Gown preparation

It took a lot of time and research to find gown fabric. Ideally it should be silk, but we all know that silk = expensive. I was so lucky - I found the PERFECT fabric on eBay, and she had 17 yards available, and offered a 10% discount for buying the whole yardage. SCORE! I originally thought I'd use a different color for the petticoat and stomacher, but since I got all this fabric it's going to all be made from one material.

I'll be using the AD Simplicity 8578 pattern.

And this is my beautiful fabric:

Shift and panniers

I used Simplicity 8579 for the shift and panniers. After posting photos on the 18th century sewing group I was told the shift MUST be white since I am a high class lady. I got a good price on 6 yards of sand colored linen. The shift made up easily, and I cheated and machine sewed all my seams since they're not really visible on linen, and plus, undergarments, so who cares?

The panniers were very easy to do as well. I used 1/2" hoop steel and already had 1/2" bone tips. I made both of these in a day. Here are photos of the finished stays over the shift, as well as a photo with the panniers. Boyfriend is hired as my lady's maid because he did an excellent job lacing me in! I did made a size small stays pattern and they fit perfectly with no adjustment. My mock-up was too big, but I knew from experience that once the boning was in and using heavier fabric would give me a good fit.

I also made a petticoat using the tutorial from Koshka the cat. Then began the great bleaching experiment. I tried bleaching a sample of the linen and got it to a pale yellow color. I then got some Rit color remover and soaked the shift and petticoat in that, with no change. I did two overnight bleach treatments in the washer on the shift and pannier, and was horrified to find that the linen is fraying at the seams (not the actual seam, but the fabric itself), and it's an awful yellow/orange color. So .... lesson learned. First they're undergarments so I should have ignored the "must be white" peer pressure and left them be. Now they are ruined, so I bought some white linen on eBay and will start over. Sigh. I do think this linen is probably a bit heavy for a shift and petticoat anyhow. I have extra fabric and I think it will be a good lining for the robe bodice.

New project - 1760s Robe a la Francaise

I am beginning on a new project. I saw that the local dance group is having an 18th century ball in late March, and started researching gowns, and fell in love. I bought the new American Duchess book on Georgian gowns, and joined the 18th Century Sewing FB group. OMG all the pretties! 

I bought the Redthreaded Georgian stays pattern, and the AD Simplicity patterns for undergarments and the robe a la francaise.

I made the stays first. Stays have intimidated me since I began making corsets due to having to bind the tabs, and they proved to be difficult as I had imagined, and are not very pretty! 

I had bought some gorgeous limited edition Liberty of London silk/cotton voile back when I started corset making, and thought it would be perfect for stays. I fused it to coutil and used a cotton twill for the lining, and some faux suede for the binding. I can't get enough of this Liberty fabric, it's soooooo gorgeous!

Here are the boned stays in progress. I used flat steels along the center back and a spiral bone for the horizontal boning, and cheated and used zip ties everywhere else.

I also decided to be brave and tackle hand-sewn eyelets. My hand sewing is not the greatest so I was intimidated, but I watched some YouTube videos and did a practice one, and they actually turned out pretty good! I wish I had made them a touch bigger, but I knew I was using 1/4" linen tape for the lacing and it fits.