Scottish robe à l'Anglaise

I had been toying with the idea of making a dress from this crazy tartan design just for the sake of having an absurd dress. In the end it came out not so absurd at all!

Fabric for: Regency dress, Anglaise and Francaise

Scottish robe à la Francaise

Another liveroleplay upcoming, Jacobite Scotland this time! Time for yet another Francaise after my tried pattern. Only if you use it for a Francaise instead of a Piemontaise (as I did last time), bear in mind that you'll have to cut the part for the Watteau pleats at an angle, or you'll end up with not very nice pleats that make a perfectionist undo the complete back part to set in gores to get proper pleats. The fabric is a light cotton tartan weave, and six metres were just enough for the robe and the decoration. If you want to have the skirt underneath made from the same fabric, buy at least 8 metres or more for skirt decoration.

Fabric raid: Regency dress, Anglaise and Francaise

The sleeves have two flounces, and two rows of lace underneath. Again, used the usual pinking shears method. Getting a pro in this...

The bodice is fitted with no back lacing as the earlier Francaises would have. The top fabric is sewn to the lining right along the watteau pleats.Make sure you cut the Watteau part at an angle or the pleats won't fall nicely.

And here came the moment when I realized I'd have to make a quick pannier-bumroll because the one I wore for the Piemontaise doesn't work with the pleating of a Francaise... Why do I keep encountering unexpected problems no matter how many years of experience I have?

Robe à la Piemontaise

The tailor's dilemma: What does this fabric want to become?

I made a victorian summer daydress for a friend early this year and bought all they had of this striped fabric with the intention of a) getting a better price, and b) making another dress for myself. The striped cotton would look lovely as a Francaise, the pleats would drape nicely, but on the other hand I'd love to drape the skirt into a polonaise style which to me looks weird with paniers and Watteau pleats and thus requires an Anglaise.

The answer to the dilemma: a robe à la Piemontaise, which combines the advantages of a Francaise (the Watteau pleats) with those of an Anglaise (can be draped into a faux Polonaise). Plus I've seen period pictures of draped Piemontaises but not a single draped Francaise.

There are excellent tutorials on Koshka's website, as well as on Isis' website. My version is to be worn over paniers with a violet underskirt, or draped Polonaise-style with a different underskirt over a bumroll. Two different skirts because for paniers, the sides of the skirt have to be longer to make for an even hemline when worn. If you loop up the gown it doesn't matter if it's actually cut to fit over paniers.

And I still have enough fabric left to make a victorian bustle gown...

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The cut of the slightly boned bodice follows a Francaise pattern from Norah Waugh's "The Cut of Women's Clothes", as does the petal-shape edge of the engageants. I cut them with the same pinking-edge-scissor-trick I used for the flounce of my striped skirt, deto the ruffle that decorates the front edge of the robe. The lace beneath the engageants is machine-embroidered cotton lace, matching the colour chart for this dress. It's good quality, so the embroidery doesn't look machine-made on first and second sight.

The stomacher consists of one layer of buckram with five lengths of boning sewn on, then covered with top fabric and lining which is closed at the top back. It's the same fabric as the Francaise petticoat and imitates the ribbon closing very common in pictures of Mme de Pompadour but is completely detachable, the ribbons look as if they were closing the robe but are merely decoration.

Unadorned stomacher

Decorated version

Ribbon with lace on top...

...topped off with satin ribbon

The ribbons were sewn to the edge, then tied into bows and fixated to the stomacher with a few invisible stitches as they're not meant to open. The edge trimming consists of two rows of pre-pleated ribbon zig-zagged together, two rows of lace sewn on top and a length of slender ribbon, slightly curled, stitched on top to cover up any machine seams. I also made some silk flies in violet and cream that I have to put somewhere...

The complete front edge of the robe is decorated with a self-fabric ruffle (take care to cut striped fabric across so you get horizontal stripes) and the same decoration in its centre as on the stomacher - pleated ribbon, lace, curled satin ribbon.

The petticoat for wearing the robe Francaise-style is decorated with a ruffled strip of self-fabric along the hemline and a length of pleated ribbon (I thought I had bought ten metres but it seems it was one of those occasions when I say "oh, you know, I'll take the whole package".)

Assembling the back part of a Piemontaise is a bit tricky. Attach both side parts of the skirt to the bodice. Then attach to the skirt the centre back part that's to be pleated. Mark where it meets the lowest edge of the bodice and sew the part above this into a tube. At the lower end of it make a T-cut that goes edge to edge with the bodice, the rest above is pleated and sewn to the neckline. Those pleats should fall freely but not slacken around where skirt and bodice meet. All I can say is that I love my tailor's dummy!

A not very good shot of the beta-version I wore to the last rococo ball, taking pictures inside was forbidden unless you were the official photographer. Actually this dress wouldn't be a ballgown but rather a nice summer dress - but considering that figuring out the pattern took ten times longer than planned and thus time was short (again) it was good enough.

Fingerless mittens

I had yarn left that I wanted to use up, and I wanted an upper-class pair of mittens for rococo and regency, so I found myself some nice sock pattern (there's plenty of them!) that I adapted for mittens.

For the edge, I used the Bintje pattern from https://www.ravelry.com/, the pattern of the mittens being DROPS design: model nr. FA-146 from the German knitting page www.garnstudio.com.

The pattern is pretty easy to knit if you have a bit of experience, as it's logic and repetitive. Don't forget the counting, though ;)

Jacket and skirt

The fabric combination might seem familiar, it's bedding from Ikea. The striped fabric was the blanket cover, it's going to be an ankle-length skirt with ruching. The Indian-import-style flower cotton were the pillowcases, and having a very limited amount of fabric here, I decided for a short caraco jacket, decorated with - Guess! - fly fringe, as I just discovered how addictive it is to make it. See the post on fly fringe trim for any tips and how-to's.

As to the skirt support, here's a very helpful site to discern what shape was fashionable in what decade and how to achieve it: http://demodecouture.com/late-18th-century-skirt-supports/

The 18th century wasn't all Robe à la Francaise and paniers, during the 1770s there was also a fashion featuring shorter skirts and rounded hips, which I used as a model for this dress.

I have no pinking irons yet to make round pinked edges, and neither was I able to find craft scissors which give the desired edge and are strong enough to cut fabric, so I used the zigzag ones instead and cut a tiny bit off the points with a normal pair of scissors. They appear rounded now, and no one's going that close to my skirt seams anyway.

pointed zigzag versus almost-rounded zigzag

Pinking irons have the advantage that they press the fibres and the edge is slightly less prone to fraying, but I'll just give it a try.

The ruches measure a bit more than twice the hem circumfence.

The jacket was actually intended to be a caraco until I figured that I don't have enough of the fabric and went for a shorter jacket pattern.

Polonaise jacket and skirt

Ikea has always been a great source for fabric with period rococo patterns! I found this former bedlinen used on Ebay, the striped part for the skirt, the flowery part for the bodice. It was a single bedding, so the amount of fabric is absolutely limited. The striped fabric really is just enough for an ankle-length skirt, the equal amount of flowered cotton is enough for a casaquin, casually called a pet-en-l'air, or for a polonaise. The cotton is rather coarse, so it won't do as an upper-class outfit but I found matching silk floss so it will get fly fringe trimming nonetheless ;)

The fabric had been sitting in my storage for quite some time until recently I found that "right now" is the time for a new costume for a one-shot character I was playing three days hence. Because why not.

The skirt is the usual, simple rococo skirt shape, a little longer at the back so it can be worn with a padded rump.

The jacket was actually intended to be a casaquin but upon closer inspection the fabric wanted to become a polonaise. I used Janet Arnold's caraco pattern from 1775/85 but changed the front.

I had found matching embroidery floss and also had the intention of making some fly trim decoration, plus I wanted to close the jacket with ribbons, and for all this I'd need a stomacher; a very broad one - J P Ryan's stomacher from the jacket package is perfect. The jacket pattern gave me quite some trouble when I discovered that despite enlarging it to my size without much ado the front part of the peplum makes horizontal creases at the waist that definitely don't belong there. The peplum demands to be taken up at the sides and the back, then the creases vanish and the ensemble looks lovely. The problem can be remedied by taking in a small tuck along the waistline to shape it (not done in the original), in which case the caraco can also be worn with the peplum down.

The neckline is quite large at the front, and required a stomacher with a rounded top. It's put in with hooks and eyes and the ribbons closed on top.

The hat is actually the first thing now that has been finished (I might want to add fly trim to the ruching once I've produced enough, but for now I call it finished!) completely and looks so lovely I took up re-working the caraco (which is just the tiniest bit too tight to feel perfect) and finally adding a decent waistband to the skirt. The hat consists of an Ikea straw placemat, the crown shaped with water and ordinary household jars. Decoration became more and more as I was working along, and at one point I stripped the hat of its original ruching to switch to a lighter tone to match the dress pattern more perfectly. I'm finally able to de-stock my plethora of artificial flowers - the ones on the hat are even silk (the blue ones) - and artificial birdies :D The lace around the brim is the only thing that's glued on invisibly, everything else, ruffles, hatband, flowers, was sewn on with invisible stitches.

Fly fringe trim

Fly fringe, the legendary unicorn among historic trimming and the most 18th-century-ish decoration you can put onto your dress. As you can't buy it, you usually have to make it yourself. The downside is that it really takes time, as you have to prepare every single fly and then string them into a trim. The upside is that you can make this kind of trimming according to the colour chart of your dress.

After tracking down some how-to's, I decided to jump into it myself and make some fly fringe for my upcoming rococo projects. I still had silk embroidery thread in various colours whicht I ought to use up eventually because having umpteen colours but just 10 metres each isn't very helpful for embroidery, so better use them for trimming. I figured that measuring 15 centimetres amounts to five tiny silk floss flies with one knot, using six threads of silk. I also experimented with six strand cotton embroidery floss, twenty centimetres for four flies, double-knot, using four full threads.

As the silk thread is well-twined, being meant for sewing and embroidering, it gives this wavy texture, and I have to unpick the threads with a pin before fluffing them up with a hard nailbrush. You can fluff the cotton version to the same fine texture as silk, but it takes much more time to unpick the threads before fluffing, as cotton fibres adhere much more to each other than the smooth silk fibres.

left: double-knot cotton flies; right: single-knot silk flies

The single-knot flies are for weaving them into a braid, the two-knot flies are to be knotted onto another string of cotton thread.

For making flies if you only have one limited spool of thread and thus can't make and endless string of flies, here's my step-by-step for five flies in a row, using 15 centimetres of silk, allowing thus for 3 cm for each fly:
Cut desired length of silk thread as often as you need to get a fluffy fly. Knot the ends to mark the centre of the first two flies, then place a knot at the exact centre, and between those, two more knots. Cut in half exactly between two knots. Split the threads with a pin, then fluff with a hard nailbrush (or something the like).

 

the stages of a silk fly

 

silk flies, ready for brushing

Robe à la Francaise of embroidered silk

Yet another upcoming ball, rococo this time, and the only dresses I have for this era are a day dress and a riding habit. I found embroidered silk at a haberdasher's that was not cheap but affordable, and to show off the embroidery I think it has to be another Francaise.

Rococo "Bergère" hats - the basics

Ikea currently providing an ample support of round place mats made from natural fibres, I have also taken up rococo hatting again. Getting the right shape for one of those flat Bergère-style hats out of a round place mat is easy, you treat the piece with steam or hot water at the centre and the part that's going to be the back, and shape it over or between whatever is at hand and gets you the desired shape.


The basic shape

Moisten the centre of the place mat thoroughly either with steam or with a spray bottle (spray both sides thoroughly) and press it between a round lid and a jar - at least that's what I'm using and it works perfectly. I used to shape the centre over a little glass bowl but the result was nice but not completely satisfactory. The lid of a round metal noodle jar (diametre 10.5 cm, depth 2.5 cm) and a matching honey glass gives perfect results. Put the moistened part over the lid and gently press it in with the jar to get an even crown with relatively straight sides. Let set for an hour or so and gently remove to dry thoroughly (I put mine on the heating). This works for the Ikea straw placemats. Paper placemats are a bit different to shape, as the material won't stretch that much. The brim will inevitably turn wavy due to excess material which you put to one side and use for the turned-up back of the hat.

Dome-shaped crown with a glass bowl as model.

 The procedure works well with any kind of natural fibres, be it paper, straw, reed, or other grassy stuff. The hat will keep its shape pretty well, provided it doesn't get too wet.

I used to shape the turned-up back of the brim also with water, but as it needs wire framing anyway I left this away and just shape it after the wire has been put in along the brim.


Wiring the brim

How to put wire along the edge of your hat depends on which material the place mat consists of. If you have a woven paper mat you will have to line the hat, sew the wire into the edge of the lining, and add the wired lining to the hat. That's because the paper mats have nowhere to hide the wire, whereas you can conveniently put it between the woven layers of Ikea's normal straw place mat. To facilitate this, bend a little o into the end of the wire (.6 mm steel works nicely), thread a very thick, blunt needle with sturdy thread and attach the thread to the steel. You can now work your way around the brim from straw pleat to straw pleat without damaging anything, gently pulling on the string regularly to ease the wire in. It gets a little fiddly towards the end because pulling wire 360° around the hat doesn't work without some gentle pushing and you'd need three hands, but it's by far the most convenient method I've found.

Lining and hat

Wired lining, ready to be sewn into the hat.

The decoration

When you decorate the hats I strongly advise NOT using hot glue. Everything once glued on can't be taken off without damage to the hat or the decoration. Sew stuff on or, in very exceptional cases, use normal household glue to keep stuff in place. I usually glue on the lace around the brim as I want absolutely no stitches to be seen on the reverse side and it makes no difference to how the lace behaves afterwards. I sew all the ruches on by hand with invisible stitches. If you have to line the hat, you can forget about the invisible stitches, they won't be seen through the lining. But otherwise you don't want stitches to show on the reverse side. Push the needle down through trim and straw at an angle, aiming to slide it a few millimetres or so between the two layers of pleated straw to the reverse. Going up from the reverse, use the same hole where your needle just came out to push it in again, at an angle, back up. Thus you'll be sewing the trim to one layer of straw while the visible layer remains more or less intact. It's fiddly, but worth it!

Invisible stitching, nothing visible from the hat band on the upper side.

I usually put lace around the brim, then ruching on the upper side and some coverage on the reverse, like simpler ruches or braid or something. It covers all mistakes you may have made when inserting the wire and is just so much nicer to look at. The turned-up brim at the back of most of my models requires the "below" to be just as nice and neat as the "above", even without lining.

Hat decoration...

...or: How to turn something incredibly horrible into something more credibly horrible :D

Having a pencheant for fleur de lys, I just had to buy this masterpiece of glittery madness (who the hell invented sticky glitter?!), plucked off the silly ribbon and the plastic rhinestones, scratched and sanded the glitterglue off, changed the position of the metal ornaments, and lo!, it can easily serve as hat decoration now - though I'll more probably use it for a rococo tricorn than for a baroque cavalier hat.

Glittery madness before

De-glittered ornament after

Petit four dress

Yes, that's what it looks like, all pink :D I once bought a justaucorps from a theatre sale and at last found matching pink fabric for a skirt. After adjusting the justaucorps to my measurements, I started with the skirt, to be worn over my smallest set of paniers.

The justaucorps was too wide around the waist (which could be helped easily by taking in the side and back seams) while the sleeves were too short - which took a bit more effort. I had to detach the cuffs as well as the lace cuffs which I sewed to the very edge of the sleeve, then came the pink cuff that was not, as before, sewn edge to edge but three centimetres further down to give additional length.

The skirt is two fabric widths, closing at one of the side seams, with pocket slits. Measuring the seamline is tedious when you have a curved hem to be worn over paniers. I usually put the skirt on, mark floor length at the front and on one side, and copy it to the other sides, cropping a little for the front and adding a little for the back side. Much to my satisfaction I found an ample amount of matching satin ribbon in my collection but, not content with three rows of ribbon around the hem, I decided to try some simple self-fabric-trimming. And after using the very last bit for the waistband I can proudly say that I used up every inch of this fabric!
From the cutoff I cut 2 centimetre wide strips, using pinking scissors to get the typical pinked edge, which I sewed together and ruffled slightly (not too much or it will curl up). These, alternating with the satin ribbon, decorate the hem.

While rummaging through my collection of trims and ribbons I also found a short piece of a matching one that I decided to turn into a neck ruff / choker. Actually it's a length of gift ribbon, 100% polyester and the centre is some kind of translucent plastic, but this part is covered by a row of lace anyway and won't be seen. I box-pleated almost the whole length, the rest was folded into a bow to hide the hook and eye closure.

At least of this one I have a decent picture now, riding side-saddle at an 18th/19th century event. What's still missing in this picture is the little tricorn. I have a length of ribbon left that was too short for the hem, plus some lace, satin roses and I'm sure I can get my hands on some matching ostrich feathers. The basis of the hat is a child's straw hat that has been put into tricorn shape by the same method I use for the bergère hats, hot water/steam and letting cool/dry in the desired shape. The straw hat was then covered with matching satin (remember to add an inner layer of fabric or else the woven straw texture will show through the satin) and decorated. And as I had two shades of matching pink, two shades of matching decoration and a source for cheap straw hats, I made two little tricorns. Just because.

Baroque dressing gown and matching slippers

This project has been on my mind for quite some time already, and at last I managed to find two matching fabrics from my stock. The outer layer is iridescent blue polyestre with a yellow sheen and yellow embroidery. Yes, polyester, yucky, but I want to be able to drag the train through the dust without having to pay much heed to it. The lining is yellow jacquard and won't touch the floor. I intend to have this morning gown as a kind of "Oh dear, there's still something going on, allons-y!!"-outfit for the liveroleplays. The pattern is self-made, more towards the end of the 17th century or even 18th century-ish actually.

I wanted the sleeves to be wide to show the beautiful lining (of which I sadly hadn't enough to trim the front opening with). Sticking to the symmetry of the woven pattern, it was a bit of a pattern-tetris to get all parts nicely onto the four metres.

The body has a yoke to which the back and front parts are pleated.

And I had slippers of black fake leather which was beginning to disintegrate, so I stripped them completely, took the pattern of each part and decided to re-make them from my blue synthetic fabric - which is perfect for shoes as it cleans easily. If you wear cotton- or silk-covered shoes, better stay away from all mankind, my advice... ;)

What you keep is: the heels with inner sole, the outer sole, any interfacing still usable (the leaf-shaped thingy in this picture). You take the pattern of the top, the inner leather sole, and the heel cover (the T-shaped piece in the picture).

Don't bother getting the heels off the sole completely, you're likely never get them on properly again. Yust ease them apart (flat screwdriver or something the like) enough to strip the old fabric and glue on the new one. Then use tea-clips or any other small, handy clamps to press the heel to the instep on both sides, hammer the sole firmly to the heel and add some weight (I used dumbbells of 3 kg each) to press them together until the glue has hardened completely. Et voilà, if you didn't spill too much glue where it diesn't belong you'll end up with neat, newly covered heels.

Now for the front part...

Cabochon jewelry

Pretty simple once you've gathered all the ingredients, like frame, glass, glue, and pictures. The glass covers come in flat and convex. If you're using convex covers, only choose landscapes, flowers or anything neutral as your motif. Portraits only go well (i.e. undistorted) with flat glass, and you don't want your fiancé at twice his breadth on your necklace ;)

The trickiest thing is to avoid bubbles of air when you glue the images to the glass. I find it easiest to put a generous dollop of glue on the flat side of the cabochon, press the picture onto the glue and wiggle it very gently until it has spread the glue all over the glass and lies down flat. Dry on a flat surface (some hours will be enough, I just leave mine overnight), cut away the excess paper and glue to the metal frame.

The simplest way of wearing them would be to attach them to a piece of satin ribbon or a slender metal chain, or you can attach them to any pearl or bead necklace, lace ruff (expecially for rococo), or whatever you fancy.
 

 For a rose quartz version I also added a matching pendant, the beads are rose quartz and crystal.

A very nice thing is a two-faced version. Take two pieces of the same foundation style and very diligently glue them back to back with some jewellery glue so they're absolutely apposite. For the front picture, proceed as above, with a rounded cabochon and a nice picture. For the reverse side that is to remain hidden when worn, use a flat cabochon so the pendant won't turn but remain nice and tidy with the flat side down and the convex side up and you can keep your secret lover's picture nicely hidden ;) If you're in a hurry and there are no flat cabochons at hand, it also works well with a piece of clear plastic cut into shape to cover the picture.

On starching fabric

I never knew it would be that practical! But after trying every theatre-trick from heavy fabric and wired seams to iron-on interfacing to get nicely shaped collars and all, I decided to use old-fashioned starch. My only experience so far has been with potato-starch, but it worked nicely and I didn't discover any disadvantages so I guess I'll stick with it. The starch-water-ratio may vary, depending on the size of your spoons and the thickness of the starch you want to produce, but all in all it has proven best to make some heavy starch basis that can be diluted to get the desired mixture.

1 litre of water
4 teaspoons (!) of starch (NOT tablespoons; you'll end up with a bowl of goo)

Mix the starch with some cold water. You'll get a whiteish puree. Pour in the cooking water and stir well to avoid the forming of lumps which you won't want to sit on your fabric. The white starch will turn into a rather clear liquid. If it's still too gooey you can add water until you've reached the desired consistency. If there are too many lumps in it you can put it through a fine sieve before putting in the clothes.

Put the damp fabric into the starch for a moment, squeeze the excess water out gently (you don't want to end up with wrinkles in your collar) and lay the piece flat, allowing excess water to drip off. Dry it quickly, either in the sun or on the heating, and when it's only damp, iron it into the desired shape.

PS: It even worked very well to get the crispness back into tulle that I had had to wash, as well as into dupion silk that had turned a little limp after washing. And if you use too much starch, you'll be able to design an origami dress... ;)

New pair of hanging pockets

If another baroque reenactment is coming up and you have nothing but non-period stuff to hand-sew, what do you do? Of course, you create another absolutely unnecessary project for yourself - like embroidering yet another pair of pockets that noone but your most intimate friends will ever see! ;) Same cut and procedure as last time, only this time not striped and in blues but white with colours. Let's see where my creativity leads me! Pics to come...

Blue rococo gown

And here we go, merrily starting yet another project although none of the previously started has been finished yet! Who cares... ;) This time, it's a rococo dress for my sister, who has thankfully been persuaded into taking part in a play - for which she will be appropriately clothed, of course. Thus I'm going to alter the already existant pattern to her measurements (Hello challenge!) to produce (hopefully finishing it on time) a gown of light blue brocade with an underskirt of pale blue cotton and the usual trimmings in white lace and blue ribbon. White petticoat and chemise have already been finished (although petticoat has to be altered slightly).

So the petticoat is three metres of white cotton, pleated into the waistband to be closed with strings at the back and adorned with two lengths of white satin ribbon at the seam. I just want to add here that usually, rococo skirts had their opening slits at the hips, thus enabling the wearer to wear pockets beneath them. It's a costume in this case, so I went for the simpler way of putting the skirts on.

The underskirt of the dress is constructed similarly, only that here you have to shape the seam according to the panniers that are worn under it. Not necessary with the petticoats, as they won't be seen, but underskirt and dress have to have a curved seam, shorter at the front and back and longer at the sides that will be pushed up a little by the panniers. Along the seam runs a ruffled strip of the same fabric, conveniently hiding that I never sew seams by hand. The ruffle should be attached by hand, though.

Chemise à la reine

And yet another new project... Well, actually not really. I started it months ago, then it gathered some dust while I finished a few other things, and now I have finally figured out how to do this thing without it looking too bulky. Problem was, when I started sewing the chemise, I was firmly convinced that I would have to line it. Well, you can imagine that two layers of gathered fabric - and be it just finest batiste - will inevitably cause anyone, no matter how slender, to look like a stuffed white sausage. Finally I figured that I'd be wearing petticoats beneath it anyway, so I could leave away the lining and just work with one layer of wonderfully light, sheer, fine batiste. Slow on the uptake sometimes :D Anyway. This is how it is approximately going to look like once it's finished:



I think the pic is from V&A Museum, but not quite sure, I have such a huge amount of random costume pics on my harddrive... This kind of dress became en vogue in the 1780s.

This time I tried a pattern from Norah Waugh's "The Cut of Women's Clothes". Only thing I altered was not to slit the dress completely at the front. My version is put on over the head, with a frill at the neckline and puffed sleeves. Currently attaching the sleeves and trying to remember where I put the rest of the fabric for the frill...

Yellow rococo dress

I actually made this dress already years ago, but remade it last year to weed out a few flaws. The ribbons of the stomacher were only sewn on, being mere decoration, the bodice did not fit perfectly and there was too much fabric at the front of the skirt and not enough at the back to make the watteau-pleats fall nicely. Now everything has been corrected, and I'm almost completely satisfied with the outcome. The ribbons are now fully functional and are tied into bowties after the dress has been put on. That's how it should actually be.



The fabric of the dress is a printed cotton, no actual pattern, just shades of yellow that make up to a nice overall colour. Unfortunately I bought only about four metres, which is not enough if you want really nice pleats at the back. But they're okay for the simple summer dress it's intended to be. The stomacher and underskirt are very lightweight cotton in a matching shade of pale yellow. And yes, it was a helluva job to find exactly the right colour! Especially as I continually kept forgetting to take a swatch with me to the fabric store... Talk about scattiness :D In the first turn, I bought the wrong yellow - which led to me making a very nice late renaissance/early baroque peasant's dress. I'll put that one online someday. Anyway... A decent rococo/Georgian dress needs plenty of decoration, for which I used white lace, yellow braid, satin flowers and an attempt of self-made flowers made from the same fabric as the dress. Lace on the dress might not be completely period, but I'm no reenactor :P



I used the pattern and instructions I found on www.marquise.de - a very recommendable site. The lining of the back joins the front sections together, so the folds at the back can fall loosely. Front parts are also lined, as are the sleeves. The stomacher should actually be stiffened with boning (plastic, steel, whatever you prefer), I have to admit that I used cardboard in the first attempt. Hey, I was a beginner back then! ;D Worked quite nicely for some time but lost its shape over time so I redid it with boning and buckram. The stomacher is attached to the dress with hooks and eyes and covered by the eschelles, the bows, which close the robe over the stomacher. I've since add some embroidery.

The engageantes, means the white, lace-trimmed flounces on the sleeves, actually should belong to the chemise beneath, but I didn't bother with that and just stitched them to the dress. They can be taken off for washing.

The underskirt is decorated with a stripe of ruffled fabric along the hem. If I had known how difficult this is to iron...

The hat was actually a round place mat. Yes, hatting can be a very creative thing! :D I shaped it by moistening the centre a little and molding the centre and back so the hat can be worn on top of a rococo hairdo. It's decorated with lace, little silk flowers (or whatever they really consist of these days...) and yellow satin ribbon.



The lining is sheer white silk, sewn to a wire frame, and the whole thing is sewn to the brim of the hat as well as to the centre (beneath the lace ruffle on top so you don't see the stitches).



What's beneath this dress is a chemise, pocket hoops, hanging pockets (I already posted that) and a corset - though the latter isn't worn in the pictures, it was the hottest day of the year, and by the way, I'm currently re-working my rococo-stays because I misinterpreted something when I sewed them years ago.

The dress is completed by a silken fichú (neckerchief; not worn in pictures due to climbing mercury column) that I simply bought so I needn't bother with doing the rolled hem myself, and a little lace cap.