Plans for 2014

I always make too many plans - but compared to my past output, what I've done this year is so outstanding that it makes me think I can decide which pieces I need to build a basic and versatile wardrobe, based on the events I've gone to this year (which is, again, an astounding amount compared to how many I attended in previous years, mainly thanks to Julie).

Detail of bodice I sketched at FIT, that sparked my love for the style

- My muslin gown makes me happy enough that I don't feel the need to replace it yet. However, I do feel most comfortable at this point with the 18th century methods of construction and my ability to get a good fit for that sort of bodice, so if I do make the jump from cotton to silk it's likely going to be for a 1780 pleated-back and closed-front gown based on one I've patterned, with plenty of pinked trim. (Must buy pinking shears.)

- What surprises me when I think of it, for some reason, is that Victorian events have been the most frequent this year. And yet, my Victorian wardrobe is sorely lacking. Probably the best place to start would be with remaking my early Victorian bodice so that it is narrower and a little bit longer. I do have some extra fabric, and I'm pretty sure it's still being produced and sold, so that shouldn't be a problem. I'd also like to make sure I have a center front seam, and to pipe the seams, at least the main ones and the armscyes.

Also from FIT; Clara and I dressed it!

- In addition, I'd like to make a second, slightly later bodice with more fitted sleeves. Just because. It won't necessarily look like the above, but the sleeves will probably be similar. Why? Because I get more bodice practice without having to make, or, more importantly, buy the fabric for another skirt.

- To round out my Victorianism, I'd like to also have an 1890s outfit, but I'm not really sure what it should be. My fitting skills are still quite low, which is unfortunate as the 1890s are a very fussy decade, so perhaps it will be a shirtwaist and skirt, or a lingerie dress. Yes, that sounds about my speed.

Costumes Parisiens, Journal des Dames et des Modes, 1814; NYPL 801887

- And, last but not least, a decent Regency gown. I have the one I made for my qualifying paper (technically pre-Regency) and the one I made for Tulipfest (too big, too nightgowny), and I'd like to just start over and make something decent. However, this will probably wait until I've taken some Regency patterns for After the Fashion II: 1800-1849, as I find it easier to sew once I've really thoroughly investigated extant pieces.

And that will be sooner than you may have expected! In 2014, I'm going to start patterning for the next book. I'm probably going to be doing just about everything I can get my hands on, but I was wondering - is there anything in particular that any dear readers have seen in paintings, fashion plates, museums, etc. and wished they had a pattern for? Would you like to see variations on early 1840s evening dress sleeves? Different types of late Regency hem treatments? Wool vs. silk spencers? Please let me know!

And don't forget about the Creating Historical Clothes giveaway, open until midnight (EST) on Friday, December 20!

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The Last 18th Century Patterning Visit*

(* until I become a big name and they let me pattern at the Met and I do a second edition of the book with MMA 1991.6.1a, b in it**)

(** and until I start patterning outerwear and underwear, so maybe this was a poor choice of title)

I actually made a visit prior to this one that was intended to be the last, but it transpired that I could not pattern four gowns and a petticoat in a day, so the second round of New York State Historical Association (at the Farmer's Museum) patterning took two visits.  Since I never posted about the last one, I'll condense them here.

This is (the back of) a gown for a quite pregnant woman.  In my opinion, it was cut down from a gown or sacque that was made in the mid-to-late 1770s to fit with the styles of the late 1790s - I would have simply considered it a fashionable update, except that there are a few aspects that are decidedly unfashionable and the front shaping implies that it's for maternity wear.  And there's a small housewife sewing kit made of the same silk, which I patterned as well.

Satin is such an amazing weave structure - the few 18th century silk satin garments I've encountered have been in excellent condition, supple and soft, which makes patterning them just a little easier.  And this satin sacque with matching petticoat (petticoat detail above) also has a solid provenance tying it to a wedding, and therefore a good date.  With several self-fabric serpentine trims and three volants, it is a very, very formal ensemble.

At first, I thought that this was a fairly ordinary gown - but I pattern everything in order to figure out exactly what's going on with it and to see if there's anything at all of interest.  I can definitely tell you that this is not your average anglaise, and I don't believe I've seen a pattern anywhere that involves a back quite like this one.  The reasoning and cutting is somewhat specific to this particular fabric (which you can see involves multiple kinds of stripes), but could be adapted to different patterns.

Strictly regarding aesthetics, this might be my favorite of all the 18th century garments I've patterned.  This is a brocaded mantua, ca. 1760 - one of the older garments in the book.  There are some very strange aspects to this one that bear some more thought and research and which I will not go into now, but a very beautiful unusual aspect is the deep blue silk lining of the skirt.  (The bodice lining is an extremely fine, light linen.)  That is not something you see every day.

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Latest Patterning Visit

This was perhaps my penultimate patterning trip for the first book I intend to put out.  (The last one I have planned will be on the 28th, but I suppose it's possible that I could come across another venue and make another afterward.)  Yesterday I drove down to Historic Cherry Hill to take the pattern of a pretty pink silk spencer, ca. 1795, and to re-examine the petticoat of a gown I'd patterned before, as I didn't have the shaping of the top quite right.  This pattern may be one of my favorites - I like seeing the differences between similarly-cut gowns and sacques, but it's really nice to take the pattern of something very unlike what's come before, not to mention unlike what's in previously-published books.

It has an adorable peplum.

Afterward, I went to the Schenectady County Historical Society museum in the lovely stockade district to see Underlying Structures: What Shaped the Victorian Woman?  The exhibition shows a wonderful array of later Victorian dresses and accessories.

I highly recommend you take a trip over to the museum, if you live nearby.  Costume exhibitions are not common outside of the big cities, and it's good to support local historical societies!

Edit: 400th post!

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Curtains, and Patterning Update

I'm strongly considering joining the curtain-along.  I want to make a demi-polonaise, because it fascinates me!  (There are a few more examples of them in the coming plates.)  It will give me a chance to try out the polonaise skirt shape and some trim types before I make an actual polonaise with my Williamsburg fabric.  Also, I'm not quite happy with the shape of my stays, and I'm a bit nervous that if I make something with a bodice it won't fit when I get around to making better ca. 1785 stays.

Detail of the Cherry Hill gown back

Last Friday I visited Historic Cherry Hill to pattern a ca. 1780 closed-front gown with sleeves en pagode and a matching petticoat; Monday, I went to the Albany Institute and had a marathon all-day session patterning two rather similar gowns (not as pointed in the front, though), one of which has a matching but waistbandless petticoat with self-fabric trim, the other with loops inside to pull up the skirt, as well as a jacket, a stomacher, and a pair of early 18th century sleeves. Interestingly enough, the skirts of the Cherry Hill gown and the AIHA gown with the petticoat were both cut in curves on the front corners and had similar trim down the fronts and around the curves.  I can't wait to get a bit further on in the fashion plates to see when this started, or if it was never a high-fashion thing, maybe just a local style.

Detail of sleeve trim on AIHA gown with petticoat

I have something to add to my usual caveats about trusting museum-given dates. The petticoated gown was en fourreauand in a striped floral fabric: it was marked "1760-1770, remade 1780" because the fabric is early-looking and the general thought is that fourreau gowns are earlier, and so if you have that plus closed front it must have been remade. But there's no indication that any seams have been changed at all. It's patched, but under the arms, where it was worn. So what I'm saying is, don't assume remodeling when a museum's database/catalogue says so and back pleats go later than most people think.

Detail of pleating on AIHA gown with rétroussée loops

Another interesting thing I've learned is that it seems kind of common for sleeves and their linings to be seamed together, the front or back folded under in both layers and lapped around the other, then sewn all the way through - which hides all the seam allowances.

Detail of front of jacket

I'm very, very happy to say that pretty much everything I've worked on for the whole project so far has at least one attribute that makes it worth inclusion. Most have two.  And I have a couple more leads for finding more articles to pattern.

Detail of stomacher

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Project Update: Scheduling

Short update on my patterning!  As I'm working on getting eighteenth century patterns first (so that I could, theoretically, finish writing one book and have it started on the road to publication while I work on taking patterns for the next), I have to work hard to find extant garments - there are very few left in the area. 

So far, I have sourced and am making appointments to pattern:

• Fitted jacket, French, in a pinkish brocaded silk - ca. 1740?
• Mantua of mustard-gold damasked silk, ca. 1750, possibly slightly altered
• Embroidered stomacher, date uncertain
• Damasked silk dressing gown, early to mid-century
• Gold silk petticoat, heavily quilted with all-over pattern, no longer on waistband
• Silk petticoat, quilted with overlapping scale pattern in body, border of something else, 1750-1775?
• White silk taffeta sacque and petticoat, brocaded with polychrome floral bunches, trimmed with self-fabric and fly-fringe, 1760-1773 (previously patterned)
• Gowns (anglaises):
• Blue and white striped lustring (I think), pleated en fourreau, with loops to wear rétroussée
• With petticoat; remade in the 1780s, but unsure of original date
• With petticoat, both of mulberry colored damasked silk (probably early or mid-century); remade in 1780s, has loops to wear rétroussée
• With petticoat, both of pink silk taffeta; pleated en fourreau toward center back, trimmed with scalloped self-fabric edgings, 1775-1780
• Striped silk, altered in nineteenth century, some self-fabric trim
• Jacket of pink silk lustring, early 1790s
• Two transitional muslin gowns of the late 1790s with similar constructions and backs pleated to fit; one has fitted, curved sleeves, and the other fuller and unshaped(one patterned)
• Possibly a pair of aprons

Now, I do have some gaps.  I'd love to find a really early mantua (good luck, there appear to be only two even in the Met), another sacque, a few more jackets, a jacket or gown with winged cuffs, a non-muslin 1790s gown ... there is certainly space to add more garments, should I come across them, but of course it is difficult to come across them.

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A Necessary Skill

So I've arranged to come in on Monday to the Chapman and start taking patterns!  I'm so excited - this project has been in the works in my mind for a long time and it was starting to feel a bit like a pipe dream.  I'd prefer to work in chronological order, starting with the eighteenth century, but the Chapman doesn't have anything that early, so my first pattern will be of a ca. 1845 mourning dress (very like the one in the first photo on my last post).  The second will be of a pink evening dress that's been confusing me - in an effort to figure out its date, I tried sketching it as though it were being worn.  What I got was kind of a hot mess that got me nowhere, and I realized I had a problem.

These days, photographing a dress on a mannequin (à la Costume Close-Up) would seem to be the best option to accompany a pattern.  Unfortunately, I don't know where there are any mannequins that will fit Victorian clothing - you may remember the issues with Great, Strange, and Rarely Seen?  So drawing is the only option.  But I haven't taken an art class since eighth grade!  Practice is necessary.




I started out just trying to draw garments I'd taken pictures of as though they were on a body.  This was ... not encouraging.  Anatomy is difficult, and there's such a jump between a garment lying flat on the table and on a body that you basically need to be able to draw straight from your imagination to manage it (which I can't).  So I went looking for croquis.

:/ and the one in the upper left is a copy of a Waugh sketch

A croquis is a figure, usually in outline, that fashion designers use to provide a basic shape to draw clothes over.  With one of these, I figured, I would have all the anatomy issues taken care of and I'd just have to concentrate on rendering the clothing accurately.  I looked around the internet and finally found one that seemed curvy enough to draw nineteenth century clothing on ... but after using it for a bit, I realized that it was too curvy (seriously buxom) and the stance was way too modern - bust out, hips to one side.  I could shave bits off of it to make it look like someone in a corset, but I wasn't quite happy with what I got when I traced it.  I could try to fix the croquis, but I moved in a different direction instead.

Left: the mourning gown; Center: another I plan to pattern

More from the Chapman

Through my Pinterest boards, I started looking for pictures of dressed mannequins, and then just drew them.  No imagination or alterations.  I tried to keep in mind the essential point of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: don't try to draw a dress, look at the negative space and the angles and lines and draw what I see.

Left: Les Arts Decoratifs 49-32-48.ABC; Right: MMA 2009.300.3009a-d

MMA 1985.138.2a, b

MMA 1995.461

MMA CI.63.23.3a, b

MMA C.I.55.1.12a-c

MMA 1993.427

 Hopefully, this will help me get drawing the silhouettes down, and maybe I will be able to do a little bit of cobbling - draw the sleeves from this one, the basic bodice shape from that one, apply the trim on top, etc.  Things are looking a lot better, although I still have a problem where I always make the legs/skirt too short.

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The Grand Project

I don’t talk very much about this project o’mine, because everyone knows the stereotype of the person who makes loads of plans to do something amazing and talks about it incessantly but never gets around to doing it.  I don’t want to fall into that trap!  But I do think about it a lot of the time.

 A mannequin I dressed with a partner at FIT

When I was taking a class in sketching extant clothing and dressing mannequins at FIT, I liked to joke that my ambition was to be the next Janet Arnold.  My sketches went from scale versions of the study garments to full-on patterns with directions.  I even did an extra one because I wanted to make the dress.  While I was researching my thesis, I took a couple of really quick patterns of garments that weren’t technicallyrelated to my topic.  (I’m glad I did, that set of stays made up very quickly.)  Then, when I was interning at the Albany Institute, it suddenly struck me that it would be a fantastic extra if the website for the exhibition could have patterns of the dresses on view for the .05% of the visitors that would like them, or if we could *gasp* publish an eensy book or pamphlet for the gift shop.  Can you imagine?  I mean, can you imagine?

I approached the curators and while the latter was only a possibility for a short period of time, we were set to go ahead with the former.  I took the patterns of the ca.1765 sacque, the ca. 1797 white cotton dress, the ca. 1822 evening dress, the ca. 1838 day dress, and the ca. 1867 evening dress … and then it became apparent that only the two 1920s dresses were going to fit on the mannequins.  Those stayed in, and I went through all of the 1920s evening dresses in the collection (seriously, all of them) to find enough to fit all ten mannequins instead.  Oops.

 The ca. 1797 dress I patterned

But thinking for a minute that there could be a pattern book sitting on the shelf with my name on it fired me up.  And when the possibility fizzled, I said to myself, "That’s perfectly okay, because I’m going to do a book of my own."  (And then over the course of several weeks determined that it would have to be more like four books.)

I haven't really worked on this project since I decided that I was going to do it, as I've been very busy with my present internship, but it's coming to an end this Friday.  I'm working at finding a new job, but museum positions aren't easy to come by and the competition is absolutely staggering.  In the meantime, I'm hoping to really get started at talking with local museums about allowing me to do this, and at taking patterns with detailed notes.

A bodice I saw at my most recent internship - am I bribing you with photos of extant garments to like me?  Maybe.

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