Regency summer dress with smocking details.

This week's task

- not so much working on a basic shape but looking at how to modify and extend this to create detail. Instead of straight gathering  I decided to make the gather decorative and an integral part of the overall garment design. This is the start of Gwendoline's summer wardrobe. Rather Georgette Heyer, fresh, bright, innocent.

Met Museum Spencer

Pelisse, 1815-20

Smocking has a long history, it is a way of using pleating to alter shape,  of drawing areas in and allowing fullness in others without fancy cutting. It has become decorative, patterns sewn onto the pleats, or  creating patterns by how the pleats are formed. When looking for ideas I  went for the latter technique, the former is something I associate with either Farmer Giles or small children.


 The associations with the second technique are no more promising - silk fancy cushions -  but  it did look more like some of the details of some regency clothing. The technique is simple. Mark a grid on the fabric and sew points together to make pleats. Most things sound simple in such basic terms! It did require precision, neatness and patience, not my natural skill base.                                   .

 

To keep life simple - gingham! The smocking grid comes ready made with  this fabric. Gingham was around and used in the period but sometimes as a stripe rather than a check. 

"My mother told me that my childhood had passed away; I was now seventeen, and must for the future be dressed suitably to the class of lady into which I had passed. ...

Two or three gingham dresses of different colours very neatly made with frills, tucks, flounces etc. Two or three cambrick muslins in the same style with embroidery upon them, and one pale lilac silk, pattern a very small check, to be worn on very grand occasions......”. (1814)   

from ‘Memoirs of a Highland Lady’ by Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus.

 

So to begin...

It was going to be a bib front dress with a trained skirt but the fabric just wouldn't drape, the skirt was clumsy and gaped, so it was converted into a basic open robe with diamond back, high waist, straight skirt gathered at the back and overlapping front. But I also needed to know how much extra to include for the smocking, so experiment time....

the pieces

The purple sample is an interlocking leaf kind of pattern, made of 3 double rows of diagonal gathers. It seemed quite straightforward. The little squares pattern  is formed by pulling in 4 corners to a centre, this seemed more complex, first impressions are definitely misleading.

Areas to smock - sleeves, centre back, possibly the top of the skirt gathers at the back.  The back  gathers are large and left  a real question about how to deal with the fullness in such a small  area. The cuff edges are held by bias binding and the fullness above is pleated into the top of the sleeve  seam. This worked so well that I got carried away. Must remember that good ideas should be handled with care. The gingham is not really that nice, it looked so flat that a bit of detail on the skirt seemed the way to go. Could the technique be used to create interest and texture rather than gathering? Probably, but not by me! It began with the same pattern as on the sleeve but in miniature down the skirt front edges. This is a simple pattern but all of a sudden I couldn't understand it, which way should the diagonals go? How do they line up with each other? It also gathered up quite alarmingly, but looked great when rolled to make the edge. Phase 2 was the little squares,  2 side by side with a space above and below to make a column. So easy! This has  pulled up the hem but this could be pressed out  to a great extent. 
The dress was done, only the usual problems about buttons, I tried some covered discs but the fabric frayed too much at this scale so emergency beads are in place until I find something.  So of course I made an underdress out of the scraps, as you do.  The things I find to do when there is housework waiting and the lawn to mow..... I had intended a white slip, but the gingham fabric needed using up....

  

The positive - the sleeves. They have a sense of self importance and are more than prepared to stand up for themselves. It was surprisingly easy to work and they went in first time. I would imagine they would not be easy to wear, acting like shoulder pads, rising up to attack whenever the arm is raised too high. The gathering does work well visually, but caution is needed. For some areas a separate panel  might be answer. If I had sectioned the back into 3 it might have sat flat. against the torso. 

Negative - distortion. The front will need to be blocked to flatten it out a bit more. This will happen after the wash it needs and re buttoning. The self covered button idea looked charming  but was impossible, they needed recovering every time they were used. I must find  a decent solution to this as the beads are too small, the dress looks cross-eyed.

 

Would I make this full scale? Yes, but with modifications, and not in yellow gingham!

 

 And then the fun bit - creating a fashion plate-  The pose is from an 1824 Ackermann's Repository ball dress. The lady was eating an ice but  this has changed into sewing.

oh, and of course....
The Hider of Scissors. My own personal sewing demon, mischievous not really evil. 



Regency shawl dress, Gwen shall go to the ball!

I claim no responsibility for this. A query was posted about using saris   to make a regency style ball gowns, they are a good source of fabric, richly decorated  and often excellent value. The responses cited the trend for dresses made out of the imported Kashmiri shawls in the early 1800s, something I'd known about but not really considered.
I just happened to be in a charity shop getting my breath back having cycled into town, it just happened to start raining so was reluctant to leave, there just happened to be a silk scarf of a sort of  Indian design, sort of the right size, so I bought it, and this happened......

Context first -  there are many pictorial and extant examples around, the shawls were huge so offered many options from the drapey Greek style chiton approach to using as a standard dress length of fabric.  The fabrics varied as well, from fine cotton and silks to heavier winter weight wool. The first blue dress was the one that began this little episode, from the Snowshill Wade collection dated 1815 and documented by Nancy Bradbury in "Costume in Detail". The second image is merely to show the volume of fabric and the ornate border of a shawl, the third is an 1810 dress from  Museo del Traje and  the blue print ensemble is  Empress Josephine's ( not entirely sure if this was made from shawl lengths or  fabric printed to look like it, one site is sure, another is not! but it has the same feel of using the imported pattern). They all make use of the borders and trims  especially around the hem and neck. The fashion plates show much the same  story but with more accessories, more ornament, layers of detail and pattern.

 

The original shawls were long rectangles with ornate ends but mine was a 30" silk-ish square with a printed border all the way round. A garment for me? No, remarkably draughty. A garment for the faithful Gwen. To the right the scarf is  folded into the centre and pinned at the shoulder to give a very basic drape. The challenge will be to stop it looking like a dressing gown. I like using the border  in the centre of an open dress but Gwen needs much more help and structure to give her shoulders, somewhere between the profiles of the  green and first red fashion plates.

 The dress is fairly simple, the only cutting was to take off the top border, This reduced the length and gave something to make the sleeves out of!

 

There are 2 rows of gathering to create the bodice, on the high waist line all the way round from border to border and at the centre back along the top edge. The front is joined at a point 3" down and the very top of the front border is pleated back onto itself to give the separation at the bodice.   Each sleeve is half of  the sacrificial top border, sewn into a tube for an inch and opened flat along the top of the dress and  attached. They are gathered at shoulder and cuff trying to give that extra breadth  across the top line. I did reserve some of the yellowy border to do the front trim but it has escaped at the moment, so a length of elderly bias binding is playing understudy for the photos. It gives better definition to the bust but is rather clumsy  tied at the back. If I can't find the renegade trim this is all I have left of the fabric to work with - wish me luck!

 

And the most important question of all - Does this make Gwen look less like Juno, athletic and wholesome, and more of a siren, has she achieved cleavage? 

Certainly like the wider shoulder, even if they had to have stuffing shoved (romantically) up the cover to stop the sleeve slipping off. The back is a bit too much, may be lose some gathering to the sides. For such a straight forward idea this has not ben easy. Getting one side to work was simple, getting the other to match was a pain. The fabric was lovely, to look at, but had no substance. It lost all shape and form unless it was on the model so that was how most of the sewing was done. If I was making this for real the seams would be taped and the bodice mounted onto a lining.  I must take a pattern from this and try with a more meaty fabric, with some adjustment this could become another Gwen wardrobe staple. At least it is her very first grown up ball gown. Not bad for £2.49  ( cheap date).

Some useful sites-  There are loads out there, but will there ever be enough time to read them all?
http://historicalclothinganduniforms.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/not-only-shawlshawl-dresses-and-dresses.html
http://thedreamstress.com/2013/01/the-kashmiri-shawl-and-the-dress-made-of-kashmir-shawls/

http://www.fashion-era.com/regency_fashion.htm
http://www.marquise.de/en/index.html

So - it was going to be a painting week, that is happening, but while the watercolours were drying I got distracted again so had another go. This is glue-and-fabric-dress mkII. Do need a better title for them. This time it is based on the late 1700s high-waisted open robe shown in Nancy Bradbury's Costume in Detail. The extant example, from the V&A, gives an idea of the style of dress, The bodice detail is different but the general shapes are similar.  The Bradbury one is cut low ( very low!) and pinned edge to edge at the centre front, while the skirt has double inverted pleats and gathers to give the fullness at the back but remains open at the front to show the petticoat.

The start point was the same as for the ghostly dress - a papier mache cast of a little body form perched on a stand. I  took a pair of scissors to it and had narrowed the hips out of existence, there is a much cleaner line from shoulder to hem as a result.  Frustratingly the first steps were regluing and then creating a simple petticoat- just a rectangle of muslin gathered just under the bust. The skirt was cut and pleats pinned in using the Bradbury measurements to approximate to the proportions (bodice=1 unit skirt length =5ish). Back to the dunk, drape and dry routine, thank goodness for elastic bands to hold it together as it sets! And yes my high tech set up is an upside down bowl for it to stand on, and a plastic biscuit tin to catch the drips.
This was where I  parted company with dress making procedure. Instead of making bodice and skirt separately and then mounting together, the bodice was built panel by panel up from the waist.  The edges are still being turned under like seam allowances which did lead to problems, but working like this made fitting the sleeve on much easier. I could smear the glue, slide the sleeve head around without destroying too much this time. Should have put the cuffs on before assembling but.....

This was close  to the finish - the sleeves are on - looking a bit like Victorian insect specimens with the pins everywhere. All that is left are the shoulder pieces- they go from just above the bust over the shoulder and complete that distinctive diamond shape to the back. And then re gluing the inside to strengthen it. And adding another muslin petticoat inside the first - it was indecent (and a bit short) . And re gluing the skirt hem and turnings. and not dropping it. and not sitting on it (genuine accident not vengeful malice, yet)
And (last one), of course the belt! I did try the tie at the front (dressing gown), did try with just the organza ribbon ( no clarity, looked slightly dirty against the white), the pink ribbon (too narrow). So we have the double layer of organza and satin.
 Be grateful - having watched the BBC's Rococo programme this week with Clara the Rhino, I did try a tiny elephant as a brooch on the front. The tiny pink bead  is sweet but does make me think of a nose. Ummm. 
The muslin at the neck is temporary, preserving modesty again - these high/low dresses must have been seriously draughty. It looks 'right' and certainly stops the unfortunate Headless Horseman associations. I think I will declare it permanent! Hurrah!

  As you can see the technique is still evolving. Working out unwanted creases and dents would be a useful skill, as would  compressing seams and joins without leaving holes  or clip marks.  I do want to get artier with it as a process - more Wuthering Heights than Jane Austen as a expressive medium..... but she does look quite good striding purposefully across the window sill.

On a different note - so much for organising my working area. She is upstairs in the bay window  making the most of the natural light for photographing her, I'm working in the back room watching Sherlock Holmes wrinkling his brow in deep thought while doing this. At my feet are my painting things ( painted an inch of the nice sofa as a protest against the vile weather) and the experimental hand sewing swag bag and contents are on the squidgy chair opposite. The Front Room is the work space.   I begin to think that where ever I want to be becomes a designated work place.  Well, the house was never meant to be tidy, was it?
Never underestimate the power of blogging! There is blue sky! If stays good over lunch then I might make it out to see round the windmill!

costume/sculpture II

This has been fun. Messy. Hysterical. More messy. But fun.  It is only possible to do a little and then wait for it to dry and stiffen, so even little things take a lot of time,  not making and doing time but standing-back-and-not-fiddling time - the very worst kind.

 The back story-
 Aim - to make a free standing C18th costume, inspired by Boucher and Gainsborough - using calico and PVA glue. This is a trial piece to assess the creative and practical potential of this method of working.

it's more like this from LACMA

It was meant to be elegant  like this, but....

Process so far -Bundled up a mini papier mache  body on a stick to be the armature.
Added a skirt. Dunked it  in glue, dried then redunked and dried again to make rigid.  Then added a stomacher and  the body of a sack backed jacket based on the pet en l'air made before Christmas. This was without sleeves or collar, to be added later. Dunked, draped and dried.

This was all in the last post - just didn't have the heart to update,  adding that the weight and wetness of the jacket caused a skirt crisis and it started to collapse over night.
 After expressing myself quite fluently, the skirt was resoaked and reset and redried.  The jacket was in decent state so only needed a gentle re-wetting and then resetting onto what is left of the now mutant body form and re-rigid skirt.
 For some reason the glue is struggling to hold the jacket closed onto the stomacher, it keeps gaping, I may have to resort to pins or tacks to close it while trying again. This sounds simple  but the fabric is now rising nobly to the challenge of going rigid - the last stay stitch had to be done using pliers to pull the needle through and the cotton thread wasn't as strong as the cloth!

Patience is not a virtue I possess, there are teeth marks on the furniture. The waiting has led to several ideas/ associations. At present the height of the back neck and the general headless quality remind me 'Sleepy Hollow' - could this be Mrs Headless Horseman, or perhaps he was a cross dresser before Tim Burton came along to do the film?


 Sleeve making has now happened, although not quite as originally planned.  The raw sleeve units were made up with flounces and elbow tucks but not then set.  To lessen the weight and the awkwardness of joining rigid to rigid,  just the top section of the sleeve was glued and then attached to the body, pinned (pliers again), and dried. They have moved as they dried but the glue is determined not to let go so it will have to stay. The rest of the sleeve is being painted with glue  and allowed to dry in sections. I'm just about at the flounces now, without major mishaps so far!

The neck edge has yet to be sorted out- the back lowered and then cased. I am thinking of cutting out  as much of the original body as possible leaving the costume to support itself.  I doubt if this will be easy or neat so extra finishing - maybe a lace edging will have to be done.    Another week of happy glueyness!
She(he?) is in the hall drying - I keep sneaking a peek round the door to check but she is being well mannered at the moment. I hope to have it finished by next week, I'm sure I said that last time.....
Also should have an en ferreau polonaise gown done by then -  I'm part way through fitting it - but key question - can  I be said to ferreauing?

Completed C18th costume - Gwen does Poldark?

Ta da te da te Dum! (larger fanfare than usual)

Not only are the pet and caraco complete (old news) but I have now made the skirt and a neckerchief to complete the costume. There is no point in making stays – the only way to reduce or alter Gwen's waist is with wood working tools, no point in shoes, etc – there are no legs or feet, and a cap or bonnet looks incomplete without a head to go underneath it.



front showing the inside of the open pet

The skirt is simple, blocks of fabric pleated at the waist, raised slightly in front to compensate for the bum rolls. The hem is taped rather than folded, extra work but a smart, clean finish. The construction is straightforward – the knife pleats face to the back leaving a small flat section at centre front. A length of tape runs along the waist edge, neatening and holding the pleat edges as well as extending to become ties to fasten the skirt. The knife pleats sit really well, opening over the roll and folding shut when not needed.

 This extra layer does not benefit the mission in search of Gwen's corset waist, but with the pet's skirts flaring outward over the hips it is contriving to give an illusion of narrowness ( you have to get the angle just right and squinting might help).

The neckerchief is again very basic. Janet Arnold shows a triangle, Nancy Bradbury, a square to be folded. For this one I used a triangle of muslin – need practice with the flimsy fabrics, though now I never wish to see it again! To finish the edge I turned a hem and then caught across it in the first row of a crocheted edging to keep it secure. The originals seem to have been made in a wide range of sizes, fabric and colours – coarse and dark for workers, finer and more ornate for the ladies, so it seemed quite safe to improvise a little. Having the longest side of the triangle on the cross grain of the fabric did make life a little exciting – the muslin is quite loosely woven so pulled and rolled out of shape. The crochet edging seems to have stabilised this and inspite of the excessive moaning was not difficult nor take long. It is a single crochet into the scarf, chain 4, and repeat every half centimetre. Row 2 is merely single into the chain loop of the row below, chain 5,and repeat. I did try all sorts of designs of various complexity but this gave a neat edge with minimum fuss.

 

Overall - an enjoyable foray into the 18th Century, frustrating, time consuming, deeply annoying. But enjoyable. There are many errors still to address but I would look forward to tackling them rather than sob into my soup and consider emigration. A full sack back gown perhaps?  It will join the growing list Of Things I want To Make... Seeing the ensemble together is strangely satisfying - something to be learnt there I think - but next task......  is already underway.

 

It is experimental, uses builders' grade and a hair drier - at the same time.

 Should have it done for next week's post, if I manage to recapture the scissors by then.

 

Gwendoline's party frock.

I'd been given some pretty offcuts a while ago so decided it was party frock time. The fabric was quite stiff, frayed happily, and has trailing flowers embroidery which can be awkward in the seams. But that is the up side. The embroidery is not really period at all but did remind me of an example from Worthing using fine embroidered Indian muslin.

Worthing. 1810-20s.

The fabric is in long narrow strips and doesn't have the drape and hang of the muslin, so I went looking for styles from 1815 onward rather than the more pure NeoClassical look of the early 1800s.

 

 I hoped to make a  high waisted dress with a panel of pleated gathers on the bodice front, fastening at the back, with a gored skirt. The neck was to be embellished and the sleeves short and open to reveal an undersleeve in contrast material. The hem would be decorated and possibly stuffed to give the 1820s rounded shape to the skirt. Both of the plates below show  the wider flared skirt, the fitted bodice and lot of decorative detail. The necklines are wide rather than very low, both accent the waist with a ribband.  extant dress is from the Met collection, the padded hem is clear and holds the skirt out from the feet. Perhaps the mockery of the satirists had had its effect - take a look at the 3 Graces in a high wind by Gilray!

Problems – fabric. It has a nice sheen but resents being folded tightly, the bodice front is rigid! Top sewing on the neck did help but it tends to do its own thing given half a chance. The same problem with the sleeves, rolling the edges to create neat mini hems was not happening so I ended up facing them and they stood out rigidly like bat wings instead of falling gracefully . Research to the rescue! 1820s seemed to delight in layers and contrasts of textures and concepts. The tight bodice with the massive exaggeration of the sleeve, the simple dress with great embellishments at neck, arm and hem. The purity of the Neo Classical hadn't lasted long. In the Janet Arnold are several examples of pleating, gathering, slashing or opening to reveal an under layer, Renaissance influenced, and of mixing fabric surfaces, tucks, cording, using lace.   The 1827 Snowshill and Gloucester examples have so many ideas!

 I had already started on crocheting a heavy lace edging for the neck, close to the dress colour but the satin sleeve lining and waistband are toothpaste white. I made a butterfly in the crochet lace to hold the sleeve together over the lining to defeat the bat wing look but was doubtful about  white and cream together, but it does seem to work,

 This left decisions about the hem. Made the decision to try out the Gloucester Museum wedding dress decoration in scrap fabric and to a larger scale. Thank goodness I did! This just eats up fabric. The top piece is on the cross and uses double the width, I don't have any where near enough fabric to do this for the dress! The top and bottom are bound in satin on the original, I just used some left over cotton bias binding- again far more than it looks, all those vandykes are a trial. And the time!

 Looking at the pattern it appears simple but this doesn't work, to get those rounded gathers they have to roll under and then emerge flat to link to the next repeat. I have got close to the original but am not yet happy- do think it looks a bit like a curtain pelmet.  While I would like to try this for real, but not with this embroidered fabric.  It is just not flexible enough for anything like these so the compromise queen swung into action again, I tried the stuffed rouleau hem to see how this does affect the shape and hang, added some extra texture with a larger version of the neck embellishment. The compromise does not look out of place but is a bit plain, perhaps another crocheted row or two would do. The hem maybe over stuffed, the wadding makes the hem stand out stiffly and always wants to make circle. As the skirts got wider it must have been like a bumper car convention. The technique  is simple enough but is unforgiving, the hem has to be absolutely level and hang symmetrically before starting.

 Review-  too safe. Enjoyed the experimenting but as soon as it becomes a garment it goes tame. This began as the same pattern as Gwen's poplin dress, it seems to be a decent base so I could afford to be more adventurous.  Perhaps time spent doing experiments rather than garments could be wise. Extend the range and then try to apply it?
 Next challenge- a printed day dress. The fabric is soft but dark, so pleats, tucks, flounces, contrasts. I've been roaming museum sites, blogs and pinterest, so goodness only knows what is going to happen! Perhaps if |I put the Janet Arnold books under the bed I shall awake infused with that knowledge, experience and know how!