My Finished Dress!

I finished the striped linen round gown for Under the Redcoat on Friday night. Here are the results!





Yes, it needs to be ironed. However, that's unlikely to happen until Under the Redcoat, so I thought I may as well share now. I think that this is going to be a very fun dress to wear!

There's nothing horribly interesting about the construction. It's linen lined with linen. I made the lining first and then mounted the outer fabric on it and sewed everything into place with spaced backstiches. The sleeves are made the same way as my chocolate francaise, and set essentially the same way, only the shoulder strap covers the top instead of the robing. The skirt was pleated and then set right side to wrong side and sewn in with whipstitches, leaving the top edge raw.

The front panel has ties that wrap around the waist and tie in front, then the bodice is put on and the back skirt overlaps the front.

And as usual, it pins down the front. I love pinning as closures!

My last linen lined with linen dress stretched about four inches, and until now, I really haven't wanted to make another linen lined with linen dress. However, these are very nice linens from Burnley and Trowbridge (the lining is the perfectly lovely--and perfectly firm--cambric linen they had a few years ago), and my last dress wasn't very nice linen, so I think this dress will be fine!

What I've been up to!

My lack of posting here hasn't meant I haven't been doing anything! While I still haven't sorted out the promised spotty dress posts, I thought I should share a little of what's going on, and that's basically Under the Redcoat preparations!

First, something mentioned here before--the strawberry pinball. It's half knitted (I don't want to say half done because stuffing it is a little work!)



And almost done--it just needs sleeves and the fabric is due to be delivered today, yes I under ordered--is a striped linen dress. I actually volunteered to help a friend cook (as far away from the fire as possible!) at UTR this year. You see, she moved several states away and it's rather annoying. When we lived in the same city, it was no big thing to not see her at UTR, but this year, to actually spend time with her, I said I'd help. Ahh, the things we do for friends! Anyway, I'm hoping it falls into the category of super cute, and I'm proud of myself for not doing anything neat with the stripes. I did put the front panel at a very slight angle, but other than that, the stripes landed where they landed!

This will have no trim, though I am halfway looking for a cuff that would be appropriate. I just like the idea of cuffs on this.



And next we have the completed except for trim pet-en-l'air. It's made of a cotton print I bought in Paris, which just makes me happy. It doesn't have robings and looks rather naked without them! I'm looking forward to applying the trim to make it look more normal. It'll pin shut and then tie with a mass of black ribbons. It should be so fun to wear! I'm basing it of this jacket in the Manchester Galleries.





And lastly, a linen riding habit. I found a description of a natural linen riding habit trimmed with green silk on the 18th century woman mailing list and went with the idea. Mine will be trimmed with blue silk. So far I only have a few buttons made. I'm really enjoying them, fortunately, as I need tons! Forty-four, it seems!

The Chocolate Francaise!

After all the tutorials, I should probably share the finished dress, no? :)

Draping--Sort Of--A Sacque, Part Eight. The Back Binding.

Draping a robe a la francaise, or sacque. An eight part series! Click the tag or go to the tutorial page for links to all parts.

The pleats at back need to be covered. It's a little fiddly, but not really too hard!



Cut a rectangle of fabric slightly longer than your back and slightly more than double the length from the top to the bottom edge of the shoulder straps.



Fold the bottom edge under and pin to the back.



Fold the edge of the rectangle so it lines up with the shoulder strap.





Mark the top edge with a pin, then very carefully cut a slit from the edge of the rectangle to the edge of the strap.



Fold the excess under on the back half of the binding.



Repeat on the other side.

Then fold this around to the other side. Sew into place. Use a spaced backstitch on the right side, and just whip it down on the wrong side.

Draping--Sort Of--A Sacque, Part Seven. The Sleeves.

Draping a robe a la francaise, or sacque. An eight part series! Click the tag or go to the tutorial page for links to all parts.



To make the sleeves, I used a method I first saw Isis Wardrobe use on Live Journal probably a few years ago. I unfortunately don't have a link.

To do it, you put the right sides together on the silk, and right sides together on the linen and sew through all the layers. For the bottom inch or so, sew just the silk so that you can turn the edges under.

When you turn the sleeve right side out, it's lined! Truly like magic :)



The sleeves with the side seams sewn.





Fold back the robing and set the bottom of the sleeve as you normally would. Line up the back corner of the sleeve with the seam allowance of the back strap and sew around to about the corresponding part in front.





Ease the top of the sleeve over the shoulder. Pleat the back to fit.





Fold the robing over to make sure it covers the sleeve cap. Try it on at this point.



Fold the seam allowance of the lining under and pin. You'll whipstitch this to the sleeve.

After this, sew the top of the sleeve down. I used a spaced backstitch. You'll further secure it when you sew the robing over it.

Draping--Sort Of--A Sacque, Part Six. The Stomacher

Draping a robe a la francaise, or sacque. An eight part series! Click the tag or go to the tutorial page for links to all parts.

Stomachers are extremely easy to do. I had initially planned on doing this in muslin, but decided on using my dress fabric once I realized to get to the muslin, I'd have to go past the litter box. Since I was already taking out everything with my yet to be hemmed dress, I thought that might not be the best thing to do!



I started with a rectangle of fabric just a little longer than I wanted and wider than I needed



I then pinned the top edge down and pinned it into my dress.



Pin the bottom edge up into a pleasing shape.



A little hard to see, but place pins at the edges of the dress. These mark the edges of the stomacher before seam allowances and room for overlap.



Here's the stomacher once it's unpinned from the dress.

To cut the stomacher out, add a seam allowance of about an inch or so on the sides, and half inch on the top and bottom. The actual shape of the stomacher that shows is marked by pins.





I folded it in half to make sure it was even.



Cut a corresponding piece of linen.





Fold the seam allowances under and edge stitch together. Then decorate. That's it! You can do a boned lining too--it just depends on the style you're after.

Draping--Sort Of--A Sacque, Part Five

Draping a robe a la francaise, or sacque. An eight part series! Click the tag or go to the tutorial page for links to all parts.

And now with the craziness that is Costume Con behind me, here's the next part of the sacque tutorial! Namely, the front.

Now, there are many ways to do the front. This is the style dress that's one piece of fabric from shoulder to hem.

A word of advice--if you do this style, make it longer than you think it needs to be. I cut it too short so ended up cutting it again, and well, too short again. I ended up piecing the front hem. I love my fabric though--it hides it so well!

For the front armscye, I just cut it to my pattern. However, I'd recommend adding a little to the edge of it if your lining dart is more than the cosmetic dart I have. It's easy enough to trim later!

I'm using the 1740-1750 sacque (diagram XV) in The Cut of Women's Clothes as my guide. Doing this is really pretty much playing around with the fabric until it works.



First, I put in a dart from about bust to waist level. This releases into the skirt and helps it sit smoothly over the hoop. My striped pet-en-l'air didn't have this and I needed to take a waist dart. My pink pet-en-l'air has a similar dart and didn't need a waist dart.



And next, a rather big jump! Fold the fabric that becomes the robing over. You're essentially making a box pleat.



Here's what the back looks like. Trim the lowest level of the robing to decrease bulk. You're going to turn the top layer under to cover any raw edges.



The turned under edge pinned in place.



A close up of the front. The raw edge is turned under. If you're lucky enough to have fabric with a clean selvage, you can leave it as is. If not, the skirt portion will get a narrow hem. You don't need to hem the bodice portion though, as when you tack the robing down, you can catch the raw edge to the lining.



Another shot of the robing--the bottom pin is placed approximately where the stitching will go.



Repeat, and you have most of a sacque!

The Spotty Dresses!

And here we have one of my latest projects--a reproduction of a dress worn by Alexandra, Princess of Wales, and her sister, the Grand Duchess Maria of Russia. My friend Aubry and I made these together for the Costume Con 29 Historic Masquerade. We ended up winning Best in Show Presentation, Best in Class Documentation, and Judges' Choice for Excellence in Design Concept (workmanship). I'll eventually go into this dress in great detail, but for now, our finished dresses!











Why yes, I do want to share an awards picture!

And to see what all this is about, the originals: