a round gown with Vandyke scollops

I have always had an obsession with quirky trends from fashion history, and one of my favorites is a late 18th-century fad that used a row of small triangles to decorate the borders of gowns, hats, and shoes.  I have seen modern historians refer to this design feature as "sawtooth" trim, but the the English fashion magazines from this era always refer it to as "Vandyke scollops" - named after the large pointed lace trim that was common in the works of the 17th century Dutch artist, Anthony Van Dyke.  This style of trim seemed to be quite popular for about 20 years, and it not only reflected the Georgians' love of sartorial historicism during this period, but it also was a surprisingly easy and cost-effective decorative technique.  With just a bit of scrap fabric, a seamstress could create eye-catching and fashionable embellishment on an otherwise simple dress.  

This past summer, I found myself in need of a new gown to wear to the Gala at Costume College, so I decided to make a new silk round gown and matching sleeveless spencer with Vandyke scollops.  I based the construction of my dress on this Italian round gown and spencer from the Met, although I did change a few details, such as using shorter sleeves and raising the waistline so that it better matched the Gallery of Fashion illustration from 1796 shown above.  

I was quite fascinated by the construction of this Italian gown's bodice, since it seemed to feature flaps that are gathered up on cords in the front.  Most round gowns from this period have the bodice and skirt all in one piece, but in this gown, you can see that the bodice is more heavily gathered that the skirt, which would help to fine-tune the fullness of each piece.  Although there aren't enough photos to tell how the original bodice is constructed under the flap, I used an educated guess and decided to make a lightly gathered bodice attached to the skirt, and then a heavily gathered section to cover it.  This type of double-layer construction would also explain a few surviving gowns with odd flappy bits at the sides that museums never seem to know how to style.  

The Vandyke trim is quite bold - especially on the front of the spencer - and while I do like quirky fashions, it's nice that I can also wear the dress without the spencer for a slightly less busy look.  

I am wearing this dress with my transitional stays, a taffeta petticoat, an old velvet turban, and my new muff.  As usual, 1790s fashions tend to not be the easiest style for modern audiences to appreciate, but for some reason I adore them!  The skirts are so full and the waists are so high that it does create a very odd silhouette, but when these outfits are all put together with the right accessories, I think they feel so glamorous and dramatic - especially from the back!  

If you'd like to see more photos of this outfit, you can find them on flickr.

1795 Half-Mourning Robe

Every year, the DFWCG holds a Georgian Picnic, and as usual, I waited until the very last minute to decide what to wear.  I had originally planned on wearing something old, but my state of mind since the election has been pretty gloomy, so I decided to wear my heart on my sleeve and make another mourning gown.

I was originally inspired by a fashion plate from Gallery of Fashion showing an "afternoon dress, in half-mourning" that combined a black robe with a white round gown.  I already had a white gown, and I found a 3 yard piece of black wool in my stash that would work great for the robe. Luckily, I also had some good 1790s patterns that I had drafted for previous projects, so it ended up being a really quick and easy garment to put together.

A black robe on its own is pretty boring, but I also found lots of examples of 1790s robes edged with fur, which seemed like a perfect choice for a November picnic (you can see a variety of robe fashion plates here).  I picked up a yard of faux fur and used this to trim the edges of the robe, and I also made a new muff since the 1790s is ALL about the accessories.

Turbans are the most common type of headwear that women seemed to wear with this type of gown, and the crazy-long feathers add such a fun finishing touch.  Since I was short on time, I made a really simple fixed turban by tacking a long strip of silk over a wool hat blank.  I also wore my curly grey wig to try to mimic the look of the ladies in these fashion plates.

So that's pretty much it!  My obsession with 1790's fashion knows no bounds, and it was a lot of fun to make another robe to add to my growing collection.

As usual, I'll post a few of my favorite photos here, and the rest are on Flickr.

A Summer Chemise

A friend of mine was hosting an 18th c. themed birthday party this weekend, and I decided at the last minute that I wanted a new dress that lightweight enough to be comfortable in our lingering summer heat. It's still in the high 90's here in Texas, so I thought a new chemise gown would be well worth a little detour from my other sewing and blogging plans. I also couldn't resist joining my friends, who were also wearing chemises to the party. I'm such a sucker for a theme!

 

The fabric is a figured cotton with woven stripes and dots, and it was originally brown.  I bleached it and then re-dyed it to be a periwinkle blue-grey color.  I thought the color that I ended up with was a nice match to the hue in this lovely fashion plate from Cabinet des Modes.  I originally wanted to make a ruffled neckline and hem to make my dress match this fashion plate even closer, but I only had around 4 yards of fabric to work with, so I didn't have enough left over for ruffles.  

Although colored chemise gowns during this time period are plentiful, it's hard to find much evidence for cotton chemise gowns in colors other than white.   Most of the surviving examples and period references show that colored chemises were typically made of silk.  But there is one fashion plate that shows a chemise of pink English muslin, and as far as I know, 18th c. muslin was always made of cotton instead of silk, so I'm hoping that little tidbit of evidence is good enough to let me get away with this somewhat unusual material.

I used the same basic pattern that I created for my black chemise a few years ago, but this time I made elbow length sleeves and only had 2 drawstrings on the bodice instead of 3.  Chemise gowns with fitted backs are very easy to construct, and I think they are a lot less fiddly than the kind that are gathered all the way around.  I took a picture while I was getting dressed to give you a peek at the construction.  It's really just a basic round gown with a gathered section attached over the front of the bodice, and this panel is stitched down on to the bodice at the sides and tied in the center with ribbons.

For the party last night, I just wore a simple ribbon and some flowers in my hair since this seems to be a very common look for ladies in portraits from the late 1780's and early 1790's.  But I also loved the way the dress looked with my black tall hat, so I took some photos of both styles while tromping though the woods at my local park today.  Here are a few of my favorite shots, and there are a few more pictures on flickr.

1790s Autumn accessories

Gallery of Fashion, 1796

A few weekends ago, the DFWCG had its annual Georgian Picnic, and I decided to make some new cold-weather accessories to dress up my old 1790's spencer and round gown. Unfortunately, I ran short on time and had all sorts of unforeseen drama that weekend, so my fancy new accessories did not get finished and I ended up with a very boring outfit for the picnic. *blah* But I was so excited about what I was working on that I decided to give it another try and finish everything so I could at least do a photo shoot and share my projects here. I spent lots of time pouring through Gallery of Fashion illustrations when coming up with ideas for my new accessories, and all of those plates can be found on the Bunka Gakuen archive, which is an invaluable resource for studying costume of this era.

First on the list was a new fixed turban. The construction was very similar to the turban I made last summer, but this one has a 3-yard strip of velvet wrapped around the crown, which made it much rounder and taller than my first version. I didn't get a chance to decorate it before the picnic, so it was painfully plain during its first wearing. To add a bit more excitement, I added strips of fur to the twists and a drape in the back, and I like it a million times better now. It just goes to show how important those finishing touches are when making hats from this era. I used a straw hat as the base for this turban, and everything is tacked into place by hand, so it would be easy to change again in the future if I wanted to try something else.

Gallery of Fashion, 1801

I also had a massive hair fail on the morning of the picnic and didn't have time to work out a plan B, so I decided to invest in a new wig to make sure that never happens again. I bought the Aneesa wig by Mona Lisa (you can sometimes find cheaper prices for this wig on Ebay), and I think it's a nice match for the short cropped curls that you see in some of the fashion plates from this era. I took sections of hair and brushed them out, then I wrapped them around my finger to make distinct ringlets. It's sort of a silly look, but it seemed very Gallery of Fashion-esque, which is exactly what I was going for.

reticule from the MFA Boston - 1800

Next, I decorated a silk reticule with brass spangles. I made the reticule earlier this year, but it wasn't anything exciting, so I decorated it with a pattern similar to the bag shown on the left. My version is fairly subtle since the color of the spangles matches the silk so well, but I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out, and I discovered how fun it is to add spangles to things.  I don't think I'll ever have a plain reticule again!

The gloves were another quick project that helped to add some more color to my outfit. They are vintage gloves that I found at an estate sale, and they were originally orange. I over-dyed them with purple Rit to make them a burgundy color that would match my turban. The color is a little spotty in a few areas, so the next time I dye gloves, I'll be sure to wash them first to make sure any old grease or oil is removed, which can cause the dye to be absorbed differently in those areas. But it's nice to know that I can take boring old gloves and dye them any color that I want. I never even though about doing that before.

Gallery of Fashion, 1795

In the past, I wore my paisley shawl with this outfit, but paisley shawls don't typically show up in fashion plates until after 1800, so they aren't the most historically correct style to use with this period. So I decided to make myself a fur tippet, which is an accessory that you do see often in 1790's illustrations.  I had a small remnant of faux fur left over from another project, so I pieced it together and sewed it into a long tube.  Honestly, it doesn't provide much warmth unless you wrap it tightly around your neck, but they do look pretty glamorous, so I guess that's the main point.

Finally, I made myself a high-necked chemisette to fill in the neckline of my round gown and make it more appropriate for winter. I made it out of a vintage baby gown that had been badly stained and torn and was headed for the scrap bin. But I managed to salvage enough of the plain cotton to make the chest piece and collar, and then I used the lace edging to create some long ties that I could arrange like a cravat. I think more than anything, the chemisette helped to keep me warm by covering one of the few exposed areas on my body, and I love the smart and sporty look that it creates - perfect for a hike through the woods on a November day.

So I might have missed my goal of having these new accessories finished for the picnic, but I still had fun wearing them for my photoshoot, and I hope I get another chance to wear them to a real event in the future. You can see the full set of photos on Flickr, and here are a few more of my faves.

A Painted Empire Gown

I made this dress for a Regency dinner party with a few of my dearest friends way back in March, but it was dark and rainy and my hair didn't want to cooperate that night, so I didn't get very many blog-worthy pictures of the dress at that time.  I kept thinking that I would get dressed up again and do a photoshoot during the spring, but then life happened and time just slipped away.  Part of the problem is that this outfit seems too fancy for most of my usual photoshoot settings.  Plus, once I add 24 inches of ridiculous feathers sticking straight off the top of my head, I'm well over 7 ft. tall, and that's no fun in a car, as you can see from one of the photos from March!  So I made myself a little backdrop in my sewing room last weekend and took some pics that I am finally happy to share.

The inspiration for this dress came from two major sources.  First, I fell in love with the shape of this 1797 printed gown from the Musée de la Toile de Jouy.  It is almost like an open robe with those flaps under the bust, but it appears to be all one piece like a round gown.  I don't think I ever found another example quite like that, but I love it like crazy so I decided to do something similar with my own dress.

But I also fell in love with the idea of painting a design on my dress.  There are loads of examples of painted dresses from the 18th century, but it seemed to be less popular during the Empire period.  But I did find a several examples of Empire dresses with painted borders in Gallery of Fashion, webbed by the Bunka Gakeun library.  One of my favorites was this dress that is described as a "robe of white tiffany, with a painted border of vines".

Painted textiles during this period were typically made with tempera paints, but I couldn't imagine doing work like this with a paint that is water soluble, so I cheated and used satin finish acrylics instead.  It took quite a bit of trial and error before I came up with a design that I liked, but my final pattern was inspired by the top design this 1815 embroidery pattern sheet from Ackermann's Repository.  EK Duncan has webbed a large number of these embroidery patterns on her website, My Fanciful Muse, and they were an enormous help when I was creating my design.

The painting was a bit long and tedious, but not particularly difficult.  My research found that the fabric "tiffany", which was mentioned in the painted border fashion plate, could be a thin silk similar to taffeta.  I was thrilled to find some semi-sheer silk taffeta at my favorite local fabric store, Fabrique, that seemed like it would be a good modern substitute for tiffany.  It made painting a million times easier because I was able to draw off a few repeats of the design, then create large stretches by splicing copies of that drawing together.  I was able to place this pattern under my fabric while painting so I didn't have to transfer the design to my fabric at all.  I painted each section in stages (leaves, then flowers, then final shading) to streamline the process.  I painted the bodice and sleeves before assembly because I wanted to line those areas and I wouldn't be able to see my pattern once it was assembled, but I painted the skirt after hemming since it was unlined.  My original design idea used a very wide border with lots of different colors, but even though I'm a fast painter, I had to scale it back by a LOT because it took so much longer than I expected.

I drafted my own pattern for this dress by altering the pattern from my 1790s round gown.  The silk on the bodice is flatlined with white cotton so that the color would be consistent compared to the fabric over my chemise sleeves and petticoat, and then the bodice is lined with linen.  The gathered front section and sleeves are lined with white voile since they are so sheer and I don't like seeing too much of my undergarments through the dress.  The bodice closes with lacing on the foundation layer, then the front is gathered down on two ties at the neckline and waist, then the outer bodice flaps hook in the center front.  To conserve fabric the gown is pieced in several places, which you can see here under the arms.  The entire dress is hand-sewn using 18th c. sewing techniques with linen and silk thread.

To finish off the outfit, I am wearing my collet necklace and earrings from Dames a la Mode and a super long paisley shawl.  My turban and feathers are huge and crazy and fun, but I think I liked the simple look even better when I switched out the turban for a brass headband, which is actually a repurposed Victorian papier mache bowl handle.

I realize that this style of dress is a bit of an acquired taste.  The crazy high backs and kooky headwear are pretty odd looking, and the heavily gathered skirts are not the most slimming fashions ever created.  But for some reason, I just can't get enough of these late 1790s dresses!  There is just something about these fashions that feel so elegant and exotic when you wear them.  Here are some of my favorite pics, and there are a few more on flickr.