English Country Dance Costumes

I wanted a summery cotton dress to wear at conference in April.  As it turned out, no-one wore costume during the day, and I didn’t take my ball gown for the evening reception, so I was a bit miffed!  However, it got me sewing on my nice piece of fabric that I had been saving, and now I have a nice cool summer outfit.

I had been looking at the Fig Leaf front opening dress as a model of a North American pattern.  It is taken from an extant dress in Massachusetts.  I thought the Sensibility pattern could be adapted for this, and so made the bodice with a front opening and two drawstrings, neckline and underbust.  I had a small frill below the underbust drawstring, but it is not quite long enough to prevent the apron front skirt from slipping down, and I added some hooks and thread eyes to support it.  Inside the dress I added a small bum roll to hold out the gathers on the skirt.

Bodice with underlining pinned across bosom, apron front down.

Bodice closed with two drawstrings and apron front up.

Inside dress with bum roll sewn in just below underbust line.

Spencer and reticule added.

Here is the bonnet I wear with it

This dress was designed from an illustration by Mary Gardiner in Cunnington’s book, English Women’s Clothing in the Nineteenth Century.  I am particularly interested in front opening gowns, since it is hard for a single person to don dresses that fasten up at the back, and I am sure that not everyone in those days (and certainly in these days!) had personal maids!  All the exterior finishing is by hand.

I had found some silk twill, another online bargain, and had been thinking about this design for some time.  An occasion arose (a talk to the JASNA chapter in London, ON) which gave me a deadline, and so I got busy.  The silk was a very pale creamy yellow, not very interesting, so I decided to dye it with tea.  I used many teabags in the largest pot I had, and simmered it for 20 min or so.  It came out fairly even, and there were only a few spots I had to avoid during cutting.

I started with Sense & Sensibility’s crossover bodice, but made the opening in the centre front, and used the normal skirt pattern, attaching a band and ties to the skirt front.  I had been experimenting with fine cotton lace crochet, and had some pieces that I thought would do.  I decided not to insert the lace, but apply it to the surface, easier to manage, and also did not do all the insertions that Cunnington shows.  I experimented with dorset thread buttons, often found on dresses of this time, and found I could make 1/2 inch ones on some small jewellery rings I found.   For the sleeves, I made only one tie, and edged the sleeve end with a crochet trim.  The dress has a slight train, as I had just enough fabric for this.

  Front drawstring behind buttons.  It was not clear from the illustration in Cunnington how the bodice was shaped and this was my solution, as seen on other front opening dresses of this time.

Sleeve detail and bodice front.

The apron front ties over the bodice at the gathering line, and would be better with some hooks and eyes to keep it from slipping down.  The ties have carrier just under the arm, and could have two more at centre back, but it is not completely necessary.

Closeup of buttons and lace.

Side view of full dress

Back view.

I wore this hat and the dark green spencer with this dress.

This dress developed out of my new (well, since last May!) interest in my volunteer work at Westfield Heritage Village.  There I provide help with the costume department, particularly with the earlier time periods as Georgian, including war of 1812 and Regency, and am on a fast learning curve for the 1860’s.  I also work in the Printshop there, learning letterpress printing and demonstrating bookbinding techinques, so I have to have appropriate costumes for that time period as well.  It has been a lot of fun, but it could take over my life!  and I am struggling to balance things out.  I found a bargain (I thought) on the internet, of 15 yards of wonderful rayon taffeta tartan.  Once it came, I found it had a gold thread as part of the pattern, not exactly period correct, but colourful for the Christmas season and was given the go-ahead to make a gown.

I chose a fitted jacket and skirt design, suitable for late 50’s-early 60’s, without too many complicated pieces to make the tartan matching difficult.  As it was, it wasn’t possible to match exactly, because of the curved seams, but the mis-matches are balanced.  If I had included piping (traditional at this time) in all seams, it would have helped to hide this.

The black fringe is classic for this time period, and would have been around the bottom of the jacket too, but I had two points in front and three at the back, and it was a waste of the design to fringe it also.  I felt the ribbon line emphasized it nicely.

I wear an appropriate corset, the the traditional red flannel petticoat for warmth (it was freezing the three days at Christmas we were open!), also a cotton petticoat very full, but don’t wear hoops as people who worked in small shops could not navigate in the fashionable hoops.  And to tell the truth, a shop girl would not have worn such a dress, but the shop owner might, if she thought herself a bit above the rest!

  Chemisette/habit-shirt from Verona lawn, with pleats and embroidery on the stand-up collar.  Modern tatting-like lace edging.

I made the undersleeves from fine cotton Verona lawn, embroidered with trapunto and French knots and hand-made buttonholes, and after this photo I added the same lace edging as the chemisette.

Here I am standing outside our Printshop in the gown and ‘elderly ladies cap’!

My next commission was to make a ball gown for another friend, out of some shot pink rayon taffeta that I had in stock.  It is woven from two different colours, pink and a bright blue, with the visual blending creating a mauve colour.  We decided on a fairly plain dress, in the Folkwear pattern.  I added a narrow waistband and removed the gathers in the back bodice (after the only fitting) as it did not need to be adjustable.  I kept the drawstring in the neckline as it is the easiest way to fit the neck when making a dress for a customer who cannot come for a fitting.

Rosette on the sleeve

I added the rosettes, one on each sleeve, and created a corsage of rosettes made on a tiny base which could be pinned anywhere on the dress.   She wore them at the neckline, and it looked quite lovely!

This dress was a real challenge!  A friend asked me to do it at the last minute for her niece, for her 16th birthday party, which was to be a real Regency dance.  She had very definite ideas, having done her research, and the Monday before the event I received some lovely (but fragile looking) white crinkled gauze with blue rosebuds sprigged all over, and a set of measurements.  She wanted quite short puffy sleeves, a high waist and the usual skirt with gathers at the back and front mostly plain.

My heart sank when I saw the gauze, never having used it before, but there was no time to agonize over it.  I washed it and the lovely lawn lining fabric.  And then when I ironed them, realized the difficulty with the crinkled gauze, that I would have to iron it flat before cutting it out.  I warned them that it would be somewhat flattened, but that was OK.  Then I had to re-draught the pattern as mine (basic Folkwear gown)  didn’t have a small enough size, that was a good learning experience, especially since I had never seen my customer!

I plunged ahead with some trepidation, deciding to insert a narrow waistband in order to manage the gathered gauze.  I lined the bodice (simplifying the front into one pattern piece),  removed the gathering in the back bodice, and left some gathers in the front skirt as I felt the thin gauze would look too skimpy and it would not flare well if cut as in the original pattern.

Bodice side front

I left the sleeves unlined, and inserted the drawstring in neckline and sleeve cuff centre so that they could be sewn down once the dress was fitted.  Then I added a separate skirt petticoat that could be removed (only basted in due to time constraints)  so that they could make a bodiced petticoat if they wished.

At 4:45 on the Friday afternoon the messenger arrived at my door and I had just finished the hem!  Off it went, to some success, as it fit, and it was “just as I imagined it”!  I was also very pleased and relieved!

Bodice back