A Blue Cotton 1770s Italian Gown

About this time I started watching Poldark.

Elizabeth from Poldark

Isn't it funny that thing that happens when you buy a new car. Suddenly it seems like every second car on the street is the same a yours. You start noticing them at every set of traffic lights!

This is what happened to me. Once I started historical sewing for real, I started taking notice of it all around me. Poldark, for example. In the first season, I watched it for the story and the scenery. In the second season, I watched it for the costumes.

Online again I went, this time to find a closed-front gown. These seem to be something that came more into fashion (at least amongst the gentry) later in the 18th century - more like 1780s. This time I found a really nice pattern company called Fig Leaf. I love the illustration first on the pattern, and then the fact that the pattern was taken from an extensive study of an extant gown for the use of a museum also gave me confidence. I try my best to do as much research as my limited resources allow prior to purchasing patterns, as it always costs so much to have them sent here. Its terribly disappointing to find out once it arrives that it's not authentic in its sewing techniques or pattern.

As I had several other things going on in my life right at that moment, the pattern stayed unopened for quite some time. However, browsing through...a local but nationwide store that I shall not name...I saw the perfect fabric and had to purchase it. It was an upholstery-weight cotton, in a pale sky blue, with a cream and beige floral and bird pattern on it. I had heard that cotton wasn't used until after this time due to laws, but I'd also read that no-one actually obeyed these laws anyway, so cotton was my new best friend. I purchased 9.5 metres of it, and this sat in glorious righteousness in my sewing corner for a couple of months until I felt I could justify starting a new project.

Isn't it always the way? I gleefully got out the pattern, cut it out, started working out my mock-up pieces to cut out on my calico...and found that I had 2 of one pattern sheet, and none of another. It happened to be the one with about 6 pieces on it! Grind to a halt.

I frantically emailed the company, and they were very quick to reply and print off the correct page and send it to me. Phew! It had cost me $51 plus shipping to get it here so I was a bit concerned! Restart.

I am disappointed to say, I didn't take any during photos. I don't know why, but I guess we all do it. I'm terrible and have to have the background uncluttered and neat, with no kids schoolbags and unwashed dishes to be seen, so photographing isn't always straightforward!

I am pretty proud of my pattern matching. 

Pinked sleeve trim: used no fray check...

Pinked neck trim: used fray check. Lesson learned!

Centre back pleats. Boned and stab stitched. Love that back.

Inside centre back. Pattern designer suggested alternate finish
but I like the tidiness of how I whipped the lining down afterwards.

Hook and eye closure. No, not brass, but nearly correct.

Back neck. And sleeve seams are not finished, which is correct.

There is a LOT of fabric in the petticoat: 4.5m from memory.
Very heavy!

I've reviewed the pattern, and for the most part it was excellent. I think the first pattern I used helped me understand the process, and next time I use the pattern, I will use some of the more accurate techniques that are described throughout the pattern as an option.

The fabric was very heavy, though the pattern author assures me that it is more accurate to use this weight. Elsewhere I have read that the silks became more and more refined, so that by this stage (1780) they were the feather-weight silk that we see mostly today. I think a good compromise would be an upholstery-weight silk, and I have my eye on some for the next time I sew this particular gown.

For this, the 'practice' round, I sewed the long, main seams with machine. This was the dress that wore my fingers completely out, and I finally had to learn to use the thimble. I read that thimbles are a main item in a seamstress's kit, and I now well-believe it. It's not fun when the thread end of the needle pierces your finger repeatedly!!

Final fitting

Here is a very poor photo of the dress. I will take the next available opportunity to get all the sewing details pictured and uploaded, as it's such a special garment to me. And I love the 'polonaise' style of skirt, though I believe it's not just the skirt-style that makes an authentic polonaise, but the sort of inverted centre front opening which is wider at the waist and meets at the chest. Pointless information, but I'm sure will be useful at some point!

nb I now know this is an Italian gown, worn retroussee (puffed).

Just for interest's sake:

• Pattern $60.00 including shipping 
• 5m cotton for gown (I actually only used 3.5m @ 150cm wide) $105
• 4.5m cotton for petticoat (I actually only used 3.6m, for an ultra-full petticoat!) $94.50
• 1m lining $27.00
• Fitting muslin $3.00
• Cotton thread $5.00
• Plastic boning $2.00
• Hooks and Eyes $3.00

Total $300.00 (I'd rather not have known this)

A Robe a l'Anglaise at last

Pink linen Robe a l'Anglaise

I would like to say, hand on heart, God bless Larkin and Smith.

Whoever you are and wherever you live in this world, may the sun shine on you and may you see your grandchildren's grandchildren.

I had decided to base the first dress pattern I made roughly mid-18th century. The gown pattern I landed on was the 18th Century English Gown, a 1760 - 1770s open front gown with a stomacher. I was a little scared of the French style of gown with it's saque back, and I loved the look of the back in the enfourreau style.

I first checked out how much fabric I would need. It seemed a huge amount at the time - about 7 metres from memory! I actually ended up with about 2 metres left over, while still doing all the recommended fullness, so I guess it was because it was a plain fabric and no need to match patterns?

The fabric I chose was a medium weight pink linen. It is the lovely dusky pink colour that I am extremely partial to right now. I'd no idea if women of my class (middling classed wife of a shop owner!) would wear pink or linen. I think that possibly no-one over the lower class actually wore linen outer-wear, and especially not in the open fronted robe style. Pink was probably less inaccurate than the fabric. But for now, linen seemed nice and authentic, and I wasn't that keen on forking out for 7 metres on a $50/m silk and upwards, on a whim. What if I made an absolute stuff up of it?!

I also bought coarse pink cotton thread as the local Big Box fabric store had no linen.

I started with the mock-up. As before, I took the size 34 and added 4cm to the length of the bodice front and back. There was two pages, and seven steps and relevant full-colour photos to help with this process. As I don't know exactly what they ought to fit like at this stage, in terms of creating the correct posture, it is still somewhat trial and error as I have never actually worn a true 18th century costume!

Cutting and pleating the back panels was easy and extremely rewarding. I had never actually hand-sewn before, and it was very interesting to read that historically there wasn't the stigma of having to hide the stitches from the outside. The stitching became something of a feature and a place to show off your abilities (or that of your seamstress anyway!). I loved the pleating template that they included, as it made it so easy to get the accurate width and curve to the pleats.

Inside waist seam

The pattern uses the technique of sewing the lining to finished pieces and then to each other, rather than completing the entire outside fabric and the entire lining and then sewing them together. This is new to me, but makes it possibly to ensure all the pieces are lined up and the correct size with no horrible realisation when inserting the lining that you have cut it in the wrong size!

Neck facing were something of a tricky step, and it seems common to have a slightly un-symmetrical back neck facing on many original gowns. This makes me feel better! I still tried my best to have corners matching but didn't quite make the mark in many places.

Back neck facing

The stomacher was a slight failure, as for some strange reason I omitted to lengthen it as I had the bodice pieces. The pattern also calls for it to be un-boned, which is all well and good when pinned to one's stays. However I was completely new to this and the idea of pinning oneself into ones clothing was terrifying!

Unboned, wrinkly stomacher in floral linen

In the end, I tried on the gown and marked the edges of the robings, and then sewed hooks and eyes to hold the stomacher inside the gown. This I will definitely change at a later date, but for now it felt a little less scary. I also sewed the robbing completely down the front opening. This is probably going to be a problem if I ever wear the dress, as it means the robbing need to be folded back open if pinning and then folded back over the pins. However I think some gowns had robings sewn to them, so maybe it's not entirely inaccurate!

Hooks and eyes for stomacher

To get the correct silhouette I needed a bumroll. Either that or panniers, but that seemed much more casual and easy. A couple of attempts later, below is the resulting silhouette. It was made of a banana-shaped tube of some left-over fabric, lots of poly-fill from some old cushions, and two pieces of cotton tape. Bob's your uncle.

Finally I made the petticoat in the same fabric, knife pleating to the suggested width of 1" each. I made a self band to tie front and back with the traditional pocket openings of 10" on each side. At this point I think I decided that I was just going to interchange imperial and metric measurements and this is what you get!

Below are the dummy photos. Unfortunately the dressmakers dummy is too large for the dress dimensions, so I will later post a photo shoot by my lovely daughter, wearing it myself.

Worn over my first unsuccessful shift attempt.

Just out of interest

Pattern plus shipping: NZ$60.00

Linen fabric: 7m @ $13/m$91.00

Linen lining: .5m @ $30/m$15.00

Cotton thread: $4.00

TOTAL: NZ$170.00