pet en l'air - Janet Arnold/Nancy Bradbury

A Summary of 2 posts making a 1745ish sack back jacket.

And this week's challenge – a pet en l'air (pet en l'eir?). I think the direct translation is somewhat rude but to me it is a sack back jacket from the 1700s, a kind of short version of an open robe, or robe a la Francaise.  Think Watteau, think Thos. Gainsborough. 


Fragonard - the Love Letter. Met Museum

This was an informal garment, worn at home, so doesn't appear in many formal portraits, therefore  I've also looked for full gowns showing the volume of fabric at the back and the fitting at the front.

Watteau studies - just how much fabric! Shall we play guess the weight?

Gainsborough - Viscountess Tracey



Gainsborough, Miss Theodosia Magill

               The one I am making is based on one from the Snowshill Manor collection dated 1745-55,  described and drawn by both Janet Arnold and Nancy Bradbury. It is made in silk with a linen lining and probably worn with a kerchief to fill in the neckline.


Drawing from Janet Arnold, Patterns of Fashion. The painting above is the one cited by Bradbury - Upton House NT.

  Again it is made to fit Gwendoline, the little model, so every inch on the pattern becomes a centimetre- there will have to be other tweaks and adjustments but the Arnold diagrams will provide the basic shapes.

 I am using a printed cotton - quite fine in texture, too much of a coward for silk or satin at this stage of the learning curve.

 There are several extant examples documented and similar jackets seem to have many different names - on some the front closes, others the stomacher is pinned in as a temporary closure, the back pleats can be sewn in or sewn in part rather than hanging from the neck line. This is listed as a caraco  from the Met. and although the detail may be different it does give an idea of the garment and the size of padding needed to get Gwen's hips up to speed! I do get everso confused by all these names - I think I understand what a caraco is, a casaquin, a pierrot , and then..... Never mind - the embroidery is exquisite and that row of buttons! (add bed gown to that list)

 

– Even with 2 sources to glean information from I had no idea how this garment worked. Unpicking happened often. And again Gwen's shape has caused some major headaches- she has a wide flat torso, little hips and a long smooth waist, nothing like the kind of corseted shape shown in the contemporary paintings. I have tried to be as faithful as I can to the original – give and take a bit (quite a big bit in places).  The pattern had to be extended  to fit around

her and the upper front elongated.  The fabric is in two halves – joined at the centre back , with a major amount of pleating on the hip and back, and the front bodice extends over the shoulder to meet the back.. What did become obvious as I tried to put this together is the importance of the lining in creating the base for the top fabric to hang from. There is a lot of fabric there - Gwen is 16cm across the shoulders - one half of the top fabric is over 50cm.  Janet Arnold described the parts being made up as one as far as the centre back, so that is what I did, but the lining back has to fit snugly to give shape to the bodice front and shoulder as well as to support the pleats. So undo the flat lining and fit the back bodice together – re-attach top fabric now there was something to hang the pleats onto. Working without a centre front was also difficult - trying the garment on Gwen seemed to give a different fit each time, and with the top and lining together of course they behaved differently again. To stabilise it the false front was made up and fitted as shown. Chickened out of doing the tab fronts from the original jacket and treated it as a solid piece with hooks and eyes to fasten at centre front just to make fitting easier. Considering how the parts were made and all that had to be done was to sew it together neatly the length of time taken seems huge- 2 hours! The side seams were extended an inch to fit Gwen more snugly but then there should be hoops or at least a large bum pad to hold the skirts out from the body which will alter the shape completely - can't win!

Next steps – sleeves, ruffles, hem, decoration.

The arm holes seem to have migrated backward  but I left a lot of spare fabric when cutting out so should not be too difficult to re- establish. I am looking forward to the sleeve - it is such a different shape. The pleats at the head should give a little leeway but....

A the real reason for putting myself through this torture ? Want to make the ruffles, I want to flounce. Already thinking through and planning...... are they lined - self or linen? or hemmed ? Do-able at this scale? Hours of fun to moan about next post.

 

 I've put in some of the useful sources/blogs etc. To be honest there is a lot of very good stuff out there- these are only a tiny tip of the proverbial iceberg.

 http://brocadegoddess.wordpress.com/pet-en-lair/   does a much better job of making than I have!

 http://www.marquise.de/en/index.html
http://americanduchess.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/costume-analytics-1770-80-chintz-caraco.html

and of course - Janet Arnold -Patterns of Fashion 1 p28-30, Nancy Bradbury - Costume in Detail p19 National Trust - Snowshill collection.
BBC paintings, Met Museum, and Museum of London.

 

2.  Meet the completed pet en l'air. This has been a week of traumas, obsessive sewing and happy painting.

As usual the simple task list hid hours of work.

Task one – sleeves. Made up sleeve-1 as per pattern – did not fit to the robings on top of the shoulder as shown on the Arnold drawing and stuck straight out like a penguin.. They would do for fitted sleeves but needed greater length between the bottom of the arm hole and the head plus more width at the head because of the lengthening of the front bodice. There was  sleeve-2, and sleeve-3. I wasn't sure about the fullness at the top of the arm but many portraits show a looseness there, so it will stay. The arm is set back and angles backward rather than hanging straight ( better than the first Pingu attempts). I have been assured that this is right but it still looks strange to me –truly need a real Gwendoline to see how this works.

After sleeve trauma came flounce-gate. Having been out and bought contrast fabric for lining the flounce and then made them and attached them, I decided the bulk of fabric in the fine gathers at the cuff looked clumsy and awkward. Hmm. Then salvation through the post – Fashion History arrived showing details of the Kyoto Institute collection – lots of raw pinked edges! Did get a little carried away, well a lot carried away. It took several days of looking and pondering before giving in (time for the perforated finger ends to heal- sewing the flounces on had been a pig of a job) Off came the flounces, unpicked and pinked and reattached with the lining now dropped slightly and facing outward.



  Much happier with the results and a quick lace ruffle put in to complete the look. In the mean time furbelow fever struck – Not on the original design at all but having seen so many examples it seemed silly not to try. Bye bye to Wednesday. These are 2cm wide strips with 1cm box pleats meeting nearly edge to edge down the length of the strip. Huge lengths had to be pinked, measured and sewn and then attached but it was strangely compelling. I had intended to add just two strips either side of the centre front on the stomacher…... not down the entire front but...

and then just had to try doing curling flourishes at the hem. I still think of these as moustachios.

It has changed the nature of the garment – it was quite plain and clean with a clarity about the construction, but now is fluffy and fussy.  I still quite like it, but that was Thursday gone as well!

Final finishing – the hem and redoing the sleeve flounces and that was Saturday. DONE.
 

nattier 1750

This has been a great adventure – painful at times but rewarding. The research has gobbled up hours – trawling for 18thC painters has introduced many new names to explore and reintroduce old favourite pieces. I was expecting rigid, theatrical, formalised portraits with grandiose dresses, silks, flying ribbons and romantic notions of settings and did find lots of them. Considering the highly mannered style of the Rococo some of the portraits are definitely modern in their boldness and direct use of colour and composition. I still have trouble dating  some paintings - the dates of the sitter are given but not that of the artwork, a real menace especially when artists used their own collection of garments over many years to pose their models in. Jacquet !  These two show different ideas of decoration and fit - the Nattier is loose, luxurious in its volume and fluffy flounces. The lady is bold and flirtatious, dressed to impress at a masque. The Liotard is  domestic and restrained, while there is probably a lot more flounce it is self coloured and flattened. The fabric is lovely, possibly a shot silk showing two tones of blue and jade.

Liotard 1754

And of course I've been illustrating my own pet  – an interior, seated pose to reflect the pet's informal nature.

Lacking anyone daft enough to pose for me I have had to borrow bits of myself to help – so no elegant young romantic writing love letters – just me with a drawing board or table. I love artistic license – bye to the wrinkly bits – a very cheap face lift! Promise she does look happier in close ups. It is a love doing the fabric. Does any else want paintings of cloth? Some court portraitists hired specialists to paint in the clothes - does an opening still exist do you think?