Robe à la Française - the first wearing at Christmas ball 2013

I had my doubts, but the robe à la Française got finished just in time for the Christmas ball trip, and with surprisingly little stress about it. Ok, to tell you the truth, I did panic a little on Tuesday (three days before the trip) when I had a problem with the front trim but I forced myself to stay calm and take care of the issue right away. And so the dress was finished a few hours before we had to leave home for the flight. I honestly thought I had a looser schedule than having to finish on the last minute!

So, this post is mainly about the dress and I will write another post about the event itself to avoid having a ridiculously long post on the blog.

Anyhow, as you can tell from the photos, I accessorized the dress with red, white and black to give this outfit some colour so it wouldn't be just plain white. I didn't have time to add the bows I was telling you about in the last post but it doesn't matter because it will be fun to add a little something new to the dress for the next wearing.

There are two pairs of tapes and loops on the inside of the dress so the train can be caught up for outdoors and dancing. 

Unfortunately my muff didn't fit in our bags so I had to leave it at home but I took a photo of it afterwards...

And since you're obviously moving when you're dancing, I also took photos of the hem pulled up later when I was at home.

The trim on the front of the gown was hugely influenced by the MET gown that I already linked to one of the earlier posts about this gown. I'm also considering adding some kind of garlands of flowers - similarly to the original - to the dress before the next wearing. I'm just not that sure if it will be too much decoration...

A little repetition here, in case you missed it earlier:  The bodice is based on a pattern in The Cut of Women's Clothes (1600-1930) by Norah Waugh. (See diagram XX on page 90) As usual, I enlarged the pattern on the computer as and altered it after printing it out. The bodice and the sleeves had to be shortened because I'm quite short and high-waisted (I'm pretty sure all my active readers are tired of hearing that all the time). I also had to add around 2 centimeters on the sides to the bust. Otherwise, it's basically the same. That is, if I remember correctly anymore. It's been a while since the pattern was drafted and fitted.

 Here you can see the lovely stripes.

And the dress seen completely from the front. I'm starting to think I actually prefer the way it looks when it's pulled up because it isn't so boxy like that.

The silk organza trim got officially approved by Leo... I really fell in love with this material. Actually, I liked it so much I'm thinking about using it for the robe à la Polonaise as well. It was so easy to cut and to work with. I barely needed to iron it because it folds easily with your fingers and nails. Leo also loved the box in which the fabric was mailed to us. He keeps sleeping in it so I haven't thrown it away just yet...

A couple of photos of the dress at the ball in the evening...

Special thanks to Ida for taking the photos and PS actions credits go to Bokhelie on DeviantArt.

PS. A few people have asked me if my hem got really dirty during the evening. Well, here's a photo that shows how dirty it got. I spent two days after the trip taking care of the clothes and cleaning the hem took the longest. First, I started by rubbing it with a wet piece of cloth and it worked ok but then it would have taken so much time to clean the whole hem with this technique so I continued the cleaning process by washing the hem in the sink with water and a little laundry detergent. I hang it for a while and after it had dried I noticed there still was some dirt on it so I rubbed the hem again with another wet piece of cloth. Finally after that it was clean enough so you can barely tell it had been dirty at all. It's never going to be completely clean again but I don't care because you kind of have to be mentally prepared for it if you decide to make a white dress with a long train. I could have, of course, lined the hem with another fabric, which would have made washing it much easier but the fabric is already quite thick so I didn't want to do that. 

Stay tuned for more photos of the Christmas ball and other events of the day... Oh, and if you like, I can take more photos of the construction details from the inside of the dress later on, once the batteries of my camera have been fully recharged...

Sneak peeking the robe à la Française

Time for a few sneak peek photos of the almost finished robe à la Française. Although I'm not sure if I can call it "almost finished" because there's still relatively lot to do... But the back side of the gown is actually at it's finished stage so I decided to take some photos of it to finally show you the progress on the dress and also to motivate myself. This dress just looks so dull when it's laying on my lap as I'm stitching it but once I put it on the dress dummy to take photos of it, it looks a whole lot different. I've had so many difficulties with this gown I've basically felt like giving up almost all the time but now I'm really happy I haven't done so. It's shaping up to be my first (but not the last, I promise) "pretty pretty princess dress".

The silk organza trim is actually striped. I was a bit disappointed to notice the stripes are barely visible once the trim was stitched to the dress. Oh well... at least the fabric was easy to cut straight.

I'm not particularly fond of the too synthetic looking lace on the neckline but it can be easily replaced as soon as I find something more suitable.

Being inspired by the painting below, I'm considering adding gray or black bows to the sleeves and the front of the dress....

And since Leo is my best (and worst) sewing buddy ever, he's doing what he does best and demonstrates how hard work sewing is.... 

Rescheduling... W.I.P. Robe à la Française

So, the robe à la Polonaise project got delayed because the floral robe à l'Anglaise - that was supposed to be finished before starting with the polonaise - got damaged and my schedule got messed up. After heavy repairing on the anglaise I realized that I would have to start preparing for the next event and start sewing my planned outfit for this year's Christmas ball. I could always wear the polonaise for the ball, but polonaises aren't really ball gowns so I decided it would have to be rescheduled for later. It might not even happen before next spring. It doesn't really need to be because it's probably best suited for strolling outdoors in the summer and I really need to make other garments now. 

So it was time to start making one of my other long term dream projects - A robe à la Française with narrow back pleats. I have always loved this gown from MET and wanted to create something similar. Luckily, I even happened to have some fabric ready for it in my stash. I had bought it more than year ago and had had difficulties deciding on what to make out of it so I had looked at some paintings of 18th century ladies wearing dresses made from white/cream silk satin. Then I remembered this famous gown from V&A and the decision was made - even though I was a bit afraid my fabric might be a little too heavy for the back pleats to drape well. Honestly, it should be a little lighter but I took the risk and I don't think it looks that bad. Or what do you think?

I enlarged the pattern from Norah Waugh's The Cut of Women's Clothes: 1600-1900 and spent almost all my spare time last week trying to get the bodice to fit. Finally after the third mock-up I was satisfied with the fit and the real fun could begin. First, the lining was cut from linen and the back was sewed up...

Then I moved on to the most exciting part... cutting and pleating the backside of the dress! Here's what it looks like at the moment, pinned on my dress dummy:

Tomorrow I'm going to stitch the front lining to the back of the bodice and try it on. I really hope it fits as well as it should... 

Le Petit Bal au Petit Palais

After a few months of lonely sewing I always kind of forget why I love this hobby so much so it's great to get to meet some people that are into the same things as you a couple of times a year. About two weeks ago I traveled six hours by train down to Tampere to attend a little ball there. At first I thought about making a long post about this wonderful event but then changed my mind because both Nora and Merja already blogged about it and I feel like I haven't got much to add to what they said. So here comes a post with lots of photos with only a short description.

Photo: Teemu Laukkarinen

To sum it all up, the ball was wonderful and you could engage yourself to many different kinds of activities, although from my part the evening was mainly filled up with socializing and watching others perform.

Photo: Markku Arvonen

I was as lazy as always taking photos but luckily there were other photographers who did so much better job than me capturing the event. I only fetched my camera at tea/coffee time and later in the evening. So now there's a bunch of photos taken by me of people holding cups and drinking coffee.

Later in the evening I happened to have my camera ready for moments like the one below ;) Here's Ida checking her garters and tying them securely for her dance solo.

Maija of Couture Mayah looking happy wearing her ever so lovely striped polonaise.

Who could resist a silly bum shot of the striped gowns?

I would have loved to dance more than I did but I've had the flu on and off for some time and that night I wasn't feeling good enough to dance more than once. Besides, even though the dance I participated in was familiar from several past events, I kept forgetting where to go and what to do so I'll have to try to dance more some other time in future events when I'm feeling better.

Photo: Teemu Laukkarinen

One of the best things: Muskotti playing dance music.

Photo:Teemu Laukkarinen

And for the end of this post, a couple of shots of the striped robe à l'anglaise with accessories. I kind of bore myself by using the same accessories all over and over again but the red belt looks nice with all of my recent gowns.

Photo: Teemu Laukkarinen

Photo: Merja

To read more about the details of the evening, check out these two posts by Before the Automobile and The Shadow of My Hand. Nora and Merja did so much better job at describing the whole evening than I did.

Second Robe à la Polonaise - planning stage

I've got so many exciting projects coming up it's getting hard for me to pick which one I want to do first. As a lonely seamstress I've recently been easily tempted by online group costuming projects because that's the closest I can get to sewing together with friends right now. Before I start blogging about 18th Century Court Ensembles Project (hosted by Kendra of Démodé) there's at least one dress of my dreams to make.  Ever since I realized the purple robe à la polonaise isn't going to fit anymore I started visualizing a new robe à la polonaise. At the moment it's my favorite style of all 18th century gowns and now that I'm used to it, I even find the hanging front kind of appealing. My original idea was to make a pale blue robe à la Polonaise with either wide self-fabric or silk organza trimming and black bows. But by now I know there are at least two light blue robe à la Polonaise gowns made in the recent past by other seamstresses and I'm getting very concerned about the uniqueness of this dress. Or should I say, the lack of it. I'm pretty sure many of you have already seen photos of the recreation of the robe à la Polonaise worn by Madame Elisabeth of France in the painting below. In case you haven't, here's a link to the blog about that dress in particular.

Madame Élisabeth seated at her harp by Charles Leclercq, 1783

At the time I first saw photos of that dress on the net I had just decided to order ice blue silk taffeta from Renaissance Fabrics but had not yet done it. It felt like a really big drawback for me because it started to feel like I'm going to copy that recreation, careless of the fact that I already had had that design in my mind for a long time. Not precisely the same design, but close. So this is where I got stuck. After a short while, I also saw another very similar dress made by Les Corsets de Lola on facebook (also found on this website) and lost almost all will to make the whole dress. That made me ponder the possibility of mixing two dresses: a Spanish robe à la Polonaise from Museo del Traje with light blue robe à l'Anglaise from Abiti Antichi. But somehow I didn't feel as excited about it as I had felt about the original idea. With the two following prints featuring two totally cute robe à la Polonaise gowns, I'm still considering making it in light blue. I would also love to make the petticoat daringly short, with shoes and a hint of ankle covered by stockings showing.

Fashion Plate (1780) from Los Angeles Public Library

The straw hat and the walking stick really complete this pretty little outfit...

1870s print of French Baronesses from 1783

Talking about group costuming projects, some time ago Merja started writing about her thoughts on making a robe à la Polonaise on Livejournal so we thought it would be fun to make them at the same time and arrange a group photography session after we're both done with our dresses and it really brought back my inspiration for this project. I hadn't lost it completely but I guess I just needed something to push me forward. Because I love to draw quick sketches to clear my thoughts, here's the design I was thinking about back in March. And still am, with slight alterations.

And another sketch that was actually made right before the one above. I don't like this as much as the other, but I thought it might be nice to share it anyway. 

Currently I don't feel so well because I've probably caught a cold or something but as soon as I get back on my feet I will finish revamping the floral robe à l'Anglaise asap and then head to see what the local fabric stores have to offer and  then I really hope I will come to a conclusion so that this dream project can finally start coming true. And hopefully, I'll end up having a cute dress something like this in the end: 

Portrait d'une Jeune Dame de Qualité, 1777, by Jean Laurent Mosnier.

Revamping another floral robe à l'anglaise

First of all, I must introduce my new friend to all of you who aren't my friends on facebook. A while ago I found this nice dress dummy from a second hand store and even though she isn't exactly my size she can wear my dresses surprisingly well for a random find. I'm considering padding her at some point I but at the moment I'm feeling too lazy to do it. And I'm not yet sure if I want to do it anyhow because right now she can wear one of my friend's dresses (without stays) as well as mine (with stays).  

Currently I'm revamping yet another floral robe à l'anglaise that was made a few years ago. Basically it wasn't in desperate need of a revamp but it bothered me so much that something had to be done to it. I ended up taking it almost completely apart because it was badly machine sewn and because the lining was loose and made out of sheet so I had to cut new pieces for it from linen. At the moment the dress nearly completely reassembled, lacking only the sleeves and hooks and eyes. Eventually the skirt of the robe will be looped up with tapes on the inside of the dress. This is how it looks now:

Since this is an old gown, I'm starting to feel like it needs something new to it - to cheer it up a little bit. This is not my gown so the final decision lies in the hands of it's owner but I'd still love to hear your opinion about it. The original plan was to decorate the dress with self-fabric trim but after some research on the net I realized that none of the similar extant gowns had self-fabric trimming. Evidence can be seen on this Pinterest board. 

I know many costume makers just love to trim their dresses heavily with self-fabric and I sure love to do so as well. But now I feel like I really don't want to do it with this dress like I did with the earlier robe à l'anglaise that was already doomed to be historically inappropriate because of it's fabric. But this fabric looks much more historically appropriate so I wouldn't like to ruin it by decorating it in a way that isn't. So what do you think? Have you stumbled upon a floral robe à l'anglaise that is indeed decorated with self-fabric trim? Or any other kind of trim that I could use? Of course accessories will make the whole costume look a bit more interesting but I still feel like the robe itself needs something to it. Please let me know what you think!

And here's one more quick shot of the bodice...

This is what the gown used to look like when it was made.

I don't think I have quite enough fabric left to make a matching petticoat but I'm thinking about making either a light blue or a sheer white petticoat instead. Or maybe even both. The petticoat seen in the two old photos no longer exists.