From The Netherlands loves vintage and/or shabby chic,Rufus Sewell and the Royal Family of French music Jacques Dutronc,Françoise Hardy and Thomas Dutronc

Usually, my dress plans start out quite elaborate and I end up getting the basic dress done and think, "I'll just do the trim after I wear it this one time.". News flash: once a dress has been worn, there is not fixing/trimming/modifying it in any way. The sewing gods have blessed it and it is deemed as complete as it will ever be. Occasionally, I actually manage to recreate the exact image that was in my brain when I started the gown. But that only happens when I don't go completely crazy with trim ideas. Rarely, I start out with a plain design and it morphs into something Quite Elaborate. Such is the story of my Greek gown, formerly known as the ice blue stripe gown. What started out as a fairly simple 1859-1860 dress with a double skirt and a pelerine has evolved into an elaborately trimmed gown with two bodices and multiple different looks. Let's start with research, as it should always be. The fabric is a striped silk taffeta. It's a silvery/gray/ice color with a light blue stripe. Here's the fabric followed by some period examples of similar fabrics: Ebay dress, circa 1860's Ebay Dress, circa 1860's Musée de la Mode et de la Dentelle, ca. 1865-1867 Minnesota Historical Society, 1856-1859 I wanted a double tiered skirt, and since most stripes go horizontal on those types of gowns, that is what I did. The only times I saw vertical stripes were on 1860's dresses with ruffles, not tiers. 1850's were all decidedly horizontal. These were the two gowns that initially compelled me to do the double skirt with this particular fabric. Godey's Lady's Book, April 1859 (Figure on the right) Le Bon Ton, September 1858 (Figure on the right) I have not yet successfully made a tiered skirt prior to this gown. The 1850's 3 tier turned out lopsided and I have not attempted (nor fixed that gown) one since, so I was a little nervous doing this gown. I did a lot of measuring prior to cutting this dress. I ended up using my black wool with all the blue fringe as a guide (my top tier for this gown ends where the fringe on that gown begins) and that turned out nicely. I believe my top tier ended up being 25" long and the bottom was 27". The skirt is not lined but it is faced with Joann's cotton sateen in the tan shade. I believe both skirts are faced with 8" of the sateen. The sateen also adds a nice weight so that the skirts don't get all jumbled up. Since the bottom tier was only 27" and my normal skirts are 41" in the front, I added the rest of the cotton sateen to save on the silk. It is, of course, covered in the top tier of silk. I worked on most of the skirt during Civil War Weekend at Liendo and got it mostly completed, save for the top skirt treatment. I started pleating it, then stopped and undid it once it clicked in my brain that I was supposed to be doing a late 1850's/early 1860's dress. I put it away until I could do more research on gauged vs. pleated dresses during that time period. I looked for a couple of hours at my notes/saved images before going to the Sewing Academy where my suspicions were confirmed with this post. Definitely gauged during this time period. I used three threads, as reported on the Sewing Academy as well (I have very few images of gauged close ups so that was nice that someone else had thought of it and looked). Here is the completed (but not yet trimmed) dress. When I decided I wanted to trim the gown, I had a hard time figuring a) what to do and b) where to trim the skirt. Should I trim just the bottom tier? Just the top? Both? After looking at originals, I decided that the best option would be just the top tier. Why? My reasoning was a combination of aesthetics mixed with plain slothfulness. I wanted the tiers to be pronounced and not just look like a single skirt, so the obvious plan was to put the (as yet to be decided) trim on the top tier. That was a lot of work and I didn't feel like doing the bottom tier as well. But that's okay-I have plenty of original documentation for my decision. Here are some examples of trim (not just Greek key) on just the top tier of a two-tiered dress: Le Bon Ton, June 1858 Godey's Lady's Book, October 1858 Le Bon Ton, January 1859 Le Bon Ton, June 1858 Le Bon Ton, June 1858 Le Bon Ton, March 1858 Le Moniteur de la Mode, 1850 (Note the riding habit to the side!) Les Modes Parisiennes, 1856 Petit Courrier de Dames, October 1858 I was not thinking Greek key at all (despite always loving it) until Welbourne when I saw one of the other lovely ladies with a Greek key belt. That's when the research started. Greek key seems to be most popular after 1862 but I did find several examples of earlier. Journal de Modes, 1859 Journal de Demoiselles, February 1843 Le Follet, April 1861 Le Moniteur de la Mode, 1860 As a bonus, I also found two images of these British princesses wearing a double skirt with a geometric trim on the top tier! Princess Helena of Great Britain, 1861 Princess Louise of Great Britain, 1861 Looking at originals, it is easy to see there is no one way to do a Greek key pattern. They're all basically unique. I wanted something that wasn't just square (such as the princesses' dresses) but that only required one length of ribbon (so that I don't have to cut and measure, etc.). These two were my inspiration: Godey's Lady's Book, 1863 Le Follet, April 1861 To execute my plan, I used velvet ribbon, 1.5" wide. Hindsight, probably a bit too large. 1" would have been best. I basically just made up measurements that 'sounded right' and then pinned the ribbon in the corners. After that, I sewed the corners (by machine) then tacked the whole thing onto the skirt. Then I just started pinning the ribbon then tacking it down. The measurements I used were 10" on the bottom, then 6" up, 4" across, 4" down, 4" across, 6" up, 9" across, 10" down, and repeat. Now for the bodice. I couldn't decide whether to make a basque or a normal bodice, so I made both. One is a low necked bodice with a pelerine (also trimmed with Greek key, of course) and the other a basque also trimmed. For the regular bodice, these were my inspiration. Minnesota Historical Society dress ca. 1856- 1859. Inspiration for sleeves and pelerine. Susan Green Historic Clothing Collection, ca. 1860-1865. I'm using this as bodice inspiration. Fairly simple. I may eventually add some Greek key to the low bodice so it is also trimmed, but I might also leave it plain. The pelerine edge plus the sleeves are trimmed in Greek key. Here is my inspirations for the basque bodice. Graham's Illustrated Magazine, June 1857 Le Bon Ton, June 1858 I liked the square neck of the Graham's basque with the puffed sleeves so that's what I did. I did Greek key around the sleeves. I laid the trim on the same way I did before with the skirt, except this time, I used 7/8" ribbon. The measurements for the sleeves and bodice were 5", 3.5", 1.5", 1.5", 1.5", 3.5", 5", 5.5", repeat. Of course, both bodices are piped at the armscyes and necklines. The non-basque is also piped along the waist. Both bodices hook and eye shut, and bodice have little jet glass buttons from the Button Baron. In addition to the dress, I also made a Greek key set of linens to match this dress. The set includes a chemisette, undersleeves, and a handkerchief. I (mostly) used this pattern from Godey's for the embroidery: I made the top two buttons on the chemisette the black glass buttons so that it would match the dress, and the buttons on the undersleeves are also the same. I haven't had the chance to wear the low body yet, but I had a fantastic time wearing the basque and skirt at Liendo this February!

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The blog, Carla-at-Home , features an interesting post on the progression of Regency fashion. The images were taken from John Peacock’s book: Costume 1066 – 1966, A Complete Guide to English Costum…

La Mode illustrée, no. 25, 18 juin 1865, Paris. Toilettes de Melles Rabouin, 67 rue Noe des Pts Champs. Ville de Paris / Bibliothèque Forney

All summer I've been posting some of the most amazing images found in the pages of Ackermann's Repository; which was a well know publication in England during the Regency period. My favorite have been the fancy Evening and Ball Dresses. There is just something so romantic about balls from the days of old and I enjoy reading about them in the pages of romance novels. My pick of the 1826 Ackermann's Repository fashions I'm a big fan of all things Regency and love to scope out whats on the web regarding this time period. I especially love finding fun bits and pieces that shed more light on how people lived at this time. While puttering around I discovered a very interesting article on the use of chalk on Regency ballroom floors and could not resist sharing it with you. The full article can be found HERE and I have to thank Kathryn Kane of Regency Redingote for sharing this fun bit of insight on ballroom practices at this time. I constantly read in the pages of Regency romances how thin and soft the soles of ladies dancing slippers were and it appears that mens dancing shoes seemed to be a bit slick on a freshly polished wooden floor as well. This being the case it was not uncommon for dancers to "chalk" the bottoms of their shoes to gain a bit of traction to keep from slipping excessively while they danced. In some cases the entire ballroom floor was lightly chalked to ensure the safety of all the dancers. And for extravagant balls artists were hired to chalk beautiful pattens on the ballroom floor that would then be slowly worn away as the dancers enjoyed themselves till dawn. (That must have been an amazing site) What a fun bit of Regency trivia. And now when I look at some of the amazing Regency Ball Dresses I'll think about a beautifully chalked floor to go along with them. Maybe one day I'll even read about a chalked ballroom floor in a romance novel. I might even create a fun Regency scene using some of the Ackermann ladies and the concept of a "chalked" ballroom floor - giggles. Now on to the fashions - Enjoy! Ackermann's Repository 1826 Fashion Plates 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - January Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - January Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - February Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - February Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - March Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - March Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - April Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - April Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - May Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - May Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - June Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 7 - June Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - July Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - July Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - August Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - August Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - September Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - September Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - October Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - October Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - November Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - November Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - December Issue 1826 - Ackermann's Repository Series 3 Vol 8 - December Issue And for those who can't get enough period information on these dresses, here is the actual Ackermann's fashion article for the two September fashion plates. Fashion descriptions for the the September 1826 fashion plates I 'm a bit sad that the fashion plates for Ackermann's Repository are coming to a quick end - just two more years left to post. However I still have many other great Ackermann's finds to post in the up-coming months. I even have several period ghost stories that they published that will be perfect for the month of October, so please keep checking back in to see all the other fun Regency stuff yet to be shared. ***************** If you missed any of the previous Regency fashion plates here are some quick links to for you. Ackermann's ran series 1 from 1809 - 1815 Series 1 - Vol 1 & 2 - 1809 Series 1 - Vol 3 & 4 - 1810 Series 1 - Vol 5 & 6 - 1811 Series 1 - Vol 7 & 8 - 1812 Series 1 - Vol 9 & 10 - 1813 Series 1 - Vol 11 & 12 - 1814 Series 1 - Vol 13 & 14 - 1815 The Ladies of Ackermann's Regency Fashion (this is a fun digital art piece I did using many of the above ladies) Ackermann's ran series 2 from 1816 - 1822 Series 2 - Vol 1 & 2 - 1816 Series 2 - Vol 3 & 4 - 1817 Series 2 - Vol 5 & 6 - 1818 Series 2 - Vol 7 & 8 - 1819 Series 2 - Vol 9 & 10 - 1820 Series 2 - Vol 11 & 12 - 1821 Series 2 - Vol 13 & 14 - 1822 Regency Garden Party with a Roaring Rogue (this is a fun digital art piece I did using several Ackermann's Repository images from series 2 and one fun lion man from J.J. Grandville, who was another Regency period illustrator.) Ackermann's ran series 3 from 1823 - 1828 Series 3 - Vol 1 & 2 - 1823 Series 3 - Vol 3 & 4 - 1824 Series 3 - Vol 5 & 6 - 1825 Series 3 - Vol 7 & 8 - 1826 - current post Series 3 (1827 & 1828) still to be posted Till our next Regency adventure... Thanks for visiting me here at EKDuncan.blogspot.com If you have enjoyed seeing these images from Ackermann's Repository and would like the opportunity to see and read an original for yourself they are are available on line at www.archive.org Click HERE then choose the volume you are interested in. You can then see and read them online or download them to your computer for future reference. Enjoy!