I made this jacket a year ago, as my first real attempt at historical clothing. I have tried it a bit previously but never bothered to read up on historical techniques and silhouettes so the result…

18th Century Bodice Pattern I drafted this bodice pattern for my Robe à l’Anglaise back in 2017 and recently reused and tweaked it a bit, since there were some issues with my first version. Read about that in my new blogpost 🙂 You can download version 2.0 of this 18th century bodice pattern down below… Read More 18th Century Bodice Pattern

A while back, I decided that buying old linen clothes at thrift shops would provide me with an immediate and fairly cheap way to get a little linen to play around with. This method also makes me ha…

Please note that most of the dresses presented here in our Etsy store are just examples of our old work for clients. These are not ready made dresses for sale. We realize only customized dresses and we DON'T HAVE SHORT DEADLINES. Therefore, before you make a purchase, please ask us for details in a private message. If you make a purchase without reading this description - we do not accept cancellation of the transaction. We do not accept returns and resignations from an already ordered dress during sewing or after sending it (does not apply to tailoring corrections), because our dresses are made to measure and based on a design that is created individually for each customer. By clicking "buy it now" - you accept our terms. We accept payment plans discussed individually with each client. We are small fashion house Atelier Saint-Honore and we make all designs individually for each clients. All dresses are sewn for measures. We use traditional haute couture techniques like fine hand made finishes, hand made embroidery and artistique techniques of decorations. We offer the highest quality custom service and the best materials. Please ask in private for more details.

Recently we had a lovely thick snowfall which provided an unexpected opportunity to photograph my 18th century winter wardrobe. This thick red wool jacket was the first one I made for myself back in June 2018 (You may be asking why in the world I chose wool for a June reenactment... the short and very simple answer is that it was in my stash, and I was in a hurry... Wool is actually quite insulating and probably saved me from dehydrating myself. 😉) The bayonet made a splendid bread toasting stick. :) I elected to do ties for closures on this jacket, which I've seen done in several paintings and extant garments, though usually tied with fancy silk ribbons rather than simple twill-tape. But the simple bows are fun and I like them. :) I finally added the cuffs this past fall and I love them! They make the jacket look so much more like the popular fashions of the 1750's, and as an added bonus they lengthen the sleeves and keep me warmer on frigid days. :) The mitts are made from an old wool scarf and are stitched by hand with linen thread. The kerchief is made from a pleated wool skirt I got at the thrift store. The icing on the cake is that the two different wool items just happened to perfectly match! They make a night and day difference at chilly reenactments, especially when you need your hands free to cut vegetables for stew! I've been saving this beautiful brown and blue tartan for the perfect project, and I finally settled on making a warm winter petticoat with it, and whipped it up by hand just before heading to the Nouvelle Annee reenactment at Fort Wayne this past January. I'm really excited to share my 18th century cloak with you in the next post! More warm woolen happiness is yet to come. :) Photo credit goes to my brother.

The idea of how this gown,

This project was started on a total whim, back in March (ahem), I got through about three-quarters of the way through, lost interest, and ju...

I have just over a month to make an 18th century ensemble for myself. There's a Rococo picnic I want to attend happening at the end of April. At this moment, I have nothing quite acceptable to wear. My 18th century wardrobe currently consists of a shift, an under petticoat, a pair of shoes, and a white linen cap (not yet blogged). A few more layers are required for me to be a properly dressed Rococo lady. The stays I've been procrastinating on for well over a year? Yeah, those have got to happen. Now. And the gowns I've been dreaming of? It's time to make one reality. For the stays I've decided to use Simplicity 8579 - one of the 18th century patterns Simplicity produced as a collaboration with American Duchess. I'll be altering it somewhat to lace up in the front as well as the back, since back-lacing only stays sound difficult to put on one's self without assistance. Stays with lacing up both the front and the back are a historically accurate option and would seem to be more user-friendly. Picking the pattern was easy. Deciding to make the stays both front and back lacing was also easy. My procrastination has had nothing to do with either of these things, and everything to do with the next step of the project, possibly the most important part of the whole stay and corset making process - making the mock-up. I do not enjoy making mock-ups whatsoever. Now, I do know their value, and I've never regretted making a mock-up (and have regretted not making a mock-up), but I just generally don't like making them. Thus, I've avoided making my mock-up stays, and thus my actual stays as long as possible. Due to my immediate need of an 18th century outfit, my time of mock-up avoidance was forced to an end last week. I made my mock-up. Out of cardboard. 18th century stays are often fully boned, thus more rigid than a Victorian corset. Making a fully boned mock-up sounded tortuous. (This is part of the reason I've avoided making a stays for so long.) However, a few months ago, I learned in one of the 18th century sewing groups I'm a part of on Facebook, that non-corrugated cardboard (like the stuff cereal boxes are made from) works well for making stay mock-ups. The stiffness apparently nicely simulates the structure of fully-boned stays. This concept made the stay mocking-up process seem a lot more approachable. I just so happened to have two large sheets of this type of cardboard on hand. So last week I traced my pattern onto the cardboard, cut it out, taped it together, punched holes in the edges for lacing, and tried the cardboard stays on. They actually looked like stays! And they fit pretty darned decent! And took way less time to make than a fabric mock-up would have! There were only a couple small fit changes I needed to make. First I lowered the armscyes slightly so they wouldn't dig into my armpits. Then I took a bit of width off the top of the center front edge for better bust support. I laced myself back into the cardboard stays, and. . . They fit!! So now that the pesky mock-up stage is out of the way, I can cut out my actual stays, sew them up, then make this dress: A sacque-back gown, which will be machine sewn, in a rather inaccurate fabric. But, I'll tell you all about that later. Right now I'd better get to sewing all the boning channels on my stays!

After much deliberation and many very helpful comments, I revised my Colonial Williamsburg mix n' match plans: Now the two jackets will be in prints, and the two skirts and gown will be solid colors. I'm still bent on blue and yellow, so I've collected some

I purchased this INCREDIBLE costume for an opera from COUTUREatCOURT (check out her shop), a brilliant costumer in Warsaw, last fall and unfortunately it was stuck in customs and I was unable to use it in my Production. She was very gracious, and is allowing me to use her original photos and description to resell these items. I wish I could keep them for my collection, but I have to recoup the lost budget. (I had to make two additional gowns to replace these). This costume is hand made, one of a kind, and so beautiful. it is also ready to ship from the US, so it would be perfect for a historical event or production on short notice. Please note that a set of stays, chemise, and bum roll are not included, but you can buy your own reasonably priced undergarments ready to ship in the USA from samsonhistorical.com Here is her original listing: " Let me tender to you a unique, handmade high quality SILK PIERROT GOWN. The item is a professional reenactment garment, highly detailed and accurate to stunning XVIIIth century couture requirements. Sewn as per the authentic period’s preserved pattern and construction techniques. Mostly hand-sewn, the finishes are hand-styled with self-made haberdashery. Each of my costumes is made only in one copy to guarantee the ultimate exceptional and historically correct visage.

PERIOD: circa 1780’ - early 1790’

THE LOT:
1. outer silk taffeta pierrot jacket with wriggly back ruffle, decorated with delicate silk trim. Fastened with metal hook and eye hidden under self-made death’s head buttons. Cotton lined.

2. nether silk batiste chemisette, laced under the dress around waist

3. silk batiste chemise dress, strapped at the neckline, loosen cut, tied at the waist with silk sash

4. decorative silk sash, tied at the side, trimmed with handmade fringe

 MEASUREMENTS (by dummy’s size with bust flattened against the torso and waist figured in line with period’s silhouette - boned XVIIIth c. stays required):
 1. dummy’s BUST 30.7 in / 78 cm (stays flattening included)
 2. dummy’s WAIST 25.6 in / 65 cm (stays figure-tightening included)
 3. pierrot BUST 30.7 in / 78 cm (stays figure-tightening included)
 4. dress LENGTH 54.7 in / 139 cm (on the front - shoulder down)
 5. dress WIDTH max 107.8 in / 274 cm and more due to loosen cut, tied at the waist only with silk sash

Size: 6/8 UK (32/34 EU). The dress is strapped at the neckline and tied with sash to enable you to adjust the size to your measurements. The rest of the dress is left loose - the sash is the only tightening. Pierrot buttons’ resewing possible to adjust to your measurements (+ 0.8 in / 2 cm). PLEASE, TAKE YOUR MEASUREMENTS HAVING 17TH CENTURY STAYS PUT ON.

 FABRICS USED:
6 yards silk batiste, 1 yard silk taffeta, 1/4 yard silk taffeta, 3/4 yard cotton lining. The striped lightly crinkled fabric trim- silk taffeta. The white fabric - silk batiste. The pink and white sash - silk taffeta.

 NOTES:
1. This ensemble is strictly made to be worn over a 1770 - 90’s accurate underwear to fit properly and create a bona fide representation of XVIIIth century garment. Thereby a shift, stays, a bump/hips pad and a petticoat are a must (as shown at the end of the photo list). Though they are not included, they are easily available in other Etsy’s reenactment stores.

2. Stitchings, trims and other haberdashery are mostly hand made and may vary in uniformity with natural small imperfections

3. This particular gown has been worn once for a photo shoot (included in the valuation). There are no signs of wear except tiny stain spots at the very bottom of the dress, practically invisible when put on (shown in the photos)."