1790s remake

 Have you ever made a project, finished it, and then realised something was...off? I had this almost instantly with my first chemise a la reine. It was made from a lovely floral fabric, and I thought I'd be so cool and make a traditionally white (or block colour) chemise a la reine out of it. What a mistake. It just didn't look right. By fortune, or laziness, I never managed to put a gathering channel at the waist, only the neckline and underbust. When I was taking it on and off way back in 2018 I realised that it would actually look better as a 1790s gown rather than a chemise a la reine.

Cue 3 years later and I have some time on my hands. Let's see what it's like to alter something from a previous decade, just like women in the 18th century would have when the empire-waisted fashions came in during the 1790s.

Alteration....

Honestly, this project was so easy. I thought I'd have to faff, fangle, and use the remnants I'd kept over from this project. I did none of these things.

I started by removing the skirt from the bodice. I then fit the bodice on me to see where I needed to shorten the back. Rather than a traditional chemise a la reine, I prefer mine with fitted back panels, similar to an Italian gown. I shortened the back, shortened the front lining (and added extra boning for a scandalous purpose), re-attached the skirt (after adding a small panel to the bottom to make up for the shortened length), and that was it.

The scandalous purpose is that I don't wear stays with this new dress. My 1790s stays have always bugged me slightly. Rather than curved at the front, they're very straight and end up flattening me out more like stays from earlier decades. Instead, I preferred the gentle curved look of my natural bust. I added a few bones to the lining for some bust support, and that was it. Scandalous.

An open-robe

This will be an uncharacteristically short post for the sole reason that I forgot to log the progress of this project as I was doing it. It was started and completed at some point in 2017.

It's made from swiss dotted cotton, in navy blue. I thought you could only get it in white until I found a UK online fabric shop that did so.many.colours! Thank God I was in my "only buy fabric you need" phase of my career otherwise I'd be swimming in the stuff.

I drafted the front myself based on what I thought it should look like, based in turn from fashion plates and other bloggers who've made their own. The back was from my regency ball gown.

It's mostly machine sewn, but the lining, which is kind of bag-lined (not HA, #sorrynotsorry), but finished by hand.

It creases like an absolute swine, just in case you were thinking about making something with this fabric. I'm now afraid to take out the white ball gown I made from the same fabric.....

2018 year in review

Goodness, it's that time of year again. I don't usually do a separate post on reviewing what I've made but I was looking at the one I wrote last year and decided it may be too long.

One of my goals this year was to blog more, which I don't feel I really did. This year the problem was with actually finishing projects. I realise I have a problem in that I very rarely see projects through to completion. They sit with seams unfinished, fastenings not done, and edges fraying. This will be more like a list of incomplete projects than a review of what I've done in 2018.

1.) Natural form era gown.
This comes with a story, like they all do. I made this for Prior Attire's ball in May, but by April it looked as though my friend couldn't go due to work commitments, and I was never really that keen on attending another one (I have a blog on my experiences of events like this that I'll leave you to find). I had a corset, petticoat, underskirt, over-skirt, and evening bodice all nearly done. I had worked on them for ages, but when I realised we weren't going I lost interest very quickly and they've been moved around the sewing room for the last 8 months. The corset and petticoat are complete (minus flossing and hook and eye, respectively). The underskirt needs another row of pleating at the hem and a fastening. The over-skirt I kind of messed up a wee bit so I'm currently toying with unpicking parts of it and re-doing them. The bodice edges need finishing, and I also had a bit of a nightmare adding hook and eye tape which will need to be fixed.
This is another project that's added to the never-ending list of "needs fixed/finished". I do have a collection of in progress photos that will have to do for now.

2.) 1780s Pierrot ensemble
This was the main project of this year as it was a new era for me. I made a challenge for myself in that I didn't want to use commercial patterns, only ones I had scaled up. I even styled a half-wig for this period, with questionable success. I tried to make a chemise, which was far too big, 2 pairs of stays, a linen petticoat, silk taffeta petticoat, and the Pierrot jacket.
I really liked working in this period, and found a new love for 18th century stays. That love was so strong that I've made at least 3 pairs (all unfinished) in 2018 alone, with some shaky plans to continue into 2019.

3.) 1780s Chemise a la reine ensemble
The 1780s and 90s are my favourite decades of the 18th century, and as a result I spent most of the sewing year making various pieces from the ground up. This consisted of the same semi-disastrous 1780s stays, an experimental petticoat lined with cotton organdie, and a really nice printed cotton for the chemise itself.

4.) 1790s round gown
I don't know what made me do this one...I'd probably found a fabric that I liked. Again I had to make everything from the foundations up with this one, and this was also the first experience I had with using the AD guide to 18th century dress making. This also confirmed to me I don't suit an empire waist, even if it isn't as high as traditional "Austen" style gowns.

5.) 1660s court gown
This one had been on my list for years, and since the final season of Versailles came out this year I decided to start on it. Unfortunately, the sewing drought of 2018 hit in the middle and I found myself going less and less into the sewing room. The gown is nearly finished, finishing edges and adding trim to the bodice kind of stuff, but by this point it does feel never ending. Here are some in progress photos until I finally finish it. It has been a bit of a disaster on the whole, kind of like putting fires out at every junction, but it looks alright....from a distance.

6.) Vintage inspired skirts
I have been wearing the same skirts for about 5-6 years now. Some have small holes, others are faded to a completely different colour, but all of them suddenly became too short for my liking. I also began my journey into vintage clothing this year. Instead of paying through the nose for vintage repro clothes I thought why don't I just make them myself. Using one of my old skater skirts I made a pattern, tweaked it here and there, and then made 2 skirts from 4m of tartan fabric. One was the "mock-up" for the pleating pattern, and the other had a thicker waistband.

7.) Misc
I put this category in here because I made a few accessories this year, and began another hobby. I made an 18th century pocket, hand embroidered; I styled a half-wig into a 1780s hedgehog; and I began a new hobby of crocheting this year.

Turns out 2018 was the year for building my 18th century wardrobe, which I'm completely ok with. The 18th century and I still have some unfinished business in the shape of stays. I think it feels to me like I didn't make much because there's only 3 completed outfits, and 2 unfinished ones, but I had to make everything from the foundations up with all of them, so I suppose I've actually been quite productive.

I also ventured outside a lot with my costumes, which was something I wanted to accomplish last year. I didn't quite make it outside the safety of my own garden, but let's take baby steps.

2018 was a bit of a quiet year, not that I'm complaining, I just hope it continues that way.

A 1793 pair of stays & petticoat

Since I've already done as much as I currently want to of the 1780s I decided it was time to move on to the 1790s, another 18th century favourite of mine.

As with every ensemble we have to start at the foundations, and because I made a few chemises it's straight onto the stays. Honestly, you'd think I loved making corsets and stays considering I feel like I'm making them all the time. If we're comparing I definitely prefer stays, they're just easier to fit.

The making of....

I own 2 books on corsetry, Jill Salen's Corsets, and Waugh's Corsets and crinolines. I don't think I even looked at Salen's book since I already had Waugh's book out for my 1780s stays. This will be the third time I've used this for stays (the first being my as yet incomplete 1776 stays). In the book there are 2 different styles for the 1790s, one from earlier that definitely differs from the typical look of 18th century stays, and then one from the latter that fits the mould.

Circa 1793

Circa late 1790s

I'm not going to lie, the only reason I chose the 1793 pair is because they don't have tabs. Anyone who's a costumer will know the tab-fear, the foreboding we all feel when we look at our finished, fitted pair of stays and realise we have to bind the tabs. It's time consuming and hard on the fingers. I was also facing some time constraints with the 1790s project so the faster these came together the better, and that means no tabs.

The 1793 pair above is fully boned, but I was going to use the stiff-as-hell linen canvas so fully boning it seemed like cracking a nut with a sledgehammer. A reason I didn't go for the typical "transitional" kind of stays (minimal to no boning, with bust gussets) is because I need some more structure for my tum-tum, not so much for the ladies, as regular readers will know.

The strange thing about the entire 1790s ensemble was that I already knew exactly what fabrics I was going to use. Both my other stays are made out of purple linen, and I still had a lot of it left, but it's proven to be annoying to work with (wrinkles!!!@#!*) and since I was making a gown out of printed white cotton voile knew there was a risk of my stays being seen. Thankfully I had some white poplin left over from my robe en chemise petticoat. I also managed to find a way to minimise wrinkles!

Since I was in a hurry with this project the first stages were haphazard. I did about 2 mockups, but since the pieces were similar in shape to my 1780s it was a lot quicker scaling it up and getting one that fit. I omitted the back lacing, as I did with the 1780s, because I CBA with the eyelets.

I actually found these stays a lot more flattering than the 1780s ones. In my opinion the 1793 stays don't sit on your waist but slightly above, with the front dipping down to take care of the tum-tum. That was my interpretation. One day I actually need to read what Waugh says about the garments in her book......

Linen canvas, if you've never used it, is stiff as hell, and also rough as hell. I made the mistake with my 1780s stays to make it the bottom most layer, and when I was stitching down the seam allowances it hurt my hand like a bitch because it was difficult to get the needle through. With the 1793 ones I decided to put it in the middle, with the cotton canvas on the bottom.

This, like the other two, has three layers: cotton canvas (a special kind for stay making), linen canvas, and cotton poplin. I bought a 50m roll of synthetic whalebone because I just love the stuff so friggin much, and all of the boning in every pair of stays and corsets I make from now until the end of time will be boned using this stuff. I used flat steel boning on the front edges because I used the plastic whalebone on the closure of my 1780s and it's just not as sturdy.

The boning pattern I based loosely from the 1793 stays, with some inspiration from the later pair. It has metal eyelets, because CBA sewing my third pair of eyelets in 6 months.

The shape didn't come out right. I put the curve on the SF seam in the wrong place and ended up having to just make it a straight edge, which means no thrust out. They're more similar in shape to pre-1770s than any later, which is unfortunate and means that they're getting added onto the never ending "do again" list.

The petticoat was from the American Duchess guide and was so easy to whip up. I did have some issues with how to finish the neckline and armholes, but I went for the modern cotton bias binding, which you can see. I won't go into details here because I did this in a day and the instructions are in the AD guide to 18th century fashion, which I highly recommend as an addition to any costumer's library.

2 dresses, one fabric?! 1790s edition

This was meant to be a quick, relatively easy break from my 1660s monster. It turned out to be neither and perhaps served as a highlighter for sewing areas I really need to work on. Sleevils being public enemy number 1.

Ages ago, on my cyber travels, I found a shop in India that does hand/block printed cotton voile, and it's so gloriously cheap, which possibly doesn't say great things about the world economy. They aren't exactly period accurate, but as some may know my mantra for 2018 is "F***k HA". They are bright, bold, and just so pretty.

I think I bought 10 yards, so just over 10m, of the stuff for about £40. Don't get me wrong, the quality wasn't perfect, and the fabric is quite narrow, but besides that it was lovely. 

My original plan was to make a simple gathered gown with drawstrings at the front for closure. Due to some measurement error I ended up having issues with the skirt panels, but the bodice itself went together alright, with minor adjustments at the straps.

I hand-sewed casings on the front for drawstring to go through, bias bound the neck edge and covered the seam allowance at the waistline. I should say here this is a little lower than empire waist because it's meant to be "transitional". When I tried it on....it wasn't great. I honestly thought that because I'd lowered the waistline it might suit me better than the empire line but that did not pan out. I think it might be the 1793 stays flattening me rather than thrusting me forward to give me some shape, but who knows.

I have always wanted to do a train. My first foray was my natural form era gown which is still sitting unfinished, but I felt like this wouldn't be a 1790s ridiculously high maintenance gown if it didn't have a train.

Drawstring gown

The lengths we go to....

Bib-front

**TBC**

The making of....

As I said at the start of this post this was meant to be a quick and easy break away from the nightmare that my 1660s court gown was becoming, but this became it's own nightmare.

I already had a pattern for the bodice from the AD 1790s petticoat pattern, and all I had to do was alter the front piece. I've made a drawstring regency gown before and I remember the construction and design of the pattern piece, so I copied it.

What I didn't realise was that it's only really the excess between the shoulder straps that gets gathered, but I had put the drawstring at the waistline all the way to the side seams, hence there is an inch or so at the side front that isn't gathered at all, and it looks weird to me.

Despite popular opinion empire waistlines do not suit people shaped like me with small waist and rounded hips. I like accentuating my waist, so the regency is an absolute nightmare. I thought that if I lowered the waistline to halfway between empire and natural waist it may improve, but I don't think I lowered it enough because I still look like a shapeless block.

The train was the most fun thing, but it was actually the hardest. Instead of cutting a straight panel for the back, I made it quite curved at the top to accommodate the train, but I made the curve too deep because when I attached it the back panel didn't sit right so I the seam ripper came out and I just flipped the panel until the curve was at the bottom. Lesson learned.

I had measurement error in the length and width of the panels, and so the seams for the skirt aren't symmetrical on each side.

Shapeless....even with a belt

I should be thankful for small mercies in that at least this time the skirt panels were the right length, unlike my chemise a la reine.

Then came the sleeves. I decided around this time, with the nightmare sleeves of the 1660s, and then these, that perhaps I'm not so good at them. I used the same pattern as I had for the chemise a la reine, but came across the same problem in that the arm scye was too deep. It also turns out that they perhaps weren't the right width for the arm hole of the bodice either. I got them in, but they're uneven, and slightly too tight. I don't really mind much because let's face it, I'm not going to be wearing this outside with a train that length.

That brings us onto the 2nd dress. In all honesty I didn't have that much fabric left and because it was so narrow needed a lot of it for the skirt panels. I managed to use scraps for the second bodice. The 2nd dress would be a bib-front, because I've always wanted one, and wouldn't have a train so I can wear it outside, which helped with the length of the skirt panels since I was cutting it short on fabric.

I'm currently sidetracked with another set of 1790s stays, and until they're finished the bib front gown is on hold, but I will update this post when it's done.