English Country Dance Costumes

This dress is made from the drawstring dress pattern in Sense and Sensibility’s Elegant Ladies Closet pattern, as a test piece which I will alter again ( it is a D cup at the moment) and wear myself.   I used inexpensive fabric which is probably polyester, but drapes nicely.  I changed the pattern slightly as I wanted to have a smooth skirt front with only some gathers at the side, and it could be difficult to pull it over your head if the front was too snug (the drawstring at this level does not go across the back).  So I aimed for a final underbust measurement of approximately the bust measurement of my customer.  This meant gathering the bodice front to reduce the overall measurement to the right size.  This left some extra material on the skirt front, so I cut it off, sloping down to the full width at the hem.  I sewed the underbust seam and encased it as instructed, sewing up the front section to form the casing for the drawstring.  Then I inserted the drawstring and tacked it down at each side of the bodice front gathers, so that portion would not draw up, but only the side sections.  Here is the bodice

The arrows point to the spot where I tacked the drawstring down on the inside.  All the casings were sewn by hand so that there is no machine stitching on the outside.  In this pattern the drawstring at the neck exits at the front, and the back has the small back cut of the early ‘vertical epoch’.  Here is a view of the inside of the dress, showing the casing

You can see the points at which I tacked the drawstring.  You can also see the two flaps of the front lining folded over the top, out of the way.  I did not insert a small stays in this dress as it is a size sample at this point, I may add them later, but since the fabric is not the best, I may just keep it as a sample dress.  Here is a view of the side of the dress, showing the three sections, the front bodice gathers, the side skirt gathers, and the drawstring going around to tie at the back.

I even sewed the drawstring by hand, as I found that doing it on the machine made it very stiff and I thought it would not tie very gracefully, at least in this fabric…..something to keep my hands busy while I watched TV!  You are right, Jennie, it doesn’t take very long to do it by hand once you get going.

I have been having fun adapting my first gown to change the bodice to the wrap bodice in Sense and Sensibility’s new empire gown pattern, from Sense and Sensibility’s Elegant Ladies Closet pattern.  I removed the bodice, and altered the skirt so that there was a placket in the petticoat under the divided skirt.  The top was sewn on so that the edges of the wrap came to the edges of the divided skirt, it went together very nicely.

Here is the new bodice

You will notice that I put a small row of gathers at each side of the neckline, to widen it a bit.  Plus my opening is closer to the front than on Jennie’s pattern, to fit the skirt pieces, I just had to add one more pleat (about 3/4 inch).  I also added lace to the sleeves as the new sleeves are shorter than the old and I wanted more length.  The bodice is lined with linen and I have inserted a small stays, like those in the pale blue brocade dress, into the front bodice lining piece (two layers of the linen).

Here is the full length image

This all began because someone wanted me to make a front-opening gown for them, and so I did some more research into different patterns.  The Elegant Ladies Closet to the rescue!  Both gown patterns there can be put on by someone without assistance, so I wanted to try them before making one for a customer.  My next post shows the second sample, the drawstring dress.