Green silk 18th Century dress
My third dress was a new adventure! We have a Playford ball once a year in our area, and I wanted something different, that would be appropriate for earlier time periods. This was the result of my research into the earlier days of costume, using largely Janet Arnold’s book of early patterns for confirmation. Both the dress and the stays were made from patterns by J.P. Ryan, and I found them easy to work with. I settled on somewhere in the 1770-80’s, the versitile open gown (Robe a la Anglaise) with petticoat. But of course I had to start with the proper underpinnings, so the next step was the full stays. I made mine open down both front and back, for added size adjustment and ease of getting into them. Here are the stays, all the finishing was by hand, but I did sew the boning in by machine.
These show the eyelets that I made by hand, using a metal ring to reinforce it on the inside, which is apparently period correct.
Next came the dress, which I could now fit over the stays.
Here it is, made from green Dupioni silk, with a polyester satin embroidered petticoat. I aim to get some embroidered silk for the petticoat, but need to save my pennies! The fabric at the sleeves is not correct, is modern poly chiffon, but I have the silk to replace it, and to add a fichu at the neck. There are green silk rosettes on the braid, at neckline, and at the end of the skirt decoration. There are ribbon ties which are attached to the side seams at the back of the skirt with rings in two places on the seam, so that the back of the skirt can be drawn up a la polonaise for dancing (see the last image).
I am in the process of altering it a bit, as you can see it is a bit loose in the bodice, just by taking a long tuck beside the boning that supports the front opening. At some point I will make some pocket hoops which would have been worn with this sort of dress, but it is easier to dance without them. In that case I will have to recut the petticoat, and have left extra hem to allow for widening the skirt to fit the hoops.
