another one of those things that is hard to explain.  Sometimes I just know what I want to make as soon as I see a piece of fabric.  Other times I buy the fabric with one or more ideas in mind, and it changes over time.  It might end up making something totally different out of it than what I planned, especially if a new event comes over the horizon and I need to make something I was not originally planning to make. 

So I have – as part of my sewing Kanban process – a FWAP list.  I have had these two large pieces of silk for some years now and have waffled back and forth over the exact type of 18th century gowns to make out of them.  The main question being, robe a la francaise (sack gown) or robe a la anglaise (fitted back).  I know in both cases I wants stomacher gowns as I do not have a silk stomacher gown right now.  The two fabrics are:

Pink Baranzelli 100% Silk Lisere Fabric

And

Burgundy 100% Silk Schumacher Brocade Fabric

So how does one decide?  Well first I thought: maximum flexibility.  I bought both of these fabrics on Ebay at a steep discount, but the pink stripe lisere was FAR more expensive.  So I want as much flexibility with that as possible.  So first lets think about how many different things it will match.

A single 18th century gown can be paired with a different petticoat and different accessories to create many different looks.  A stomacher gown can also have multiple stomachers, and will still fit you if you gain or lose weight as the fix it more flexible.  Planning ahead for this can save you a lot of money.  Instead of making an entire new outfit, just make a new petticoat or stomacher!

The pink in this silk is VERY hard to match.  I bought numerous swatches over the four or five years it has been in my stash and of all of them, nothing matched except for this one 5 yard piece of silk satin ribbon.  It matches a few different greens due to the variation in colors in the floral stripe.  I found a nice piece of trim that looks similar to period fly trim on Etsy:

Green Silk Satin Ribbon, Pink Silk Satin Ribbon, Green Faux Fly Trim

Here it is with a couple different colors of green ribbon from the stash:

Antique Olive Green Rusching Ribbon, Dark Olive Silk Satin Ribbon, Green Quilted Silk.

But honestly I like the lighter green in the first picture better.  It also goes well with this piece of quilted green silk, which would give it a silk petticoat for a different look:

Green quilted silk,  olive green rusching ribbon, olive green silk satin ribbon, green silk satin ribbon, pink silk satin ribbon, green faux fly fringe trim.

It will also work with my existing green silk petticoat:

And someday, something new and blue.

So really this fabric has a lot of options for different petticoats and stomachers to give it great flexibility.  It could have a stomacher with decreasing size bows out of either ribbon (or both) in addition to a self fabric one, and a compere stomacher (buttoning up the front).  So I have decided to make it as a robe a la anglaise as this style is also more flexible, and depending on what skirt supports I wear with it and what accessories I can make this gown work for any time from about 1750 – 1780’s.  But the primary target will be 1760’s.  I have a little less than 12 yards of it so that should be plenty for the gown trimmed out with box pleated trim and a petticoat with a wide box pleated ruffle around the bottom.  Something like this:

18th Century Gown from Met Museum

And this:

Gown from Philadelphia Museum of Art

So now looking at the burgundy silk – I have 15 yards of it and it was far less expensive.  So there is enough to make a very fancy sack gown that fits over wider panners.  It also looks great with gold trim, and could also be worn with the same green quilted silk petticoat, ironically enough.  But it looks its best with gold trim:

Burgundy silk with green quilted silk, green silk ribbons, and various types of gold trim.  It looks better with the dark olive ribbons.

So something like this:

Robe à la française, 1760’s France, Museo de la Moda

And this:

Gown MFA Boston

I should also clarify it took me a while to make these decisions.  It is better not to rush, to take time and lay the fabric out with various trims and other fabrics, and order swatches from the internet for additional fabrics and trims that might work.  As a general rule, don’t cut into expensive fabric until you have sat with the decision for some time and feel at peace with your choice.

I will make up the pink lisere first as I have had it a long time and want to finally wear it!