My Cotton Print Sacque, or Robe a la Francase

It's about time I got back to the Williamsburg wardrobe postings, isn't it? So here's my cotton print sacque, rather fully tutorialed already! (Yes, tutorialed is a word.) The tutorial is here (part nine of a series), the muff cover is here, and the cloak tutorial is here.



I'm wearing it over a shift, stays, pocket hoops, and two petticoats. My cap is one I started in a class at Costume College taught by Janea Whitacre and Angela Burnley. It's silk organza and silk ribbon. And it's so silly it makes me happy :)



The dress fabric is from William Booth Draper. I was very lucky--I got the last they had in stock (six yards, I think it was?). It was intended for a caraco, but things changed!



It was a windy wet day, and I felt like I belonged in a satirical engraving the way the wind was blowing everything around!



The wind did die down enough for one good shot! My skirt is pulled up through my pocket slits, though it still did get some Authentic Williamsburg Mud on it. You can see that the back panel is plain. Six yards isn't much, even when you're short! It was a perfect dress for the museum, where of course, the textile gallery was closed.

A Sacque--Or Robe a la Francaise--Tutorial, Part Nine--Separate Front Skirts

Since the rest of this tutorial tells how to make a sacque with the skirt and front bodice cut in one, but many sacques--especially later ones--were cut with separate skirts, I thought I'd go ahead and update this tutorial!


I'm mainly basing this off the robe a la francaise in Patterns of Fashion 1.

This tutorial picks up after Part Three, The Back of the last tutorial. No need to repeat myself!

The only difference between the pleats in this dress and the rest of the tutorial is I made them narrower, and to do this, I put a small pleat under the back pleats, as seen in this entry on a cotton sacque at The Sign of the Golden Scissors.


The back is pleated, the side back pieces sewn on, and it's ready for the side skirt to be pleated in the above picture.

The side back pieces are quite simple to sew on. I like to start them about an inch above the lining (wiggle room is always good!), then just sew with a running stitch to the hem.

The side skirt on this sacque is different than the chocolate francaise. While that skirt was straight, the pieces of this skirt are gored. The back of the skirt is straight, and the side piece has one straight edge and one gored edge. The straight edge of this piece is sewn to the back skirt, and the gored side is sewn to front skirt, and left open for the pocket slit at the top. The front of the skirt is essentially a trapezoid, with two parallel gored edges. This makes much more sense with the pattern draft in front of you!


The pocket slit will be on the gored edge of this piece. Hem that first. It's much easier when you pleat it! Just hem about 8 or 9 inches from the top. Then make stacked knife pleat as shown, with the hemmed edge of the pocket slit on the outer edge.


Baste that into place. Later, you'll sew it to the lining, but basting it now makes it much less prone to wiggling out of place later on!


Tuck the pleats underneath the bodice back. Snip the bodice edge above that so that both the pleats and the bodice edge can lie flat.

And yes, these pictures are from opposite sides of the skirt!


Now it's time for the front pieces. I cut these to the same size as my pattern pieces with a little extra seam allowance. Because of my figure, I didn't need to dart this piece, but they usually were darted. It'll be hidden by trim anyway! It's a figure specific thing, so look at a few originals (I do suggest that a lot, don't I?) and do what your figure needs!

I started at the back, and pinned the bodice piece into place, folding the edge under as I went.


Then I continued down the front edge, pinning and smoothing as I went.


Then I continued at the bottom edge, still smooothing...


Then, up the back. Still smoothing, of course! It should extend just past the back pleats. Don't worry about following your lining's seamline. Just make an attractive angle.

And now, sew all that down! I used a spaced backstich and point a rabbatre sous le main. A much easier stitch than it sounds, really :)



And now, the skirt! It's topstitched on based on an example in Fitting and Proper.

Hem a few inches of the front edge opening, or turn it under as if you were going to hem it. Then fold the top edge over, and pin it to the front of the skirt. Now, the front panel is slanted, so you need to make the fold deeper at the opening of the skirt than the side seam. Here's the fun part--play with the pleat until your skirt hangs correctly.


Now you're going to make a stacked pleat to mirror the back pleat. Again, the pocket slit should be hemmed. To do this, I just pinned the first pleat, then continued making pleats over that. Once the pleats are done, pin the rest into place.


The kind of finished skirt pinned on! It just needs the stacked pleat. I initially read the draft incorrectly, and then forgot to take a picture of the correct way! With the extra pleat, it didn't hang right over the pocket hoops. Uh, oops? :)


Then take the dress off the form, line up the skirt side so it's even, and sew the skirt side seam!


And here's the finished dress! Admittedly, much was skipped in this part of the tutorial, but it is all covered elsewhere!

Robings--I left robings off this dress. It looked like some originals were done this way, and my fabric is a quilting weight cotton--I really didn't want to add extra weight. Here's my Pinterest board of cotton sacques

Now, if you want robings, you can make them like the ones on my anglaise, or you can cut the bodice piece extra wide, and then make them like on my chocolate francaise, except, of course, just bodice length. I was going to do that on the yellow sacque I just made, but make a cutting mistake and did it like the anglaise. Oops. both are period, right?

The stomacher--This dress has a compere opening--basically a split stomacher that closes with buttons. To make it, I traced the stomacher I made in this tutorial, and added a little overlap in the middle.

Sleeves--The sleeves on this are sandwiched between the lining and the outer fabric. I initially made them with the sleeve cap on top, but then I decided I wanted the narrower trim many original sacques seem to have. I have two sets of sleeve instructions up. these are the more detailed, and these show sleeves covered by robings on my chocolate francaise.

I believe this covers everything! For some reason, writing this one didn't come easily, well directions are never easy, but even less easy than usual! So please, if you have any questions, ask them! I do want these tutorials to be very, very helpful! I've already edited my anglaise tutorial based on a question, and I found an unclear spot in my francaise tutorial today as well. So please, do ask!

Parisian Pet-en-l'air!

I just realized that I haven't posted pictures of the Parisian pet-en-l'air I wore on Friday of Under the Redcoat!

First, with the knitted pinball, of course :)





I'd like to get a few more detail shots eventually. The cuffs have a round of pleated trim and then are shaped at the bottom with a covered button and a cord.

And a few before trim pictures.





I used this pet-en-l'air from the Manchester Galleries as my inspiration. The fabric was bought in Paris in 2004. It's made over a fitted lining, using essentially the same techniques as the chocolate francaise. This doesn't have robings though, so I lined up the front edge to the lining and hemmed it.

I'm wearing it over a shift, 1770s stays, stockings, two linen under petticoats and my Burnley and Trowbridge shoes with William Booth Draper buckles. I had left my handkerchief at home, but fortunately had a length of silk gauze (that I wore in my hair with the Marie Antionette dress), which actually stayed better than the triangle pieces.

I did take pictures of making my black silk hat, though I claim no knowledge of how they made bonnets like this in the 18th century. The techniques I used are from 19th century bonnet patterns I've used. There will be a tutorial eventually :)

I didn't have the trim go all around the skirt--it's a slightly heavy cotton and I was worried it would disrupt the line of the pleats. The stomacher pins shut and the bows tie over it. This is different than the pet-en-l'air I copied; however, I wanted the bows to be more decorative and not have any gapping because the bows were sewn underneath. This happened with my Jacobean jacket, and I liked the effect there, but I didn't like the idea of it for this dress.

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.