A striped 1780-90s gown

I made this 1780s gown for my sister's 18th century themed birthday party. We could choose any part of the 18th century, and I have always been fond of the 1780-early 90s.

My inspiration was various 1780s-90s fashion plates, portraits, and preserved gowns.

The first photos in this post are from the party. But after the party I felt inspired to make more variations with the same robe. Though I added the pleated vintage trim to the front openings of the robe, not only around the neck.

I was also lucky to have enough left for the vintage striped rayou fabric - probably for furniture or heavy drapes in a grander house or office. I got it from the Reningsborg charity shop in Partille.

I also added a yellow velvet belt.

I also tried wearing it with the front piece and petticoat that I wore at the party, but with  two straps made from vintage grosgrain ribbons holding the robe together, and a white petticoat with broderie anglaise that used to be  a decorative bedsheet with a wide broderie anglaise flounce that I found at a charity shop.

At the party I wore the white petticoat under the blue-grey one.

I patterned the gown myself, but I had LOTS of help from the diagrams and instructions in Stitching La Mode: Patterns and Dressmaking from Fashion Plates of 1785-1795 by Carolyn Dowdell. The gown is a mix of a couple ofg her patterns.

Stays and underwear

Six years ago when I lost a lot of weight I got rid of my old 18th century stays, made after Nora Waugh's interpretation of the Diderot drawings from the Encyclopédie. This was apparently a bad idea, since I gained it all back again.

 (Link to a good blog post about Diderot's and Nora Waugh's stays) 

But in any case I wanted a slightly later type of stays, and decided to do something that I have never done before: not only buy, but actually USE a commercial pattern. I have bought patterns before, but never actually used them ;)

I had heard lots of nice things about Scroop Patterns, and their Augusta stays , and also seen a lot of people making them on Instagram, so I ordered them. This was another first for me too: This is the first pdf-pattern that I have used  (mostly because I normally make my own patterns)

And I am so happy with the pattern. I have a weird body: narrow straight shoulders, large boobs, a very wide rib cage that angles out at a 45 degree from under my boobs in front (the combined effect of arthritis and pregnancies), a very non squishable waist thanks to a titanium net covering all of my stomach after a hernia, a long torso and high hips. But the stays fit me without alteration, I think thanks to the clever placing of the boning. To make them more comfortable I chose not to lengthen them, but because of that long torso they still look proportional. The only change that I had to mnake was to move the straps closer to the edges in the back, because my shoulderas are too narrow compared to my bust.

The stays are all hand sewn. Because I am insane, and because I was influenced by Myra Lea (link to her Instagram) while having lunch in Stockholm in October.

I am also wearing Scroop Patterns free pattern for a false rump here, and a petticoat that I made from a decorative bedsheet with a wide broderie anglaise flounce that I found at a charity shop.

Hair and hat

This is the first time I have tried 18th century style make up, and made a try to powder my hair. I am very much fond of it.  Not having any eyeshadow or mascara seems strange at first, but I think that it looks pretty.

I do have Kendra van Cleave's 18th century hair and wig styling, but  didn't really have the time and energy to make false hair pieces or get a wig and style it, so I just curled my hair and then back combed it a lot.

I haven't done any serious backcombing since the 1980s, and it was much easier then, with a layered hair cut. My hair is too long all over but the cap hides the not so good looking back of the head where I mostly pinned hair in place.

Then I added powder, both normal powder and some rice flour, because I didn't have enough powder at home. As a first attempt I think it looks good enough.

And it lasted through five hours of dinner party, the cap photo above are taken when I was leaving.

And this is from the tram on my way home.

The hat is actually the same is the one I used for my previous 18th century costume: a circle of thin cotton with lace arounf the edges. It aslo as a lot of hand sewn eyelets to thread a ribbon through. I took out the ribbon and starched the fabric heavily. I then sewed a couple of rows of gathering threads by hand and mounted it on a strip of linen. I also threaded a cotton tape inside this, to make it adjustable. Then I added the yellow ribbon and the plumes.Both plumes wqere white, but I painted one of them light blue with diluted gouache paint. Of course I wanted the trimmings on the hat to match the colour scheme of the gown.

It is insane, but that is typical for ca 1790 hats. This was one of my main inspirations

A lot of my costumes these days are made from charity shop finds. Everything in this costume except the blue silk in the stays, which was a left over from another project, the pink ribbon, the boning, the fabric for the blue petticoat and stomacher, the yellow ribbon and the plumes is bought from charity shops. 

The shift is a linen bedsheet, the inner fabric of the stays is a hand woven linen fabric, probably intended for towels, and the gown is, as mentioned, a rayon satin that probably was made for furniture. The trim around the sleeves and neck is probably from the 1940s, and I bought it at a charity shop over twenty years, intending to use it for an 18th century gown. Sometimes things just take time.

The fabric for the blue petticoat and stomacher is deadstock fabric from Gårda Textil, a local fabric shop which has a lot of both vintage fabric from their own history, and more newly aquired deadstock fabric. I cannot guess when it is from, it could be any time between the 50s and the 90s.