SIlk Dress Completed

31 days to go and the silk dress is complete (all bar a few finishing touches).

The final stages of construction involved preparing and mounting the skirts. Both the outer silk fabric and the cotton lining had to be seamed and then hemmed by hand separately. I machine stitched the large rectangles of fabric for speed but worked the hems by hand to keep the stitching as invisible as possible. I also hand stitched 4" wide strips of cotton wadding into the hem of the lining as well as two 14" squares at the back waist. This wadding was a feature of the original gown and helps to give a little extra body to the hem and the back of the dress.

Hem stitches worked on the silk

To create the V-shape at the front to match the point of the bodice, the fabric of both the skirt and lining were folded and pressed down. The two fabrics were then placed together with the folded down edges sandwiched between them.

Pressing down the upper edges to match the point of the bodice

From this point on the two layers of fabric were treated as one. I worked two lines of gathering stitched at precise 3/8" intervals. When drawn up these stitches created a concertina effect known as cartridge pleats.

Cartridge pleats from above

Cartridge pleats viewed from the front

These pleats were then sewn on to the bodice one at a time by hand with two stitches through the back of each pleat holding them in place.

Mounting the skirt to the bodice - one stitch at a time!

 This technique creates very small precise pleats that stand facing outwards away from the body rather than lying flat against it. They were a very common feature of dresses at this period and are visually very effective.

A close up of the finished pleats

So apart from the back fastening and some boning for the inside of the bodice this dress is now complete. These finishing touches will be added once I have tried on and fitted the dress for the last time to make sure that the back overlap is correct. The bodice will close with hooks and eyes and the boning will ensure that the bodice sits smoothly over the corset without any wrinkles.

Bodice Construction - Part II - The sleeves

36 days to go and the sleeves for the silk dress are complete.

Fashions for sleeves changed with amazing rapidity throughout the nineteenth century, veering from one extreme to the other.

At the beginning of the century, gowns tended to feature short, puffed sleeves or long, narrow, fitted sleeves depending on the type of dress.

A fashion plate from 1815 found here

By the 1830s, however, sleeves had achieved quite incredible proportions and were known as "Leg O'Mutton" or "Gigot" sleeves. Indeed they were so large that feather-filled pads were worn around the upper arms to hold out the sleeves! (Click on the image below to find out more about this dress).

Sleeve detail on an 1830s dress in the collections at The Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology)

By the 1840s, with it almost impossible for sleeves to get any bigger, the reaction was for fashion to swing once more in the other direction. Slimmer, more fitted sleeves began to come back into vogue for day dresses. Evening dresses tended to feature very small, straight sleeves or little puff sleeves.

From "The World of Fashion" periodical, 1845 (found here)

The pendulum continued to swing in this way throughout the rest of the century with sleeves expanding and contracting almost with each decade.

For my 1840s silk gown, I have opted to make the sleeves convertible. Victorian etiquette dictated that during the day the arms and throat must be covered. In the evening, however low cut, short-sleeved gowns were considered both proper and fashionable. It was not uncommon for dresses at this period to be made with two bodices so that the same dress could be worn both during the day and for evening wear. There are also examples of wedding dresses with detachable sleeves and a fill-in for the neckline. This meant that the dress, worn for a morning wedding, could be converted and worn later as a ball gown or evening dress.

Inspired by this, I have cut my sleeves so that the lower sleeve is detachable. During the day, the bodice can be worn with the long sleeves and a chemisette (false blouse) to fill in the neckline.

The upper part of the long sleeve is made from lining material and when this sleeve is used it is loosely tacked (stitched) in place by hand temporarily.

The lower sleeve, showing the top portion of lining fabric that is tacked inside the bodice sleeve head

To transform the dress into an evening gown, the lower half of the sleeve is simply removed.

Just like the original gown that the pattern was taken from, the sleeves are decorated with two simple bands of fabric that form cuffs. These also disguise the join when the long sleeves are added.

Sleeve detail

Drafting and resizing an original pattern

48 days to go...

Firstly, apologies for the lateness of this post which can be blamed on the Glasgow Subway replacement bus service. I was home rather later than planned the other evening when a 15 minute journey took an hour and 15 minutes. As a result, I didn't get a chance to upload this post as planned.

In the meantime, work has been progressing well on the pattern for the dress and I thought I would share a little of the process of adapting an original pattern to fit.

To begin with, it is wise to have a number of tools and materials handy.

To scale the pattern up to full size, squared pattern paper is a must. The original pattern is printed on squared paper on 1/8inch squares. I marked my centimetre squared paper with a cross every 2.5cm to get square inches. Then, by counting the squares and replicating the lines of the original pattern in relation to the squares made a full size copy of the pattern.

Next, I took measurements of each of the pieces to figure out the size of the original wearer. I made notes on the flat pattern pieces but the most accurate measurements were made after taping the seams with masking tape to put the pattern together. In 3-D form it was much easier to see exactly where the waist and bust of the garment were and to measure for example the arm scye (armhole).

As suspected, she was a tiny lady compared to today's standards. Not only did she have a 24inch waist but she appears to have been very short from the neck to the waist. On the other hand, her bust was surprisingly big in comparison to her waist measurement. However, portraits from this era do show a very wide, high bust line and the gored corset tends to lift and exaggerate the bust.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia, Princess of Hesse-Kassel 1840 (image found here) - although probably somewhat exaggerated, this portrait shows the large difference between the bust and waist that was fashionable at this time

Nevertheless, this made altering the pattern to fit something of a challenge. Since the bust was almost big enough but the waist 5 inches too small, this was not simply a case of adding a bigger seam allowance. Furthermore, the arm syces on the original pattern were extremely small, and whilst tight, low set sleeves were a feature in the 1840s, I needed to do something to ensure that I would be able to move my arms.

My first move was to compare my measurements to the pattern and then, using various calculations to determine the ratios and proportions of each section of the pattern, draw up new pattern pieces. The aim was to ensure the each piece of the pattern retained the same proportion in relation to the others whilst being made bigger. Once I had the general shape, I then altered the lines to reflect the fact that the difference between my bust and waist would not be as exaggerated as that of the lady who originally wore the dress. I won't go into too much detail here as this was quite a technical and mathematical process but please ask questions if you would like to find out more.

Some of the notes and calculations!

Once I had the new pattern pieces, I cut these out and taped all of the seams with masking tape. I could then try the paper bodice onto Gertrude, my dress form, over the corset and petticoats. This allowed me to see where the pattern fitted and which areas needed to be adjusted. Any loose areas of paper were pinched into darts and pinned flat. Extra paper was taped to the edges and between panels where the pattern didn't fit and new seam lines and edges drawn on.

Pinning the front - notice the tuck in the side panel below the bust

Adding paper to the shoulder and underarms and drawing new seam lines

Excess paper trimmed away on the new seam lines

Once the pattern fitted Gertrude perfectly, I removed it from the mannequin and cut the pieces apart along the new seam lines. I then drew around these news pieces and added seam allowances to make the pattern pieces I would need to cut the fabric.

Looking like a bodice - the pattern removed from the mannequin

The new pattern pieces

The next stage is to test these pieces in lining fabric with the sleeves before beginning to make up the dress in a test fabric. I will be making a complete dress in cotton fabric salvaged from some old curtains before making this pattern in silk. This will mean I have an extra dress suitable for wearing in less favourable weather conditions (although I have been promised glorious sunshine for the whole week!) and will avoid any mistakes being made with the more expensive silk.

The pattern for the dresses

49 days to go...

Today it was finally time to start work on the dresses themselves. In order to make Victoria's costumes as authentic as possible, I have decided to use a pattern from Janet Arnold's "Patterns of Fashion 1".

This wonderful series of books offers detailed drawing and patterns for original dresses in museum collections around the UK. Careful measurements taken from the garments were used by Arnold to draft patterns that allow us to essentially recreate the real thing. These patterns are complete with detailed annotations on the construction techniques used to put the dresses together.

The dress I have chosen as the basis for my pattern is a day dress in The Gallery of English Costume in Manchester (now The Gallery of Costume). The dress is dated c.1839-1845 and is described as,

"A day dress in a delicate shade of deep beige. The fabric is a silk and cashmere mixture with a soft, glossy finish. The two piece straight sleeves are decorated with double crossway pieces, which are trimmed with piping and bouillons. The neckline would have been edged with lace or worn with a chemisette. The bodice is decorated with flat, pleated folds of the same fabric as the dress. which descend from the shoulder to the centre front." ((Arnold, p64)*

 The only drawback of these patterns is the size. In contrast to commercially available patterns such as Truly Victorian, Laughing Moon and The Mantua Maker, you cannot simply pick your size and happily cut away. Firstly, each dress is unique and the pattern reproduces the exact size of the original wearer - for the most part rather small! Furthermore, the patterns have then been scaled down to 1:8 for printing. A little preparation, calculation and experimentation is therefore required to obtain a usable pattern.

Visit tomorrow to find out more about how I created the bodice pattern for Queen Victoria's gowns using this pattern.

*References
Janet Arnold, Patterns of Fashion 1, Englishwomen's dresses and their construction c.1660-1860,(Macmillan, London, 1977).