A good costume starts with the foundation. It’s a great place to practice sewing skills too! Because I’ve already shown you some of my favorite extant pieces, here are some…

One of the most characteristic things about regency dresses is the patterning of the back. Specifically, a very narrow back panel at the bottom, sleeves set far back and shoulder seams behind the s…

Från 1700-talet till mitten av 1800-talet sköttes dasstömningen i Stockholm i huvudsak av kvinnliga renhållningshjon, latrintömmerskor eller skitbärarkärri

An absolutely fascinating, one of a kind garment--a dressing gown or banyan made entirely from tiny diamonds of printed fabrics. Bear in mind that this was sewn entirely by hand--not a venture I would want to undertake. In shape, it is not an untypical garment for the period--around ankle length (based on the measurements), double breasted, and with sewn on cuffs. Date: ca. 1825 Culture: British Medium: cotton Dimensions: Length at CB: 55 in. (139.7 cm) Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Designated Purchase Fund, 1983 Accession Number: 2009.300.999 The dressing gown featured here is an extraordinary piece of hand work. The use of many different lively roller print patterns gives it an eye popping appeal and makes this piece a sampler of the various patterning from this period. Roller printing was introduced and then patented in 1783 in an attempt to reduce the cost of copperplate printing as well as to ease the printing process of small, repeat patterns. The fascinating thing about it, of course is the "material"--thousands of little squares of roll printed cottons--according to my calculations (roughly 34 diamonds in height, divided into 55" center back length) each diamond is only 1.5 inches tall (give or take 0.15). Looking closely at the diamonds, it appears that they are sewn with an overcast stitch, rather than a running stitch. The garment is lined in a plain white cotton, and there is no supportive flatlining under the patchwork (there is a small hole near the right top sideseam, through which you can see the seam allowance). I surmise that the sleeves are slightly long, coming a bit past the wrist, and have cuffs with two buttons. They are pleated into the scye at the top, and have visible wrinkles under the arm, showing that the sleevehead was fairly shallow to allow for better movement. The double breast is fastened with 14 buttons, each of which is covered in the same patchwork cloth as the rest of the garment. In addition there is one cross bar (at the waist) with a center button--I am honestly not sure how it works; obviously it is fastened at the side end to help cinch the fabric at the waist, but how it is attached at the other side? The buttonholes are plain, with no keyhole, and the lowest button appears to be somewhere around the lower hip. When you (closely) at the back, you can see that there is a pleat in the center--based on the folds, I believe there is a vent there. It also appears that there is a very small (maybe 1/2 inch depth) pleat on the side seams as well, with a button at the top of each. Even more fascinating, and barely visible, is that there are plait pockets--with two buttoning flaps--set into each side pleat. Strangely, I see no sign of a hindarm seam, and looking closer at the left arm in the above photo, you can see that there is instead an underarm seam. My best guess is that the pattern looked something like this, albeit with a much longer skirt and possibly less flare. The front-side seam also does not curve out, but is fairly straight other than curving forwards at the top. From History in my Wardrobe Or this one of the French m/1860 (if I recall), from HERE. Source: http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/159591?=&imgno=1&tabname=label, and photos copyright the Metropolitan Museum of Art (other than the last). © John Frey, 2015. The Author of this work retains full copyright for this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial private research or educational purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Photographs of my work may not be duplicated.

There are some very exciting things coming up on the event roster! At the end of the month I will by putting on my foot wigs and spending a weekend in the Shire at ALEP 3.5, and immersive Lord of t…

Before last week, I’d never made an Empire/Regency dress. Imagine that. I love the period, but for some reason I felt intimidated by them, which is funny, as I’ve made lots of far more advanced and complicated things. Mind, I have made a shortgown, which is basically the same thing, only, well, shorter. But I’m rambling. Picture by Pernilla Leijonhufvud Recently I was invited to attend a small event at a local museum, and though I could have whipped up a petticoat to use with said shortgown, I really wanted a dress. I had a cotton fabric with an almost handwoven look to it that I wanted to use. That would work well, as I wanted to portray the housekeeper of the middle class house we were to be in. The stripes reminded me of the ones in ordinary Swedish women's extant dresses from the period. They were quite often made from linen/wool, but cotton is also represented. Just two problems: the fabric only measured 150x210 cm, and I only had one week in which to make the dress. That’s one week where cutting, fitting and sewing had to be completed around all the things stay at home parents of little children do. I used the pattern I drafted for the shortgown as a starting point, but changed it into a drop front. And then it was the cutting. I only had two rather short skirt lengths of fabric, and both bodice and sleeves had to come from the two pieces on either side of the shaped front skirt panel. As it is cold this time of year, I wanted long sleeves, or things would have been much easier. This is indeed a little sister of The Insanely Pieced Dress I made a few years ago: The bodice back is made from two pieces, picture of that further down. The bodice fronts are made from 4 pieces each: The bodice “bib” is made from three pieces: The sleeves are made from 4 and 6 pieces respectively, not counting the bias strips at the wrists: In the end these are all the scraps that were left: Naturally I hand sewed the dress, using waxed linen thread (unbleached where it wouldn’t show, and brown for the rest) and period stitches. I lined the bodice and sleeves of the dress with unbleached linen. I might not have lined the sleeves had not all that piecing in them needed some protection from wear. I did my best to make the direction of the stripes follow the bodice as seen in extant dresses, and am rather happy with how it came out. The bib is pinned in place with reproduction brass pins. I put a pleat near each end of the bib to make it shape itself around the bust nicely. I still haven’t decided if I’ll stitch them down to make darts or leave them as they are. The sleeves are pleated at the back of the shoulders, and are full enough at the wrists to pull on without any closures. A tuck at the elbow (seen above in the picture of the piecing) provide a little extra room for movement. The bias strips are decorative, but their primary function is adding well needed length. The sleeves are still slightly too short, but they will do. The skirt is smooth in front, and the ties on the front part of the skirt runs through stitched bars by the back seams, and then ties in front, under the skirt. The skirt is cartridge pleated in the back. A small pad prevents the skirt falling in at the small of my back, and also supports the ties of the skirt front and any apron that might be worn. I added tapes to the inside of the bodice back to tie in the front, as I didn’t think the bodice lining did a good enough job to keep the bodice back tight to the body. The fine white cotton ties are too fine for this kind of dress – it was still a rather fancy material here in Sweden – but it’s what I had at hand. At least they won’t show. I faced the skirt hem with a cotton/linen tape I wove a couple of years ago – facings are brilliant when you don’t really have any skirt length to sacrifice on hems, and it’s a period way to finish them. The tape too is pieced – it was initially used as 18th century style ties in a hobbit skirt, and are in four pieces. In the end I managed to get the dress wearable in time for the event, if not completely finished, hence the mitts in some of the pictures - the sleeves were not yet hemmed. Now however, it’s all done! Picture by Pernilla Leijonhufvud I really like how it came out, and enjoy wearing it. Now I'm really keen to make more Empire dresses. The pictures with the mitts are from the event at the museum, the ones without were taken today, when the weather finally allowed me to document the finished dress. I haven’t had time to participate in the HSM for a while, but this dress fit the last challenge of the year. The Challenge: # Re-Do What Challange/s are you re-doing?: # 2 Blue (the dress has a lot of blue in it), # 3 Stashbusting (everything came from my stash), # 5 Practicality (it is very much a dress to work in), #6 Out of Your Comfort Zone (first time making a dress of this period), # 10 Sewing Secrets (lots of almost invisible piecing). Fabric: Rather heavy weight, plain weave cotton and linen. Pattern: My own. Year: 1810’s. Notions: Two kinds of linen thread, three kinds of cotton or cotton/linen tape, cotton batting. How historically accurate is it? Pretty much. Materials, pattern and sewing is rather good. Hours to complete: Difficult to say… estimated somewhere between 25-30 – the piecing took quite a bit of time to get nice. First worn: For a small museum event last Saturday. Total cost: Nothing at this time, as everything came from my stash. The main fabric and the brown linen sewing thread were originally a gift, the linen fabric was left over from a previous project, and two of the tapes were recycled from other clothes.

Man's frock coat, 1830s, English; Brown cloth

My first mock-up of the round gown confused me. After I got it on Pollykin, I was trying to find out how the dress should open. The bodice of the flat pattern I was working off of (in Patterns of F…

Other titles: Godey's lady's book and magazine; Godey's lady's book for 1861; Godey's magazine and lady's book.

An educational blog devoted to historical sewing, weaving, and living history.

Griselle en négligé du matin, faisant sa provision au Marché des Quinze-vingts Very roughly, Griselle, in morning undress, goes to the “Three Hundred” market for provisions. Said to be on Paris map…

From the seller: A dainty white net spencer, for a girl or petite lady, and dating to about 1815. It is of simple construction with high neck and long shaped sleeves. It must have been more of a decorative accessory over a summer gown, or an under-spencer, as it is so fine. It has ties at the waist which can be gathered in. The condition is very good. Just two minute shadow marks, which hardly show on the net. Measurements: Across shoulders 13". Neck to high waist 7 1/2" From Me: Isn't this fabulous? I've read about them before but I've never seen one. Squee!