The flat, conical silhouette has been my obsession for about the past year, and I don’t think I’ll
be able to let it go until I’ve satisfied my need to understand precisely how all of
these strange shapes work, and how they form such beautiful three-dimensional objects as 18th century stays,
jackets, and gowns. Though I’ve only half-solved the mystery of sleeves, I do believe I’ve about
got the bodices figured out. So in this video, I will be taking a fresh attempt,
drafting a pattern from scratch to replicate this extant gown from the Met Museum.
This project will be split into two videos. This first video will cover my notes on the original
dress, and the complete patterning process. In the second part, which will be posted next week,
I'll cover the the sewing process, and the materials, including the custom printed fabric I used.
The original gown is a Robe à l’Anglaise, dated between 1785-1795. It is made of cotton chintz,
with a matching petticoat. The fabric was most likely originally white,
and has faded to more of a natural cotton color over time. The museum has graciously posted this
spread view of the skirt fabric, plenty enough to see the entire repeat of the vine-work design,
and high definition enough that it was easy for me to replicate with fair accuracy
The bodice overlaps and probably pins closed at
the front. The website states there is baleen somewhere in it, but I’m uncertain if it is
stabilized in the back, or the underpinned layer of the front. Though if I was guessing,
I would guess the back. This dress has a side-front seam, which
I noticed when I was looking into the prow-front silhouette, which was a slightly more curved,
natural bodice shape that became fashionable later in the 18th century. I believe this seam is used
to taper the bodice in under the bust. There is also a triangular shape pieced onto the center of
the bodice. It may have been added later, when split-front stays began to exaggerate the prow
curve. There is also a second row of stitching across the neckline. I’m not certain what that
was originally for, but it gave me a very exciting idea. I’ve been thinking of ways to slightly raise
the neckline of 18th century dresses, as they were historically quite low, but made decent through
use of voluminous fichus and neckerchiefs, which is a look I don’t personally care for.
In making a dress for modern, daily wear, I’d prefer a neckline that simply cuts to a higher,
more comfortable level. However, cutting an 18th century neckline higher will result in gapping,
and thus, my excitement over the possibility of adding a drawstring channel to ease it in.
There is quite a lot of piecing in this bodice, but I don’t feel the need to replicate that.
The back narrows in mostly at the top, then the seams become nearly vertical. You can tell by the
pattern that there are only two back pieces, and the center seams are formed with a little tuck.
The shoulders are quite distinctly 18th century. The straps come in at an angle.
The neckline is very narrow, and the sleeves come far to the back with a sharp corner. The sleeves
only have one seam, at the underarm. There is a ruffle, faded to the same color as the dress,
so it presumably also used to be white. There are a lot of strange seams at the hem of the sleeves,
and they don’t match up between the two sides, so it’s difficult to tell what’s piecing and what’s the actual
design. But I plan to shorten the sleeves anyways, so that doesn’t really matter to me.
The skirt is two layers, and quite voluminous. I will only be doing one layer,
like a round gown. My fabric is 54” wide, and I would like to make the skirt with two complete panels,
and a bit shorter than would have been worn historically. I’ll also be sewing modern style pockets into the
skirt instead of the side slits, and I’ll probably use a more modern closure method.
So, let’s get into the patterning.
Okay, this is my conical base, which I drafted a la the 18th century patterning video I did.
Um, I am going to be redrafting it today. Because I made this one to a 34 inch bust,
a 27 inch waist, and a 6.25 inch waist length. I am going to be redrafting it because one,
this one does not include the shortened back. And then two, I noticed on my Outlander bodices, that
i ended up shortening the waist by about a quarter of an inch all the way around.
So I think I'm going to be redrafting it today, and I'm also going to do a 30--I think a 34.5 inch bust,
because most of the things I make tend to be a little
bit tight. Also, I'm going to bump the waist down to 26.5, because in addition to having to add
to the bust, I keep having to detract from the waist, which makes sense if you're wearing stays.
And you might have noticed that since moving, my craft room is substantially smaller than it used
to be, but the trade-off was worth it, I promise you. Because look at my classroom. so beautiful. Ah!
You know, I think it's looking pretty good.
Good enough to get started with.
Okay, not bad. Let's see. It's maybe a tiny bit high in the front, but not that much. The underarm
actually feels pretty good. The back is harder to tell, because there aren't any of the, uh, curved
seams pinching any out yet. Honestly, not that bad. Like, okay, I'm going to trim down this a little bit.
I might trim it just a tiny bit away from the armpit in the front.
But... this is, this is kind of something to be going with. Once I get a mock-up cut out, then
I can start pinching in the seams. I can tell that some needs pinched in at the seam right
here, to make the prow-front. And then obviously a bunch needs pinched in at these back pieces.
But you know, I'm not like, I'm not experienced enough to get-- Actually, I could kind of guestimate
it. I mean, might as well, it'll save time. Because, I mean, chances are I'll at least be kind of right. So,
yeah, maybe I'll just guesstimate it, and then I'll cut out my mock-up and see where we're at.
Okay, quick and dirty mock-up done, and I'm actually really impressed with it. Um, the front of it fits
about perfectly. The prow-front seam... perfect. And I was just guesstimating. Now the front is
super gapy, but that's okay because remember I'm going to add the drawstring section. It'll kind of
curl down, like that. Um, okay, the back though is a little bit trickier.
See if I can angle this right. Okay, if you see this wrinkle here? Maybe it's fine. Maybe I just need to
trim this up a little bit more. Maybe that'll pull it out. Um, okay, the armseyes are fine. That feels
good. Okay, the center back. There's a little bit of bubbly. I'm-- am I even pointing it at myself?
I can probably show it better this way. This is kind of poofing up a little bit on my back, which
means that I need to, kind of, angle this curve in a little bit shallower. Um, the angle of this line.
Like, it looks fine, but it doesn't look like the original. It needs to have a little bit more of a
sharper slope. And then this top edge... Uh, I think that it's almost like it needs to be higher, but
shallower? It might need to angle a little bit more this way, and then cut a little bit closer into the
back. Uh, that's really the only area that I'm not exactly sure what I need to do with. I need to
look at the patterns, I guess tomorrow. But I only really worked on this for maybe two hours today,
and it's already, you know, it already fits. So like, I guess it's just practice. Because I'm becoming
more familiar with it, I'm like, okay, you know, I need to have a little bit of it pinched in here.
I need to pinch it in and curve it in up here, you know? It's just, the more you do it, I guess the more
familiar you get with the shapes, and what things are supposed to look like, and the faster things
come together. So that should be encouraging to everyone. Okay, day two working on this project,
and I think that this pattern is really good, but I want to give it one more shot to see if I can
make it look a little bit closer to the original dress. So I think I'm going to trace this out,
and then redraw my seams. I guessed well enough, as far as how much to divide out the
first time, so I'm pretty confident there. Um yeah, it's more just this whole area.
That's the main thing. Although there are little things that I want to tweak throughout.
Okay, here we go. Mock-up number two, and you know what? It's pretty darn good. I actually ironed it,
so it, you know, actually looks good too. Um, the puffiness in the back is gone. I think the back
fits about perfectly. Straps are a little loose, but they're just pinned in place. I can adjust that.
Um, oh, I might even shave a tiny bit more from this edge right here. Make that a little bit more
of a drastic curve down. But the only main problem with this one is that it's slightly too tight in
the bust, which you can see by how much it wants to split when I unzip it. Um, but that's easy. I'm just
going to add kind of a triangular wedge to the front edge. There's a little bit of a gap right
here, which I almost forgot that I, uh, pinched out last time. So I'm just going to take a couple of
little, tiny pie wedges out. I'm actually really impressed with the fit. Like, it's looking pretty
good. I think that the alterations I made to my fan- shape before I started really, really helped it out.
I think I'm just going to make these adjustments to my pattern, based off of this mock-up,
and then I'm just going to get started. I don't think there's any reason to do a third mock-up.
This is what it looks like after I took out those pie wedges. I also curved it in just
slightly right here, at this top edge. I added the wedge here. This will be a closed seam,
because I think I've decided I'm going to put a zipper in the back, and not do a front closure.
I used to hate zippers, but I've decided to give them another chance, because I'm thinking that
with the short-waisted issue fixed, and even more importantly, the short-waisted in the back issue,
that might solve a lot of the complaints I had with zippers. Because I always hate the way they, like,
bunge up and form that, like, hard ridge on your back, especially, like, if you're sitting. So
I've decided to give them another shot. Okay, something else I've decided to do. I almost forgot.
Um, I am going to trace all these pieces before I get started cutting out my actual fabric. I'm
going to trace all these pieces and add a half of an inch seam allowance, because I
am getting a little bit tired of the whole, you know, tracing it and matching it up with pins.
It's just so much faster, and especially since I'm not working with velvet this time, and I
*can* make this, just, quickly on the machine if I want to. That's what I'm going to do.
I just want something simple. I'm kind of burnt out on complicated projects. Yay! Pattern!
Okay, pattern. And this time I actually remembered to transfer all of my waist and bustline
markings when I traced it over to fresh paper, so that will be handy if I ever do need to alter it.
I'm going to use a modern pocket pattern, and then I was all ready to go and start cutting it out,
and I realized that I should do the sleeve pattern. Because I don't have much fabric to work with, and
I need to make sure all of the pieces fit right, before I start cutting things out. Okay, so this is
the sleeve that I made for the blue-laced jacket. This is the sleeve pattern that I made for the
velvet bodice. But with this dress, it has a little bit more historically-accurate shape, in that it
curves a little bit further into the back of the shoulder, which means that the sleeve
will need to have a slightly asymmetrical shape. So I don't really know. I'm gonna have
to just, kind of make it up. I think I have a plan, but it's a very, very loose strategy.
Uh, let's just try it out. Okay, this is how the sleeve is looking. The actual circumference of
it is almost spot-on. It could stand for a little bit more, but like, it almost matches up perfectly.
The big problem though is that the peak of it is right
here, and it should be right here. So I have to figure out how to--
probably just angle it in more. I think that would do it. But then, I need to widen this whole thing
out a little bit, because I want to have... I want it to have some extra ease. So, yeah, let's try that.
Okay, this one fits much, much better, at least as far as I can tell. So I'm just going to stitch it
in, and then try it on, and see if I can actually wear it. Okay, so here it is. It's surprisingly
good, especially in the shoulder and the back. I have plenty of forward and backwards mobility,
however it's a little tight under the arm. So I think that I just need to add some,
splice some in to this portion of the pattern. And that should really be good. I don't think
I need to do another mock-up of this. I'm just gonna go for it. Yeah it just needs
a little bit more there. Okay, I'm getting a little bit frustrated with this. I think this
one fits better, but it's kind of bubbled up I had to pin it back a little bit. I'm trying to figure
out how to widen it without raising it too much. I like the back of it better. I think it's even more
flexible now. It's not terrible and also, I'm wearing something underneath
it, which is kind of impeding movement, so it might be fine. But I don't really know. (whine)
This pattern has a nearly perfect fit. I’m super happy with it. Now, if you felt a bit lost while
watching this, please do know that it is my fourth video on 18th century patterning, and the videos
have begun to build on each other, as I learn and become more familiar with the patterns and
the shapes. So if you want to learn how to pattern 18th Century yourself, the best advice I have
to offer is: raid your Christmas stash, or go buy a roll of cheap wrapping paper at the dollar store if
you don’t have any. You don’t need fancy tools or a custom dress form. Just a few basic rulers
and a pencil. For mockups, I get the best results using cotton canvas. At Joann’s, canvas costs $10
a yard, and one yard should make two or three mockups. Just try it out.
Practice. What do you have to loose? A few bucks and a
Saturday afternoon? The more you experiment, the more you’ll familiarize yourself with the shapes,
and more importantly, with your shape. Now this pattern is fairly historical,
and could be made using entirely historical, original practice methods. Or, if like me,
you’re getting a little burnt-out on hand stitching, it could be made using largely
modern methods, which you will see in the next video. So, subscribe to see the part 2.