Hit the saque! ...beginning HSF #17: Robes and Robings

...ok, bad pun.  Remember when I said that the 1865 evening gown was going to be the most ambitious thing I did?  Well, as it turns out, this robe will probably take the cake for that - mostly due to the shape of the skirt.  It's gone well so far, only a couple snafus (granted they were big ones, but thankfully easily fixed), so the robe part is done (stomacher will be finished Tuesday, and hopefully lower sleeves, too).  Granted - it won't be trimmed, and it won't have a proper self-fabric petticoat (yet), but the basic dress will be there.

Here's the dress as it was this weekend: no sleeve flounces or engageants, no trim, a pinned-in piece of fabric temporarily used as the stomacher (actually the square 'sample' piece that the stores have for ordering in bulk, it was on sale for a dollar so I grabbed it one day), and the bodice waist pinned to the correct height...

I rather like it so far, especially the back, though the front needs finishing at the time of these photos.

... Without further ado, here's how it got to the above photos.

Inspiration (and historical reference/"proof" for the existence of printed/indienne cotton saques) came from this Pinterest page of cotton saques put together by Katherine of Koshka-the-Cat (thank you!!).  And MAJOR props also to Katherine for her tutorials on making a saque (this project really fits nicely under the "Gratitude" HSF, too, I realized); I used those as my "making-of" guide, though I did a few things differently (so far it's come out ok though).  The silhouette I'm going for is not a "court" silhouette, but narrower, more everyday one like that of the "block print francaise (c.1770)".  Wide isn't the most flattering for me, anyway, and right now I'm making do with a rather extended hip roll padding (with quilted petticoat on top) in place of panniers, so I doubt I'd've been able to get that trapezoid shape perfectly right (I know, I know, shame on me.  Pocket hoops are on my to-do-list).

And the construction...

Making progress on HSF #12, the "princess" dress...

This is going a lot slower than I had hoped; I'd wanted to have the bodice fully sewn, boned, and lined by now so that I could pin on the trim.  Ah well, will have to make to with a few teasers... :-)

Here's the sizing version of the bodice (the lining) (front, back) - the two piece version (technically three, since the front is one, the back is two because I measured it and then cut it in half) with sleeve strips.  I placed pins how I'm going to do the boning/seams for front and back on the actual outside of the bodice.

And here's the sizing version worn and (partially) pinned closed in the back, with the skirt and appropriate hoops, stays, and chemise.  Will also need to make a bit of padding around the hips to make the skirt lie properly, but that can wait.

I have the front of the bodice pinned together with bones, but am not going to post pictures of it until the whole thing is done.  It looks more than a little weird right now, doesn't lie flat (due to the rigilene, grr), and since it's only the front I can't wear it, so it's hard to visualize what the full bodice will look like.  It's a bit longer than the lining, with a definite 'V' to the front of the bodice (like the peach silk gown), so we'll see how that bit of creativity goes... Here's hoping I can finish it this weekend.

For now, here's the HSF info, for the progress so far (will update it when I'm done, in the final post):


The Challenge: HSF #12: Pretty, Pretty Princess (a gown for Princess Victoria Adelaide in 1865)

Fabric: midnight blue poly-something satin (light weight) - 5 yards total, is my estimate, once the bodice is complete; will also have a black voile (polyester, sorry) overskirt held up in drapes, with a black voile berthe and black undersleeves (have 5 yards of the fabric, doubt I'll need half that since the voile overskirt will essentially be a long rectangle gathered at the top into a waistband under the bodice)

Pattern: self-designed based on the peach evening gown from the Met; bodice construction guided by the 1861-1864 bodice of the evening dress in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion (modified the bodice point and ignored the sleeves; mostly for construction ideas and what the back looked like); and the 1867 skirt of the walking gown also in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion (essentially as-is, since making one square per inch resulted in the measurements I needed)

Year: 1865; American Civil War

Notions: thread (so far); will have satin ribbon for some trim, and also a thinner satin ribbon for the lacing

How historically accurate is it?  The dress pattern and silhouette (midnight satin) is 90% accurate (slight modification of the bodice front so far, and the front panel was a single width instead of two with a center seam).  The fabric, being synthetic, is entirely inaccurate, but the satin weave is accurate to a degree.  The coloring is also accurate for someone of my age; and there were overskirts of black voile for a lighter gown, if not a darker one.  It's entirely hand-sewn.  The boning is rigilene (also inaccurate), and (to my knowledge) construction of the skirt is 100% accurate, while the bodice is maybe 60% accurate since I'm not lining each piece separately.

Hours to complete: so far about 10

First worn: only for the above photos and fittings

Total cost: at present, I'm using stuff only from my stash, except for the voile which I didn't have enough of, so bought a Wal-mart "sash" curtain (taking a page from the curtain-along book) in black voile for all of $15 - 6 yards, 56" wide.  When I got the fabric, it was about $5-6 for the entire 5 yards.  So far, $20 for a (fabric-ly historically inaccurate) ball gown.  Not bad.

HSF... the indienne adventure continues...

So, I spent a few hours sewing the gown over the past few days, and was able to finish it at 11:54 (or :56)pm on May 6, so technically within the deadline.

Here's a few more progress photos...

First, pinning and then sewing the en fourreau back (THAT was a challenge, to get the stripes right, since as it turned out I had sewed about an inch too much toward the center on one side and hadn't lined the pleats up properly for the skirt when I first sewed that, so it was a tad lopsided).  It still looks fine, but one of the side stripe pleats (I'll let you guess which one) has a significantly narrower fold to it than the other.

...on the dress form the next day

Then, deciding whether to sew two stripes of self-trim down the center to break up the bodice at all... and, once I did decide to do it, figuring out HOW I was going to do it since I didn't have two strips of stripe that were the same size AND the same pattern for symmetry.  (That's the problem with making something from a tablecloth, I suppose.)  So, each stripe is pieced together from at least two (the one on my left is three) pieces (some of them small/weird angles for sewing) other pieces of stripe.  It worked better than I thought, actually, though it took longer to first pin and then sew.  

Pinned on the dress form - somehow managed to get it to shut this time...  And added the cranberry petticoat I'd made for that anglaise...

Can you tell where the seams are on the stripes?  

When I pinned and sewed it, I left about 1/8" over the front fabric (which in turn was 1/8" further than the lining) to cover the hooks/eyes and have a flat (yet fully closed) opening.  I also was on the last yard of cream thread when I was sewing these on, so had to switch to a red to sew the inner edges of the trim... not ideal, but better (I think) than pure white.  Then I sewed 11 pairs of hooks/eyes, evenly spaced, to the front center closure.

On the dress form...

DONE!!  Final photos wearing it, and official write-up for HSF in the next post... :-)

HSF floral tablecloth anglaise progress (or, a race against time)

So, I left off on Monday with just the lining sewn together and the skirt and back pinned on.

Well, I'm almost done, as of tonight.  Not bad. :-)

After sewing the skirt on later Monday night, the gown graced my dress form until Wednesday night, when I cut and pinned the bodice front, a small bit of robing on the shoulder, and the sleeves onto the dress.  Used up a full box and a half of pins doing that, so pinning the en fourreau back in place will have to wait until I've sewn everything else (which I'll do tomorrow).  It took a while, too... since I wanted to get the pattern to match perfectly on the front, with the stripe going over the shoulders the same way, too.

Here's a few progress photos...

The last of the fabric; just enough for the bodice fronts and two sleeves.
That pile of fabric at the top (left on the fabric) is the skirt as it's attached to the bodice lining (white), in case you were wondering. 

One reason that I might actually be done with this on time: the tablecloth's edges were already hemmed, which I am shamelessly taking advantage of for my sleeve edges and bodice edges and skirt hem.

I pinned the sleeves in first before pinning the bodice fronts on.  Not sure how period that is, but it seemed to work really well.  I think the sleeves for this one may have come out better than for the cranberry...

Modeled on the dress form... The bodice doesn't close because the dress form isn't wearing the stays...

I'll take a better picture later, in better light, I promise.

So far, not bad for a second first attempt; not great, but not bad.

I'm really enjoying this project... especially the challenge of using the tablecloth. I've heard tell of 'curtain-alongs' - has anyone else ever done a 'tablecloth-along'?

It's also interesting because the fabric is so old (older than me by at least 10 years if not more) that it is stiff and almost brittle in places (which made the pleating kinda fun since it didn't want to un-learn a pleat).  Quite the different experience than the cranberry that had newer fabric which was also a tad thinner.  If I can find some more time this summer, I may just go hunting around in the attic again to try and find the curtains and make a petticoat to go with the overgown.  At this rate, though, since I'll be taking another class this summer and still working, not sure I'll have the time... So, I will prolly wear it with either the cranberry petticoat or else will need to make a plain off-white one (since the fabric is no longer a true white, but has yellowed a bit - thankfully evenly).

Next steps... 1) sew everything that's pinned; 2) pin and sew the en fourreau back; 3) if have time (and fabric), make engageants for sleeves (perhaps?).  So close, but not quite there yet :-)

Cranberry 1770s anglaise - part 1 - finishing the bodice and skirt

Since the fabric was so thin, I decided that I needed to line the bodice (not the sleeves, since I'd be wearing this with a chemise anyway) so it would wear better (and also give an extra layer between the boned stays and the exterior of the dress).

Bodice, lining pinned in place:

Then, once the lining was pinned, I created a sleeve mock-up out of the lining fabric.

Cranberry 1770s anglaise - part 1 - bodice (reprise) and sleeve flounces

With the extra strip that was left over from when I cut the skirt, I decided to make sleeve flounces for the 3/4 length sleeves.  Anglaise sleeves sometimes had flounces and sometimes didn't; the Snowhill Manor dress did, so I'm basing mine on that.  And yes, I worked on the flounces before I measured/cut/attached the sleeves to the bodice.  I'm not a fan of sleeves (most costumers aren't; especially period sleeves because they're very tricksy), so I did the easy stuff first.

Sleeve flounces strip and partial pinning:

Sleeve flounce, fully pinned (and standing upright on its hem):

Sleeve flounces, sewn (pinned together):

Fixing the bodice...

Cranberry 1770s anglaise - part 1 - skirt and bodice

The skirt was relatively easy (though time-consuming for the waistband and pleating).  I decided to cut the skirt (110 inches hem) as one long piece, so I would only have to do one side hem as a rolled seam.  The fold I edge I cheated a bit and just pinned it and sewed to make it look like a seam.  I used the selvege edge of the fabric (since it was nice and clean) as the hem of the skirt, and then measured the length from there and cut off what I didn't need from the other selvege edge (to become the top of the skirt under a waistband and therefore not seen).  I used most of that strip that was cut off as the sleeve flounces (see the next post) with the selvege edge again as the 'hem'.

At the top, I used even (equidistant) knife pleats for both the front and back, facing away from the center; the front center had a flat space where the point of the bodice will go.

Skirt pictures...