Pour ce projet j’ai longuement réfléchis à mes bases. C’est essentiel de bien choisir les sous vêtements. Si l’on veut respecter la structure du vêtement, il faut utiliser les bon…

I have just finished my week long embroidery spree as I create a jacket and gilet for my up comming Der Schauspieldirektor photo shoot. You can read about the play in one of my previous posts, or f…

Hi! I've been a lurker for a good while now, and I decided to do a Dress Diary for my next project... I've been meaning to do something like this for the last, oh I don't know, four or five years... but it seems that every time I start sewing I don't think about it until I'm a good halfway through…

This week on Costume Analytics we will take a trip across the Pond and look at a snazzy American fashion, depicted in Ralph Earl's 1791 portrait of Mrs. William Moseley. This is a fascinating portrait because it not only depicts a Not-French and Not-English ensemble, but

Mozart’s “Der Schauspieldirektor” or “The Impresario” is a one act comedy about a theater company. Mozart only wrote four songs for the play, all of which appear towar…

A woman's redingote, 1780s, Italian; made of yellow quilted & corded silk satin, green trim, 1720-40, Italian

Basically everyone asked says that I should do the piemontaise and I must confess that I feel most inclined to that one as well. So a piemontaise it is. I need it to be finished in May and have everything I need when it comes to fabric and lining material. What I do need are additional decorations. I would like something in gold. Of the scant handful of extant piemontaises around, there is, the one in Denmark is available as pattern. The cut is really quite simple, a narrow back, a wide front, sleeve, the petticoat and the pleated panel for the back. I already have a fitted bodice pattern that looks like that, so I will start with cutting out the lining and fit it. I also need to think a bit about the front closure.  Bodice, sleeve, overskirt and the separate backpleats. I have never made sleeves with that cut before.  The petticoat made out of three panels of fabric and waistband. I will, of course, ogle other extant piemontaises for inspirations. They are really pretty.The Danish one is quite simple, but the others are much more extravagant. All three gowns below are Spanish. I'm not sure what to make of that. Gorgeous creme coloured gown with embroidery. Source The pleated back panel is really just applied on top of everything. A somewhat less embroidered one. Source ´ Unfortunately no picture of the back. Source A piemontaise, probably from the 1780’s and altered in the 19th century Scroll down for a modern interpretationof the piemontaise in green stripes, the only one I have ever seen.

Fasion of 1780's

While searching through my vintage French fashion plates I came across a nice selection that displayed shorter skirts and the showing of a ladies ankle. I discovered that for a period of time starting in 1778 and extending into the 1780's "showing a bit of ankle" was quite fashionable, especially in dresses of the "Polonaise" style. The Polonaise style involved the swagging or ruching back of the over-skirt using a variety of methods such as hidden tapes or loops to achieve the desired effect. This trend toward "shorter under-skirts" could also be found in other styles through the 1780's. c 1778 French Polonaise Style with shorter skirts and showing the ankle Pre-Revolutionary France was quite daring with their fashion trends. This post is all about the raising of the hem while my previous post Naughty French Fashions concentrated on the lowering of the bodice and extreme décolletage. Yes, you will see a combination of both extremes by looking at that prior post since several of the low bodice creations also sport the shorter hemline. Here is an assortment of ankle exposing fashions from 1778-1787 in the Polonaise Style Shorter skirt with a more "flounce" inspired look This one has more of a "robe a l'anglaise" style with the shorter underskirt Polonaise Style with a very low bodice Polonaise Style Shorter skirt with a bit of the "robe a la francaise" feel due to the draped back Polonaise Style Polonaise Style Polonaise Style Polonaise Style Polonaise Style possibly French Casaquin in style Polonaise Style Polonaise Style? possibly French Casaquin in style Polonaise Style with a "robe a l'anglaise" feel I love altering fashion plate colors digitally just because it's fun but at the same time if calls to mind that back when these fashions were created a lady did not usually have a dress made to look exactly as shown in a fashion plate. Instead she might alter any number of things to make a gown suit her or the occasion it would be worn. Colors and fabric choices were just one of many alterations that would be decided in making an ensemble to please that patron. It's fun to see how a dress changes as you alter just the colors alone and since I'm not fond of the original color pallet used I thought this would be a fun one to play around with. Here are the variations I came up with. (I can't decide between the first and the last one as to my favorite color combo) Next time I've got an interesting "leggy" fashion plate to share and a bit about stockings during this period of time. Thanks for joining me on my continuing journey into fashion plates from the time of Marie Antoinette. till next time...

What was worn under a chemise a la reine? Stiffer boned stays? Soft stays or jumps? Bust separating stays? Â Or could you go without a support garment?

Reproduction Cotton Print Shortgown from the collection of the Chester County Historical Society, 1780-1790 The pattern: This shorgown is reproduced almost exactly from an extant garment in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society. A scaled pattern and several photos are included on pages 23-25 of Sharon Burnston's Fitting and Proper. Another photo can be seen on page 142 in Cloth and Costume 1750-1800. Unfortunately, I can't find any pictures of it online, so you'll have to refer to these printed sources to compare mine to the original! I made only two changes when reproducing the original. The body of the original shortgown is fully lined in an off-white linen, with the ends of the sleeves lined in a linen printed with brown flowers. I elected not to fully line the body of mine because the fabric is a little bit heavier than usual, and I plan to use this primarily for summer camp wear, when the least amount of fabric layers one has on, the better! I did line/face the ends of the sleeves in a reproduction printed cotton, however. The only other change I made was to eliminate the two sets of pleats on either side of the front of the shortgown, which were used to help tailor the shape a bit in front. This is a feature that you don't normally see on shortgowns, so I felt completely justified in omitting it. Because of the weight of the fabric, I found that these pleats just added some awkward-looking, unnecessary bulk to my stomach area just below the waistline where they flared out. This being hardly desirable, and since such pleats aren't at all necessary to shaping the garment, and especially considering that it will always be worn under an apron to hold it in place, I instead simply followed the curve of the neckline of the original and the fit worked out beautifully. Construction details: I started out by scaling up the pattern of the original and cutting out the basic outline. Because the shortgown is cut from a single piece of fabric, and because the pattern of this fabric has a defined direction, I followed the original in choosing to have the design "upside down" in the front and "rightside up" in the back. Cutting out the basic outline from a single piece of fabric folded into quarters. I then double-checked that the original neckline shape would work on my body and, once concluding that it would, I carefully cut it out in both the front and back. The sleeve facings were then pieced on, as per the original. The turned-back sleeve facings in a contrasting fabric, a feature copied directly from the original. Because I elected not to line my shortgown, the two side seams are finished with tiny flat-felled seams, a feature I copied from an unlined extant shortgown from the same collection, found on pages 20-22 in Fitting and Proper. Matched stripes in the side seams! The interior side seam, flat-felled to protect it from wear. Next, the back pleats were set in and top-stitched, just as in the original, and the sleeve facings folded under and slipstitched down into place inside. Back of the shortgown... ...with two sets of pleats top-stitched into place. Back pleating detail. Finally, the neckline, center front, and hem edges were finished with a narrow hem. A facing strip covers the raw edge of the center-back where the pleats are turned in, another detail copied from the unlined shortgown. A facing strip covers the interior back neckline and helps secure the back pleats. The interior of the unlined shortgown. Further construction details on this shortgown can be found in Claudia Kidwell's article, "Short Gowns," which appeared in Dress: The Journal of the Costume Society of America, volume 4 (1978), pp. 30-65. The fabric: Duran Textiles reproduced the original textile in the document size and colorway (they call it "Daisy"), and when I discovered that Wm Booth, Draper was adding it to their stock, of course I just had to take advantage of the opportunity and use it to do a true reproduction piece. The print itself is lovely and I always appreciate access to true reproduction textiles. It is a little pricey, but since I only needed a 1.25 yards, it ended up being quite reasonable. The sleeves of the original shortgown were lined in linen printed with a simple, stylized pattern of brown flowers. Luckily, I had a small piece of a reproduction brown print (on cotton) done by Windham several years ago, which was a perfect approximation for this project. I love the way it looks against the stripes of the primary textile. Finishing the look: I apologize that the "model" pictures for this project aren't very interesting! I wore this for the first time a couple of days ago when doing a cooking demonstration at a local state park, and we were so busy talking and working all day long that I didn't have a chance to get any pictures taken until the very end of the day. As soon as I get some more exciting "pretty" shots, I'll be sure to add them! For the school program, I paired the shortgown with a brown linen petticoat and a blue/yellow/natural cross-barred linen apron - the perfect outfit to wear while working around fire, soot, grease, and dirt all day long in the heat of a sunny late-spring day! It's worn, as always, over my fully-boned stays, a shift, and a linen underpetticoat. Forgive all the wrinkles - that's what happens after 6 hours of hard work bending and lifting and working over a fire! :-) If you'd like to see larger versions of any of the pictures, just click on them to access the full size. Additional photos can be found in this project's flickr set.

I have developed quite a love for this style of gown and am contemplating giving it a try. I have made several gowns around this era but not in this exact style! I love the fit of the bodice and the way the fabric hangs down in a very firm yet graceful line. Hmmmmm.....

Ever since looking through Kendra's Europe trip pictures back in 2007, I've been in love with a dress in a painting called The Dauphin Taken Away From His Family, painted by Hauer in 1793. The painting can be found in Musée Carnavalet, but it's very difficult to find a decent quality online picture of it. The best I've found is the very same photo taken by Kendra that made me fall in love with it in the first place. My version of the dress is made of black silk taffeta and lined with black linen. It's hand sewn with silk. The pattern and construction are both based on the gown with a front fall opening, c. 1780-90, in Patterns of Fashion. I love the pattern (nicely low cut neckline, a little rising back waistline) and the construction method is my 18th century favorite. Under the dress I'm wearing two linen petticoats and a small rump. I wanted to create the same look as in the painting, so I got a blond hedgehog style wig to go with the dress for a more glamorous look. I really like the late 1780's and very early 1790's back seam lines. ETA: a picture in the spirit of the painting. Construction: First I sewed the skirt panels together using a running stitch. I used six panels as in the dress the pattern in based of but decided to avoid a center front seam and I placed the cb and cf in the middle of a panel. Then I started the bodice. As I've done it before, I had existing pattern pieces ready. I usually just place the pattern pieces on the fabric and draw around them, but now that the fabric is black and I didn't have any chalk, I pinned the pieces and folded the seam allowances under using the paper edge as a guide. The gap was left so I could sew a line to mark the tuck placement with a bright color thread. Then, after both silk taffeta and linen layers had folded down seam allowances, it was time to put them on top of each other and sew around the edges with running stitches. I made them in a way that only a little dot shows outside and longer line on the lining side. I sewed the false seams, tucks, with a back stitch. Later I realized that I had turned one side too many on the back pieces where I need to have the seam allowance for the sleeves and straps, but that was an easy fix. Then I whip stitched all the pieces together. Then the sleeves. I sewed them up first. The bodice has separate straps. I joined the strap lining and cover on the neckline edge with the point à rabattre sous la main. Then I sewed the linen strap lining on the bodice from both ends. Then I sewed on the sleeve underside from the inside using back stitching. Then I sewed the top sleeve from the outside on the strap lining. Last step was covering the strap lining with the silk and sewing it on from the outside using back stitches. Then the bodice was almost finished. Then I turned down the top of the three back panels and whip stitched them in to the bodice. The front panels were treated the same way except I attached them in to a waist tape.

Making of the gown from Vestier's painting "Portrait of a Lady with a book", as a mix between a robe en chemise and a round gown, keeping it quite historically accurate, even if machine sewn.