English Country Dance Costumes

This is the first romantic period gown I have made.  I used Nancy Bradfield’s book a great deal in planning it, and adapted an existing pattern based on the patterns in Jean Hunnisett’s book Period Costume for Stage and Screen, 1800-1909.  Nancy Bradfield features a silk tartan dress with long sleeves from about 1828, and I decided to make an evening dress using my tartan fabric. 

I cut the bodice on the diagonal, made the wide neckline (although the sleeve opening is more vertical than in the 30’s), and decorated it with a narrow bertha of cream satin with a lace edging.  Underneath the bertha the neckline is decorated with two rows of piping, one bias tartan and one lilac contrast.  I like it better with the bertha covering this contrast piping, but it could be worn without the bertha.  The large sleeves were taken from Janet Arnolds patterns for dresses of this time period, and were lined with net to hold their shape.  They are bound with bias tartan with a second piping of contrast lilac, and there is piping at the sleeve head. The back closes with hook and thread eyes, although I wish I had made it front opening……as it turned out I needed to put in a front seam (as in the dress in Nancy Bradfield’s book) and I could have had a side front placket in the dress……hindsight is a wonderful thing! (and it would have been less period correct).  You can see how effective the diagonal cut is with a closer look at the back bodice in particular.  This was a common way to creat interest in design at this time.

 The skirt is pleated with the pleats facing forward to an inverted pleat centre front, and the back 6 inches are cartridge pleated on each side of the placket.  At the moment I have grosgrain ribbon to match tying the back waistband, but plan to put a self fabric bow with hooks and eyes as in Nancy Bradfield’s example.  The hem is padded, with two roleaux, one tartan bias, and one lilac contrast.  I wore it with my full Victorian petticoat, and it has a nice shape.

This is my favourite dress to wear at the moment!  The fabric was one of those finds, ‘unknown fibres’, but it felt like wool, and I am always on the watch for fabric that looks period.  It is actually a wool gauze, and when washed (I tested it on the fabric for the bodice) puckers up like a seersucker fabric……..I was quite alarmed, but with 2 hours of ironing I managed to flatten it out enough to work on it.  Needless to say, I won’t be washing the garment…..it will have to go to the cleaners!

I wear it with a red ribbon tie, fastened with an antique pin of my great grandmother’s.  The watch around my neck is a modern reproduction, and springs open just like the real thing!   The white frill is just tacked inside the collar, to relieve the rather dark effect of the dress.  I have to wear dark clothes, since I work often with printer’s ink.

A friend of mine has a black silk dress belonging to her family, which is dated to this same time.  I looked at the construction very carefully, and compared it to the information we have on the plaid wool dress Ontario, now in the Royal Ontario Museum.  The construction details were very similar.   The curved back seams and the sleeve head seams are piped.  The front is closed with hook and eye tape, and my friend’s dress had a ribbon decoration on the closing, with ornamental buttons at the inside edge.  I decided to make the buttons, as I had nothing which would be correct.  Singleton buttons seemed the best solution. 

They are made with a brass ring as the base and covered with fabric, with a sewn shank.  Here is a link to how-to instructions.  I found with heavier fabric that you do not need such a large circle as she describes (my ribbon was bonded to some interfacing, and it was just possible to stuff the edges into the body of the button). This method of construction dates from the 1600’s, and one reference said black ones were commonly used during mourning.  Mine looked a little plain, so I decided to embroider them, using the pulled threads from a remnant of the same fabric. 

The dress has a small stand-up collar (it’s cold in my heritage house!) with the classic shaped two piece sleeves of the era.  The sleeves are decorated with two bands of ribbon, and the edge is bound similar ribbon.  The buttons are smaller, and decorated with a rosebud.

There is a placket on the right side of the front skirt (because the dress fastens right over left.  Some dresses at this time fastened like men’s clothes today, left over right), so there is a filler piece of waistband on the skirt from the opening to the bodice closing, which lies under the right bodice front and is hooked to it.  Some front closings are straight down into the centre front of the skirt, but the side opening seems more frequent.  The unlined skirt is pleated with all facing forward from the back, an inverted pleat at centre front, and a box pleat at the back.  I have a belt cut out, but not made yet.  It will have ribbon binding and a large embroidered button at the closing.

Full length:  you can see glimpses of the white cotton that lines the bodice and sleeves.

I couldn’t find the wool braid that was normally used to finish the hem, so used braided tape which worked well and gave the hem some body.  I wear this over a full Victorian petticoat and red flannel petticoat, along with the proper corset (which is wonderful support when you are standing all your shift!).  As I work in a small shop, hoops are not practical.