Chemise á la Reine, 2011
The
simple muslin dress, made iconic by Marie Antoinette in
the infamous Vigéé Le Brun portrait is the total
opposite of the glittering and elaborate court fashion
of the time. It's almost a forerunner of the empire
styles that followed at the end of the century.
Originally
the things that made me fall in love with 18th century
were the silhouette formed with hoops and stays,
ruffles, silks and high coiffures, and this style seemed
cute but rather boring. Still, they have their own
subtle charm, and somehow I ended up making one of my
own.
There were also practical reasons for this: I wanted
something new for the Viapori Vauxhall - event in
May, but even though I had some lovely fabrics in my
stash I didn't have enough time for what I had planned
to make of those. And as I had fabrics, if I wanted to
buy something else it would have to be cheap.
Choosing the style
The basic dress evolved into many different styles. I
chose the one in the portrait: Really simple, gathered
sleeves and wide ruffle at the neck. The ruffle would
also cover the possibly messy bodice gathering.
The neckline ruffle could sometimes be in lace, but it
can be hard to find a period-looking lace, not to
mention expensive. I also wanted to keep the
characteristic simplicity.
It seems that this type of dress was worn both with and
without stays (though there might have been less rigid
supportive garments involved). I chose to were it
primarily with stays, because without a defined
waistline it might make me look like a Moomin, and while
I'm Finnish that would be a bit too much. Happily my
stays also happened to be white.
The Material
I found IKEA muslin curtains for 9,90 euros for pair
and bought two pairs to get a really fluffy dress.
They were regrettably a poly-cotton blend, but I
wasn't choosy and thought the fabric might even be
more durable than all cotton. (Later I was ready to
admit that the fabric could breathe more).
Pastel blue was a rather predictable choice for the
sash and bow tapes, popular on the era and generally
one of my favorites. I was even lucky enough to find
silk ribbon, and double lucky to find matching dupioni
for the sash. The sash became the most expensive part
of the dress.
Drafting the pattern
This kind of loose dress
doesn't need a very elaborate pattern, of course,
but as Norah Waugh's "The cut of women's clothes
1600-1930" had one I based mine on that. I
especially liked how the sleeve was set on a
separate shoulder piece instead of a chemise-style
sleeve seam hanging mid-arm.
I
copied the sleeve pattern from the book but had to
lengthen it quite a bit. I had some qualms about it,
though: I refused to believe that the almost straight
top edge of the sleeve would fit well on the shoulder,
so drafted it more curved.
In the portraits you see both
low and relatively high cut necklines, the
latter giving a more soft, rounded effect.
I chose to cut mine somewhere in between. I copied the shoulder pieces
from my stays pattern (shortened, of
course). I measured the front and back
neckline width on the dummy.
At the planning stage I had
pinned fabric on my dummy to test the
right width. All four curtain widths
sounds like a huge amount of fabric, but
that's what I ended up using. It's more
than in the Waugh pattern and some repros,
but somehow it seemed to work.
Sewing the dress
Jenny
La Fleur's dress diary
was hugely helpful in
figuring out the construction of the neckline and
shoulder piece. Once again I have to say thanks to
people who share their experience for free!
I
began, as usual, with the small but time consuming
pieces: The neck ruffle and sleeves, a lot of hemming.
On the sleeves I sewed tapes of the same material for
the gathering. Then I closed the seams and finished the
tape tunnels over it, leaving a gap for threading the
gathering tape.
The
dress in the book has the whole front edge left open,
closed only with the gathering cords at the neck and
waistline. It seemed more practical to me to close the
seam at the hem and leave a slit at the top part for
dressing. I used french seams at the front and back
(later sides, too) and hemmed the slit edges by hand.
Another thing that I was
dubious about was that, according to the dress
description, the back width is gathered to a binding
on the neckline, but at the front it's gathered with
tapes. That's logical but I had a feeling the front
gathering might not look all that neat, and what
about my ruffle? I decided to just gather and bind
the front too and sew the ruffle on the top.
The
underside of the shoulder pieces is in slightly heavier
muslin, and to further keep it from stretching and
support the ruffle I sewed a cotton tape on the neckline
edge. Then I sewed gathering threads on the top of the
front and back pieces.
Though the fabric was very lightweight and sheer it was
still quite a hassle to gather a 270cm edge to 31cm. I
began with the back, and after gathering sewed it into
the shoulder piece and binding on the neckline. As I
should have anticipated (but didn't), the binding
stretched several centimetres. On the front piece I was
wiser and sewed the gathered edge first into a sturdy
cotton tape before finishing the edge with self-fabric
binding.
In the picture below is the wrong side prior to
binding the edge.
I hadn't bothered to calculate exactly how much fabric
I needed for the sides beyond the shoulder pieces, but
just left a generous width. After gathering the
neckline I tried the dress on. Boy, it was huge in
every direction! I pinned the side seams and marked
the armhole. I cut off the extra material left over,
and after this the dress circumference settled to
540cm. I sounds seriously over the top but gives a
nice, full shape, especially on the skirt.
I closed the side seams and sewed the sleeves on,
first on the armhole, binding the seam allowance, and
then gathering the top and sewing it on the shoulder
piece. As mentioned above, I had ended up drafting the
sleevehead curve higher. The result seemed pretty,
even if it might be a modern view.
At this point all the sewing allowances were turned
on the top of the shoulder piece lining. I stitched
them on to smooth the gathering and then sewed a
piece of the dress muslin on top by hand, turning
the seam allowance under. I guess I could have
stitched it on by machine as it would be covered by
the ruffle, but the handsewn result looked so
lovely.
Then it was time for fitting again: I tied a tape on
the waistline and marked the line for the gathering
tape following it. Here I deviated from the original
pattern again, as I decided to make just one
gathering line instead of two to get a really
rounded and fluffy look. When I took the dress off I
noticed that while in the pattern the gathering line
at the waist had been straight, according to my
fitting it dipped slightly downwards at the front.
As it had seemed good on the fitting I kept that.
As I was beginning to run out of time I sewed the
self-fabric tape for the gathering ties on with
machine. It would be covered by the sash anyway.
After gathering the waist the dress
looked less huge and shapeless, and rather pretty.
I had originally thought to wear with with a
bumroll but now I felt the hem was full enough for
my taste as it was. A tiny train would have been
lovely but I deemed it too impractical as it might
get soiled and torn pretty soon.
Then all that was left was to hem the dress and
sew the neck ruffle on. I had luckily recently
come across the mysteries of "whipped gathering"-
technique which gave a lovely look. The last thing
was to make the sash.
And here comes a dirty secret: I had originally
gathered the sleeve puffs with narrow cotton tape,
but after the first wearing I became so annoyed
with them slipping down that I later replaced them
with elastic band. The silk ribbons are just tied
over the gathering lines.
Conclusion
I finished the Chemise á la Reine just in
time for the ball, and it I think it really came
to its own on a balmy May evening. After that
it's become a pique nique favorite, as it's
relatively cool, carefree and washable. It also
fits anyone who is even somewhat close to my
size, with possibly a bit of temporary hemming,
so I've lend it to many people who are either
new to the hobby, musicians or models for a
historical fashion show.