#regency doll clothes

[spookysnooty]

Sometimes I think back to the Regency photoshoot I did in November like two years ago and I just 😭😭 there's more photos from this set, maybe I should post those too 👀

#;petit abeille #bjd #ball jointed doll #bjd fashion #bjdoll #bjdphotography #bjdclothes #bjd collector #bjd clothes #bjd autumn #historical bjd #regency bjd

[futuristicsaladparadise]

Some pattern shops that aren’t owned by the Disney villain of doll sewing, and I’ve actually bought from them. 

Good for beginners:

Appletotes, especially their basics like t-shirts and dresses. They also offer patterns for shoes and handbags as well as coats. Patterns include modern and 1970s styles.

Stella Sue for Dolls, modern girly dresses and outfits with some sleepwear

Easy to Intermediate:

Sofie Clareese Doll Fashion, mostly modern, with a couple of 1960s through 1980s patterns. Includes hats, outerwear, and Bitty Baby clothes

Noodle Clothing, primarily winter wear, a few summer dresses

Kotton Candy Patterns, dresses, one coat. It’s a fairly new shop

Farmcookies, mostly very girly/dressy dresses, they have a couple of Maryellen’s dress patterns (meet and unreleased school dress)

Dolls at Heart Patterns, mostly historical from Regency, WWII and 1970s periods, with some other eras including modern

My Angie Girl, girly dresses, pajamas, Halloween costumes

Read Creations, a wide variety of things from Viking dresses and Star Wars themed clothes to a KitchenAid mixer and English saddle. Tudor clothing, medieval knight armor, a life jacket, butter churn and more. She has some other free patterns on her blog. 

Val Spier Sews, modern and early 20th century clothing

Bunny Bear Patterns, mostly 1930s and 1940s dresses

Lee and Pearl, ballet and skating outfits, career clothes. They have my favorite apron and medieval dress patterns.

Doll Tag Clothing, another shop with a wide variety of outfits, from medieval poulaines to animal costumes, cultural and career clothing

The Quirky Rabbit, Regency and Edwardian unmentionables

Confident Intermediate:

Carpatina, clothes from medieval period to present day, includes clothing from cultures other than European/American

Anne Van Doren Designs, historical clothing from Regency, Edwardian and WWII periods, including undies, shoes and bonnets. They have a glove pattern with defined fingers, for those who hate the mitten look.

Pemberley Threads, detailed historical clothes from the 1780s through 1840s, includes Regency boy’s clothing

Mother of Nine, Revolution, Regency and Belle Epoque dresses, character dresses from Sleeping Beauty, the Wizard of Oz and Frozen (shop is offline until January)

#sewing #doll clothes #shopping list

[doll-princesse]

More about my doll show haul for Feb ‘24:

Angel, my Samantha look-a-like, likes to collect her clothes. They’re agender, have shorter hair and non pinwheel eyes, but they rock her looks anyway. I got the PC cranberry dress last year, and the arrival dress and beforever cranberry dress this time around.

I also got Luciana’s NASA flight suit, but homegirl is too busy slaying in her sparkly dress, Claudie’s fur coat and beads, and Addy’s boots to change rn. Maybe later lol. I got the dress from @dolls-and-cats last year!

Claudie changed into Maryellen’s pink dress to sing that one Demi Lovato song about wearing converse, and here is Addy in all her loveliness in her new blue ensemble. I may well try and re-create this look (minus a few of the more fiddly furbelows) for my shop, as well as produce a more simplistic version.

Miss Lizzie got to wear a Mimi Original for the first time! She is borrowing Josefina’s Regency era autumnal plaid gown. She came in the undergarments on the right, but we had a hard time getting the chemise off. No idea how that was constructed and put on in the first place…

Y’all, why did I think Felicity had red hair? Her hair is brown. Completely brown. Not even reddish brown. It’s just straight brown.

I have been less active here this past year because I was finishing up my degree, studying for and taking my boards, and working an unhealthy amount at my last position. I found a new place now, and I am trying to improve my work life balance, so I will hopefully be engaging more with my hobbies in the coming months. I’m even going to try making a (non OC) cosplay for the first time since 2019! [hmu for details if you like witch hat atelier/ tongari boushi no atellier!!]

#ag dolls #my dolls #ningyou posting #addy #Claudie #luciana #Felicity #angel

[omgthatdress]

I’ve seen a lot of people ragging it, but I actually love that work dresses were included in the AG dolls collections. It shows not only what the girls would be wearing when they’re not being fine young ladies, and it also shows what the working class of the era wore. Colorful printed cotton hid dirt and stains while easy-to-wash fichus, aprons, and caps protected the clothing and hair.

Also I just love the pantalets that they gave her! While girls and women of the 18th century wore nothing underneath their shifts and petticoats, girls of the regency era wore pantalets to protect their modesty while they worked and played. Eventually, women began wearing pantalets, as well, and they eventually turned into bloomers, and then into panties.

#1810s #American Girl #Caroline

[darkmasterlistyouneveraskedfor]

Masterlist Update October 23/22

Series

Little Lies (Loki, MCU)

Campus AU (Multifandom)

Zero Day (Lloyd Hansen, The Grey Man)

Hopelessly Devoted (Andy Barber, Defending Jacob)

Crown of Thorns (Bucky Barnes, MCU, Medieval AU)

A marriage of inconvenience (Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, DC, Regency AU)

Safe House (Sierra Six, Lloyd Hansen, The Grey Man)

Of Particular Tastes (Raymond Smith, The Gentlemen)

Paper Doll (skinny!Steve Rogers, MCU)

Made for Him (Peter Parker, MCU, Frankenstein AU)

Cabin Fever (Bucky Barnes, MCU)

One Shots

Black is the Cloth (demon!priest!Bucky Barnes, MCU)

Appetite for Destruction (Bucky Barnes, MCU)

A Birthday to Remember (Steve Rogers, MCU)

Royal Treatment (Frank Castle, The Punisher, MCU)

Idle Hands (Loki, MCU)

Merciless (Steve Rogers, MCU, Medieval AU)

Tempestuous (Jaime Lannister, Game of Thrones)

#steve rogers #bucky barnes #andy barber #frank castle #peter parker #masterlist update #raymond smith #bruce wayne #clark kent #lloyd hansen #sierra six #loki #au #series #one shot #masterlist

[marzipanandminutiae]

I have a question re: the ambrotype portrait of the two children and a cat (1855-60s). If I am not mistaken, the girl's hairstyle looks like a bobbed cut. Was that a common (or at least not unusual) hairstyle for young girls in that era? Thanks.

Very common! You see lots of young girls with short hair in images from about the late 18th-early 19th century onwards:

Portrait of a young girl attributed to John Russell. The website I found says c. 1780, but I'd guess more like 1790s-1810s. Note that similar hairstyles were also popular with adult women at the time, briefly.

Portrait of a young girl and a boy, both unknown, by Royall Brewster Smith. c. 1830.

and you see that specific chin-length bob tucked behind the ears a lot in the 1860s particularly:

Tintype of a young girl, 1860s.

Little girl, apparently taken in Paris. 1860s.

Not much info about this one, but it looks 1860s too.

it even appears on molded-hair dolls of the time:

papier-mache doll, 1860s. once had some bright spark tell me these were actually 1930s boudoir dolls- when I pointed out that they had 1860s children's hairstyles, he said, "well, those are also 1930s ladies' hairstyles!" this man was a PROFESSIONAL DOLL APPRAISER, and these "pumpkinhead"-type 1860s dolls are recognizable on sight to most collectors. and they look nothing like boudoir dolls, which are usually composition when they aren't entirely cloth. not papier-mache. what an ass.

obviously, some little girls had long hair in all of these eras. but short hair was much more commonplace for them than it was for adult women (excepting the Regency-era painting at the top)

#ask #anon #long post #history #children's history #victorian #regency #children's fashion #hair history #beauty history

[xelasrecords]

Xela headcanons!

You're the level-headed friend, the one people come to for objective advice

You own a lot of statement outfits in your wardrobe, and are a collecter of unique pieces

Movie lover!

You appreciate a certian level of luxury in life and don't feel out of your depth in more fancy spaces

You're an introspective person and spend a lot of time thinking about the deeper meanings of interactions between people

Hopefully I got a couple of these right!

Faye you got everything right wow! I can't say for sure for the first one but it does appear so.

I am obsessed with curating clothes that boost my confidence! My wardrobe is a mix of styles across eras and vibes. Sometimes I'd be lowkey with a simple tee and shorts when I'm lazy, but I also have a couple of vintage-looking floor-length dresses with a square neckline, a regency inspired dress with the classic empire waist and bubbly sleeves, an even bubblier sleeve dress but this time it's modern, a preppy pastel lace dress that make me feel like a doll whenever I wear it, retro pieces a la Sex Education, and patterns everywhere (flowers, teddy bears, rabbits, fun houses in the vein of Alice in Wonderland). The colours are also all over the place—I've gone past the dilemma of "If I buy this would I have anything to match it with?" The answer is always yes.

You saw my letterboxd link on my bio didn't you? I love writing my jumbled thoughts right after watching a film there.

And I think so! I still love eating cheap food and am wired to find effective ways to save money, but I don't mind the occasional indulgence especially if I'm not the one paying :) I'm a city girl through and through who hates bugs and soil and nature and whatever, so that preference must have come along naturally.

I literally just met up with an old friend and right after that, I spent the whole day thinking about how I've outgrown yet another friendship but this time I'm apathetic because we've grown so far apart anyway and how I can have such different social circles who are unlikely to go along well if they ever meet and how I can fit in all of them easily on the surface level but I've lost the sense of belonging I used to have with them.

#thank you for giving me the chance to babble on #xela answers #ask game

[indarlingarmor]

Boundoween day 6: Bridgerton x Princesses

So I don’t watch Bridgerton and I also have no Regency doll clothes. But if any of my dolls are Bridgerton fans, it’s definitely Mona, Jane Austen superfan.

So here’s Mona as Regency-adjacent Belle, ready to take a turn about the room.

(Necklace from the ily Belle doll, everything else from the new fp.)

#disney ily 4ever #legends of tomorrow #mona wu

[spookysnooty]

Autumn in Oklahoma was a whole vibe, but the aesthetics were not worth the 12 years I lived there 🤣

#;petit abeille #bjd #ball jointed doll #bjd fashion #bjdoll #bjdphotography #bjdclothes #bjd collector #bjd clothes #historical bjd #bjd autumn #regency bjd #bjd regency

[bmwiid]

These took longer to make than my actual jeans I am currently wearing - and they made my new machine go into 'safety mode' twice.

Starting to understand that smaller isn't FASTER, and most of the time it just means more fiddly and easier to fuck up.

I made this pattern myself though - it's the same as MY jeans except I made the pockets a little easier and the fly isn't a zipper cause... doll? they pull up nicely so I didn't really need an open/close option.

The little coin pockets actually do work but I don't have doll size things to put in them. I made her a dress yesterday -

Based on a regency pattern but just using some scraps I had laying around.

I think I prefer her in more modern clothes. I also need to figure out what to do with her hair because it's driving me insane.

#sewing #home sewing #sew #sewist #american dolls #american girl #doll clothes #dolls #home made

[zoominag]

1770-1799

This is part of a series in which I am posting clips of my larger project by decade as I finish them. For more about this project, or to ask me to include your doll or OC, check out my pinned post.

Previous posts:

17th century

1700-1739

1740-1769

Following posts:

1800-1849

The OCs in this post that are mine are Mazal and Agnes, Charlotte and Jane, and Rachel and Abigail (they're in pairs because I did the Best Friends series based on @americangirlstar's suggestions, and in the process created a Best Friend for each of my own characters). Héloise belongs to @autistickirstenlarson.

1770s

Mazal Cardozo: 96-99 Agnes Jonker: 96-99 Charlotte Finch: 55-64 Jane Finch: 53-62 Héloise Cormier: 16-25 Kaya'aton'my: 15-24 Speaking Rain: 15-24 Felicity Merriman: 5-14 Elizabeth Cole: 5-14

I talked in another post about the decision to give Elizabeth Felicity's Beforever meet dress and move her meet dress to go with other party clothes, but the long and short of it is that, like the other Best Friend dolls, Elizabeth's collection is smaller than the number of outfits in the pattern I've been following, so I gave her several of the dresses that I hadn't used for Felicity. I also used photos of costume hobbyists and employees at Colonial Williamsburg to fill out her collection.

1780s

Charlotte Finch: 65-74 Jane Finch: 63-72 Héloise Cormier: 26-35 Kaya'aton'my: 25-34 Speaking Rain: 25-34 Felicity Merriman: 15-24 Elizabeth Cole: 15-24 Rachel Gabay: 0-9 Abigail Schorr: 0-9

There's a significant shift in the silhouette during this decade. Skirts are getting narrower, hairstyles and hats are getting larger, and casual styles like the round gown are starting to come into vogue. Rachel, my OC representing the Jewish community of Rhode Island, and her best friend Abigail, are most often dressed in simple, high-waisted gowns with colorful sashes. Their formal dresses are white with pink or blue sashes, a common style for girls of all ages and for very small boys--both colors were popular for either gender.

When we talk about a company like AG trying to correct for its lack of representation for any marginalized American population, it can be understandable and simultaneously frustrating for the one example to focus on a major turning point in that population's history. Addy and Rebecca are similar in that way: on the one hand, if there's only going to be one period in history to represent this population, the end of the Civil War and the Jewish immigration boom from Russia in the early 20th century are obvious choices, but does there have to only be one? Cecile and Melody--and Claudie, one hopes--show otherwise. So if there were going to be a second Jewish historical, Rhode Island in 1790 is my first pick. George Washington's letter to the Jewish community of Newport still resonates with American Jewish communities today. His promise of a government that gives "to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance" is a dream that has never been fully realized, but has never been forgotten.

1790s

Charlotte Finch: 75-84 Jane Finch: 73-82 Héloise Cormier: 36-45 Kaya'aton'my: 35-44 Speaking Rain: 35-44 Felicity Merriman: 25-34 Elizabeth Cole: 25-34 Rachel Gabay: 10-19 Abigail Schorr: 10-19 Lydia Livingston: 0

The period of English political history known as the Regency and the period of fashion history named after it don't perfectly align: although the political period had not yet begun, when we look at the high waists and narrow silhouettes that begin during this period we usually describe them as being Regency fashion.

Part of the problem with doing a project based on dates is that I have severe dyscalculia. Although I drew the canon American Girl dolls and Best Friends more than a year ago, it took me until this week to realize I had Lydia and Caroline one year older than canon. For the time being, I'm going to proceed as I had them, but I'm planning a redraw of the first series I did, and when I do that I'll move them and anyone else I didn't get quite right to the right birth year.

#American Girl #Zoominag #Susanna Hanchett #Héloise Cormier #Zoominag OCs by AGblr #Mazal Cardozo #Agnes Jonker #Charlotte Finch #Jane Finch #Zoominag OCs #Kaya'aton'my #Speaking Rain #Felicity Merriman #Elizabeth Cole #Lydia Livingston #Zoominag by decade

[lizard-dumbass]

Oh no

So y'know how i've talked about wanting to make an art doll with a full ensemble of 1890s clothing? Well i just had an idea

What if i made her an 18th century gf

And then made them a regency gf

And then made them a medieval gf

And them made them an edwardian gf

And then m

#massive lesbian polycule of so many different time periods #i am so hype about this idea even tho realistically i know it'll take ages to make all these dolls but dammit it will be worth it #lizard-dumbass talks about stuff #text post #art doll #sewing

[papapiusxiii]

Historical doll clothes sewn by Laura of LoveFromLola:

Purple Tudor dress (Tudor Gown pattern by Read Creations)

Tudor dress

Blue dress

Late 1700s dress (Outlandish: Highland Lass by Kindred Thread)

Late 1700s dress (Outlandish: Highland Lass by Kindred Thread)

1700s dress (Marie Antionette by Thimbles and Acorns)

1750s dress (Martha Washington and Fancy Shift patterns by Thimbles and Acorns)

1750s yellow dress (Martha Washington and Fancy Shift patterns by Thimbles and Acorns)

1770s dress (Sacque Back gown by Thimbles and Acorns)

1770s pink dress (Felicity Christmas Gown by Pleasant Company)

1770s copper dress (Felicity Christmas Gown by Pleasant Company

1770s mauve dress (En Forreau by Thimbles and Acorns)

1770s mauve dress (En Forreau by Thimbles and Acorns)

1770s gray dress (En Forreau by Thimbles and Acorns)

1770s white floral dress (En Forreau by Thimbles and Acorns)

1770s purple dress (En Forreau by Thimbles and Acorns)

1790s dress (1790 Open Pelisse and Regency Dress patterns by Thimble and Acorns)

Early 1800s tan outfit (pattern by Keepers Dolly Duds)

Early 1800s red outfit (pattern by Keepers Dolly Duds)

1800s Welsh outfit

1800s yellow dress

1830s dress (Beret Sleeve Dress by Thimbles and Acorns)

1830s dress (patterns by Pemberly Threads)

1860s dress inspired by Little Women

1860s dress (Walking Suit by Carpentina Dolls)

1870s bustle dress (pattern by Thimbles and Acorns)

Yellow prairie girl dress

1870s green dress (Country Girl by Thimbles and Acorns)

1900s blue outfit (pattern by Ann Van Doren Designs)

Cape and bonnet

#dolls #**

[whennnow]

2022 Project Goals

January 5, 2022

My list for 2021 basically contained every project I could think of. It was incredibly aspirational, but not very realistic. So this year I'm trying a different approach - short and sweet. I'm looking at my list for 2021, what I did and didn't accomplish, and what my priorities are for 2022.

My main goal for this year is expanding my Regency wardrobe and continuing to build the foundations for my 1890s dreams. So let's get into it!

Regency

A chemisette - I finished a ruffly chemisette just before the new year, but I'd like a habit-style chemisette as well.

An open robe - I have the American Duchess/Simplicity 8941 pattern and 6yds of 'silk' in my stash. I'd really love to make the sleeves removable for added versatility!

Etc. - Other small projects include vests/bodices, reticules, or a turban, all of which would be stash projects. (At the time of writing this, I've already finished two reticules!)

1890s

Combinations - Ok, I actually want early Edwardian combinations because I think they're prettier and it's underwear so I don't care that it's "inaccurate". I've just bought the Truly Victorian's E02 Edwardian Underwear pattern. I inherited an unknown length of white cotton that might work well (though I don't know how much I have), and I already have some lace and ribbon set aside.

Etc. - If I get the combinations done, next on the list would be bum/hip pads, a bust improver, and a corset cover. These could probably be made from what's left of the mystery white fabric I intend to use for the combinations.

Misc.

More doll clothes for Adelaide, my cloth doll - I already have a bundle of scrap fabric set aside for her and some cute ideas, so we'll see what happens!

A casual spring/summer dress for my modern wardrobe - the half dozen dresses I have in my modern wardrobe are either cold-weather dresses or slightly too formal for most occasions. I'm considering view C or D of Simplicity 8914 or a stripey late-1910s/early-1920s-inspired dress. Either way, I would have to buy fabric for this project.

See? A very restrained and much more realistic set of goals.

There are really only three "big" projects on here (the open robe, combinations, and summer dress), and those would all start from a pattern. This list is also mostly stash projects, so we'll see if I can get through 2022 without buying much fabric! And hey, I've already got two small projects under my belt.

Whatever your plans are for the new year, I wish you the best!

Stay warm. Stay safe. Stay healthy.

#wnn yearly

[mysageukinbio]

500 Year-History of the Lee Dynasty's Women (TBC, 1972~1980)

Plot of Season 1: Missing My Mother

recycled from my forum posts here: https://deiner.proboards.com/thread/10621/tbc-year-history-dynastys-women

tl/dr; Another Yeonsan revenge drama

In King Seongjong's 5th year, Queen Gonghye leaves this world. The King was 18 at the time. He had no children, but was overflowing with passion. At this time, Seongjong's beloved concubine Yun Suk Ui bears a son. The child would later become Prince Yeonsan. The Palace overflows with joy at seeing the First Prince, and even the Dowagers Insu, Jeonghee and Ansun are happy. But concubines Eom So Yong and Jeong Gwi In envy Yun Suk Ui, and send an anonymous appeal to end Queen Jeonghee's regency and hand over power to Seongjong. Everyone in the Palace suspects it was Yun Suk Ui's doing, and Eom and Jeong use this to slander Yun Suk Ui, monopolize Queen Insu's affection and conspire to harm the First Prince.

But Yun Suk Ui becomes Queen in July of that year. Eom So Yong and Jeong Gwi In find Lee Pansu, a shaman, and have him plot evil schemes to hurt the First Prince. Because of this, the Prince falls ill with an unknown disease. Queen Yun sends her mother Lady Shin and her servant Samwol to find Lee Pansu, but he predicts their search and confesses the truth. Per his confession, Queen Yun digs beneath the kitchen furnaces and finds a multicolored cloth voodoo doll with a rusty kitchen knife. Queen Yun decides to poison Eom and Jeong, and sends an anonymous appeal to King Deokjong's concubine Kwon Suk Ui about the plot, but Kwon Suk Ui sends it to Queen Insu instead. Queen Insu scolds Seongjong and calls Queen Yun wicked. Upon hearing this, Seongjong finds a pouch of bisang poison in Queen Yun's room, hangs Samwol and bans Lady Shin from entering the Palace.

Framed for the whole matter, Queen Yun spends three years in confinement. After those years of loneliness, Seongjong arrives at Queen Yun's chambers. But despite missing the King, Queen Yun's feelings explode and they fight. Queen Yun leaves a scar on Seongjong's face, and Eom So Yong and Jeong Gwi In report this to Queen Insu, who petitions Seongjong to depose Queen Yun. Queen Yun is deposed and unable to see the First Prince on the day she leaves the Palace, she asks a certain Lady An to leave her last request to the him before she leaves. Eom So Yong and Jeong Gwi In hide in secret, knowing smiles on their faces.

One day, Seongjong pities the First Prince, now the Crown Prince, and sends a eunuch to report on Deposed Queen Yun's situation. Eom So Yong and Jeong Gwi In hear about it and report to Queen Insu. Queen Insu summons the eunuch and orders him to say "Deposed Queen Yun has on makeup and is scheming against the King with a murderous expression." The eunuch goes to Queen Yun's house and finds a totally different sight from what Queen Insu told him, bringing him to tears. But fearful of Queen Insu's orders, he lies in his report. Finding himself out of options, Seongjong sends sayak poison to Deposed Queen Yun and tells her to kill herself. As she vomits blood on her jacket and dies, she says, "when the First Prince becomes King, give this jacket to him.

As time flows, Seongjong dies in December of 1494 and 19 year old Prince Yeonsan becomes the Joseon Dynasty's 10th ruler. One day, Im Sa Hong invites him to his house, where Grand Prince Je An brings Jang Nok Su. On his way back, he meets his maternal grandmother Lady Shin, who gives him the bloodstained jacket and reveals the resentful truth behind it. Upon hearing this, Yeonsan murders Eom So Yong and Jeong Gwi In. In his rage, he wails at Lady Yun's weed-covered grave and tries to give her a title at the Royal Shrine, but Queen Insu and the officials under her oppose, worsening his tyranny. In 1498, the Muo Massacre begins and countless officials are killed. He continues to kill officials involved in Queen Yun's deposal during Seongjong's reign. Yeonsan's bone-wrenching resentment for Deposed Queen Yun frosts over and he holds endless feasts in the Palace, squandering the state coffers everyday. Yeonsan falls into wine and women, neglecting State duties while his ministers begin to fight in factions. The people's cries pierce the Heavens. An anonymous appeal comes in listing his successive wrongdoings, leading him to burn all vernacular (Hangeul) books, massacring loyal officials in the Gapja (1504) Massacre. Amdist all this, Queen Insu, in her sickbed, criticizes Yeonsan, who butts her in the chest with his head. She passes away soon after.

Some time later, Park Won Jong, Chu Yun Mu and others revolt, oust Yeonsan and put Grand Prince Jinseong on the throne, making him the new King Jungjong. Yeonsan is exiled and confined in Kanghwa Island, dying at the age of 34 in December of the Byeongin Year (1506).

#500 year history of the lee dynasty's women #1972 #samogok #missing my mother #song of a mother's thoughts #sageuk

[muffinsandpages]

Making a Robe à la française

Because I want to :)

Part I

We all have those dream projects we keep coming back to every now and then. Mine usually change every few months and so get discarded, but reconstructing an historical gown is something that has been living in the back of my mind for years, maybe even before I started sewing.

Ideally, I'd start with something more reasonable, like the Regency period. But I can't help obsessing over 18th century gowns, especially over decorated Robes à la française. I just keep getting back to those.

My mental health is... terrible, to say the least, so I already know that this project is going to take ages for me to complete it. If I manage to complete it at all. But I found that external validation helps, which is why I decided to blog about it.

And so... here goes nothing!

The inspiration

One of the reasons why it took me quite a while to get started was that I didn't really know what I wanted my final result to look like. I have never wanted to make a specific historical reproduction, but you gotta start somewhere.

A couple of years ago (like, more than four) I found these old curtains in my gradma's old house. I I thought they would be perfect a robe, but I still didn't know where to start.

Luckily, mindlessly scrolling intagram isn't always useless (well, it is except for this one instance, but I digress), because I came across this dress on @/katestrasdin's page

After some digging (aka a google image reverse search) I found out the dress is owned by LACMA. Despite being the second image that comes up when you google "Robe a la Polonaise" (via Wikipedia) it's described by the museum as a Woman's Dress and Petticoat (Robe à la Française)" from Spain, circa 1775.

My goal is to make something similar to this, as far as decorations go. The structure should be more "à la Française", so without the draped back à la Polonaise and with a floor lenght skirt. But we'll see.

I'll try to use a patten from Norah Waugh's "The Cut of Women's Clothes" from a 1740-50 Sack Dress.

Since I had no idea how such a pattern worked I started by tracing it on a piece of paper and draping it on a small mannequin, just to have a rough idea of what I was getting myself into. The process gave me flashbacks to the Alexander McQueen paper doll I built in lockdown (if you have a few minutes to a few hours to spare, please check it out here). Nevertheless, I now feel a bit more confident about the whole thing. It can be done

The undergarments (and my plan of action)

This kind of dress needs to be built on the undergarments/understructures. That means they they need to be made before the actual dress. At the same time, making undergarments that are (a) never going to be seen by anyone and (b) pretty difficult to make isn't the most exciting thing in the world.

Weirdly enough, I already made a pair of stays in 2021. They're far from perfect, quite ugly and very much not historically accurate. But the shape is there and they'll do the job, at least for now.

The other most important part are the pocket hoops. It's what I should work on next, but I think I'll actually make a mockup of the dress first, as i want to see how much volume I'll need. Then I'll make the pocket hoops.

Then I'll probably make a mockup of the petticoat to use as an under-petticoat. At this point I should know whether I have enough fabric to make the main petticoat of the same fabric of the dress or not. Then the main petticoat itself and then, hopefully, the dress.

Somewhere in between all of this I should make a shift as well, but it's not vital for the process, so I suspect I'll end up procrastinating it as much as possible

Easy peasy, right?

Right, wish me luck :)

Other stuff

It's not going to be historically accurate. I am starting from historical sources, and I'll try to follow them as much as possible, but in the end I just want to have fun and make a nice dress without too much stress. I will keep the hand stitching to the bare minimum and I'm pretty certain that my fabric is synthetic :)

I'm going to keep it as cheap as possible. Reuse, recycle and r...ice? Idk, you get the idea. I am not invested enough to put hundreds of euros in a project that I'll wear maybe once. And I think that sewing and crafts should be more accessible anyways

Resources

The Cut of Women's Clothes: 1600-1930 by Norah Waugh

Woman's Dress and Petticoat (Robe à la française) (LACMA)

#sewblr #anna makes a sack dress #sewing #historical sewing #robe à la française #blog