1770's Robe a l'anglaise

7-16-06

The test dress is finished! What a learning curve that ended up being... (Read More)

6-29-06

Where did June go? Ack! Time is running out so it's a good thing I've actually been productive... (Read More)

6-21-06

I did it! We have achieved the necessary undergarments... (Read More)

6-14-06

Not a huge update (there will be more soon, I promise), but I wanted to add the following link to the Helpful Link list: La Couturière Parisienne - How To Dress In 18th Century Style. I have been having a lot of 18th century anxiety lately, trying to figure out petticoats and whether or not I should be making a bum roll or pocket hoops. This cleared things up quite a bit!

4-30-06

Another rambling post about the pair of stays... (Read More)

4-25-06

Just posting a link for my reference and yours... (Read More)

4-07-06

Another update on the corset... With pictures! (Read More)

4-3-06

I've added the accessories page with a rant about shoes. (Read More)

3-31-06

An update of the corset vairety. Don't get all excited....There's no pictures yet. (Read More)

3-28-06

Since I'm suffering from a bit of insomnia (effing upstairs neighbors won't stop moving around and its only 4AM, so why should I expect them to be quiet?), I figured I'd do a little rambling here about the gown. The more I'm thinking about it, the more I'm inclined to make a wearable mock-up. Rather than just drape the entire outfit out of muslin I'm kinda thinking I'd like to make it out of linen or a suitable cotton print so I could have two dresses on hand. And two dresses are always better than one, right? Of course, this adds a bit of an extra step to the process... If I were just doing a muslin mock-up, the muslin would be picked apart and become the pattern. Now I'm going to have to make a muslin, make it out of the cotton or linen and then make it out of the silk. I guess that means its not really a mock-up at that point, but a test drive of the pattern?

Still, it has its benefits. Hmmm. Two frocks for the price of one? Where do I sign up!

I'm also thinking about yet another corset, which is beyond silly considering the one I'm working on right now is more than suitable. I keep telling myself that I'm losing weight and that the current corset is probably going to be too big by the time I finish it. Then I have to remind myself that I'm only losing 5 lbs and any change in my body shape is probably going to be so minor that the corset is not going to be affected by it. I think I'm just looking for an excuse to do a better job on the corset than I did in my rush to get it done before school started up again (the flaws are so minor, though... Not even I can really point to a particular problem with it). I'm also looking for an excuse to try out Butterick 4254 / 4484 which seems to make a really darn nice looking pair of 18th century stays, from what I've seen of it (although, I prefer the single back lacing corset in #4254, as opposed to the back and front lacing option in both patterns). And if I'm going to use another pattern for the corset, I need to hold off on draping the bodice because the shape of the corset, and the neckline of it, can affect the fit of the bodice. So, really, if all this is leading me to making yet another corset, why the heck don't I just go and do it? Argh!

3-28-06

A small update on the corset... (Read more)

3-26-05

I took the time to scan in the images of Gown #3...(Read more)

And here's an entry on the underpinnings... (Read more)

3-25-06

Ok, so the project got ditched last year and I never made it to CC23 anyway, end of story. That is, until Kendra lit a fire under me and it happened to remind me that I still have 7 yards of sky-blue silk taffeta burning a hole in my fabric stash.

I've decided to base my pattern on Gown #3 in Costume Close-up, page 24. The extant gown dates from 1770-1785, which falls into the range of the gown depicted in the two Fragonard sketches I'm using for reference. I made a colorized version of each in Photoshop to get a feeling for how the gown is going to look in the blue silk. It also helped me to distinguish the underskirt from the overskirt in the picture on the left, which up until this point, I hadn't bothered to notice.

I think what really appeals to me about these two sketches is that the gowns depicted in them are so simple, which for the 18th century is saying a lot. They're beautiful, but not over the top.

There are differences in sleeves on both sketches, though the gown is likely the same style. I like the sleeves on the sketch in the left, which are elbow length and have a nice pleated cuff, as opposed to the longer straight sleeves on the gown in the right hand sketch.

At this point, I'm not sure how authentic I want this dress to be. I'd like to do as much handsewing and period sewing techniques as possible, but I can only wrap my brain around a handful of techniques as it is. I am a very visual learner, which makes written descriptions found in my research material hard to understand at times.

But before I go any further with the gown, I still need a pair of 18th century stays and paniers. Which means, my next entry will be devoted to those items!

Read below for the original diary entries:

1-29-05

Costume Con 23 is close at hand. Really close at hand. If I'd had any sense at all, I would have been preparing for CC23 two months ago, but I was sidetracked by the Dickens Fair and therefore didn't get any headway made on anything CC-related. Actually, I still haven't made any real "headway", except to start this diary in a vain attempt to force myself out of denial into the hard cold reality of the situation... If I plan on making something new and wonderful to wear to the Costume Con in three month's time, I better get cracking post haste!

Which is to say, I've been looking for a reason to make the above dress for years now, and Costume Con happens to be just a good enough excuse. I had this gown picked out in my head for a while, but was holding back until the perfect fabric presented itself. With luck, last weekend I was in San Francisco and happened to stop by the Discount Fabrics warehouse and found the exact fabric I've been envisioning for this gown since I first laid eyes on the Fragonard sketch

Its a sky blue silk taffeta. The scan of the fabric doesn't do it justice... This fabric glows. It shimmers. It makes you want to pet it. And since it was 30% off, I was able to buy plenty for the gown at a disgustingly reasonable price.

With the fabric purchasing out of the way, I've got the green light to proceed to the next step: Drafting the pattern for the stays.

1-30-05

I added some links to the "Helpful Links" section in the sidebar. There's a lot of good info out there on 18th century costume, thanks no doubt to the fact that unlike some costume eras I could name, there's still quite a lot of extant garments readily available for study (glares accusingly at the 16th century). Anyhoo, I'm off to start drafting the stays!

More to come!