Late 1770's robe à la Polonaise à coqueluchon

Judging from the amount of hooded robes à la Polonaise you can see in portraits and fashion plates they were quite popular in their time. I think it's a cute style, kind of a crossover between a dress and an overgarment, so I wanted to give it a try. It's made of striped silk taffeta with linen and silk lining and trimmed with silk gauze. It's hand sewn with linen thread. It closes with hooks and eyes. I'm wearing it over a shift, stays, a false rump, two linen petticoats, silk stockings, silk shoes and accessories, all hand sewn by me.

Snow and -14℃ aren't the best conditions to photograph a dress, but today was the first day off I've had in months without snow or rain falling from the sky, so we took few quick photos before running back inside.

Construction:

I was mainly inspired by these three drawings. 

Gallerie des Modes, 1778

Carmontelle, Madame la marquise du Dreneux

Vigée Le Brun, Standing Woman Holding a Sheet of Music, 1772

A lot of the basic construction I owe to the the research Kendra and Brooke have made over the past years. I drafter the pattern myself using my riding habit and late 18th century jacket patterns as a guide.

I sewed it together by first back stitching the two silk layers and one linen lining layer and then folding the seam allowance under from the other lining piece and whip stitching it over the seam.

Back has only one layer of silk and linen. Front has two separate layers and both are stitched to the side back seams and are joined together also on the neck edge and armhole. The outer front pieces are lined with silk to prevent the stripes of the inner bodice from showing through.

The joined neck edge on the finished dress.

I set the sleeves the same way I usually do. All four fabric layers together under arm and sleeve head sandwiched between shoulder strap an it's lining.

To loop up the skirt, the tapes running over side back seams continue unstitched from where the seam ends to be tied up on the inside.

Close-up

All the trim is roll hemmed and pleated in place.

1780's shoes

I have always loved the pink and black high heeled shoes in The Bata Shoe Museum's collection. I didn't aim to do a reproduction pair but I wanted to keep the main features, the color, the pointed toe and the high heels. As for the most obvious differences, I wanted to make mine without embroidery and with randed construction. It's a little old fashioned technique for 1780's but I have seen surviving examples of fashionable randed late 18th century shoes. 

My husband carved me the quirky tilted heels from wood and I made the uppers with silk satin and linen, bound with silk paduasoy ribbon. Toe boxes are reinforced with leather. Soles and rands are of leather. The shoes are hand stitched with linen and silk thread.

The shoes worn with my silk stockings and garters.

Construction:

Heels ready.

Stitching the uppers.

Stitching the insoles with uppers and rand.

The rand ready to be stitched to the outsole and heel cover in place.

The heel in place.

After this stage the outsoles were stitched on through the rand and the edge of the heel cover. The stitches run in a groove cut along the edge of the outsoles.

1780's French redingote

Earlier this year Kendra and I found out that we had both planned a redingote after a sketch of Marie-Antoinette for this year. I had originally planned this project for fall but as it would be fabulous to get to wear our redingotes together, I hurried to get it done in time for Costume College. It's made of black and white silk taffeta and lined with linen. It's hand sewn with linen and silk thread. The hat is a silk taffeta covered buckram hat. It's worn over my 1780's stays, shift, two linen petticoats and an older rump with the new quilted rump on top. The shoes are the striped ones I made last year worn with my silk stockings.

I started with a vision of an over the top, loud haute couture redingote, but as it progressed, I toned the plan down as you can see.

And because Georgians loved their artwork with a lady adjusting her garter:

Construction:

Because I was running so low on time I didn't take many construction notes. But I made it similarly to many of my previous 18th century gowns. Each bodice piece is lined individually and then stitched together.

The insides.

Making the trim:

The pinked trim was gathered and pinned to the base.

Then I stitched it down.

Then I twisted and pinned on a strip of black taffeta with raw edges folded inside.

I stitched it down and added fabric covered wood mold buttons on top.

C. 1790 shoes

Since most of my recent 18th century dresses, both finished and unfinished, are from late 1780's or early 1790's, I thought it would be a good idea to make new shoes to go with them. These have lower heels with slightly triangular bottom shape and pointier toes. They are buckle-less and have a low vamp. The uppers are made from silk, lined with linen and bound with silk grosgrain ribbon. The soles and heel cover are made from leather. They are hand sewn with strong linen thread and decorated with pleated silk ribbon. The heels are carved from wood by my husband. I wore them in the pictures with my stockings and garters.

The shoes have been practically finished since September, but it took me three months to trim them. I'm not a fan of the pleated ribbon frill, but it is the kind of trim that you see in all portraits and most surviving late century shoes, so I'm sticking with it. The shoes before trimming:

Construction:

They are turned shoes and constructed basically the same way as my first pair.

Unfortunately I took only two pictures of the process this time.

The finished uppers.

Uppers sewn to outsole.

After that shoes were turned, the insole sewn in together with heel cover, the heel put in place and then outsole sewn to heel cover.

1770's robe à l'Anglaise retroussée

Edited: I have corrected the term for this kind of gown from the robe à l'Anglaise à la Polonaise I originally used after reading Kendra's informative post.

The dress is made of 18th century reproduction fabric purchased from Duran Textiles. The dress is lined with fine linen and hand sewn with linen thread. I left it unboned. It's worn over two plain linen petticoats, the previously presented false rump, late 18th century stays and shift and the recently finished shoes, stockings and garters. Everything has been sewn by hand.

(I bought the fabric in 2006 and the fabric I got back then was silk taffeta in texture. I have seen this same fabric in a retail shop earlier this year and judging by that they have since then changed the fabric in to a slubbed silk, like dupioni, but very fine quality with small and few slubs. The slubs are more or less hidden by the dots and stripes of the fabric and the fabric is still absolutely gorgeous. It could also be that it was just that one lot that was different. I just wanted to let you know if there is anyone considering to buy and is picky about these things, that the quality of the silk might vary.)

The fan was purchased from http://www.artbyaurora.net/18th/

It's painted on a paper leaf and the sticks are bone. I highly recommend her products.

Construction:

The bodice seaming was based loosely on the late 1770's robe à l'Anglaise in The Cut of Women's Clothes 1600-1930. I cut the fabric for the petticoat and the robe to period width panels and sewed them together with a running stitch, five panels each. The top of the petticoat was folded in a sloping shape to even the hem and to accommodate a bumroll. The folded edge was then pleated and whip stitched to tapes to tie the petticoat on. The robe bodice lining was then sewn together. The silk bodice pieces were mounted on top and back stitched from the outside, edges finished with the stitch with the fancy name, le point à rabattre sous la main. The underside of the sleeves were sewn from the inside through all layers and top sleeve from the outside through all layers except for the silk shoulder piece that was sewn down last.

Skirts of the robe were also folded to shape, pleated and whip stitched to the bottom edge of the bodice. The robe is "polonaised" through silk tape loops and ties.  The bodice closes with hooks and eyes with no overlap.

I decorated the dress with pinked self fabric strips. I used a reproduction pinking tool and was very pleased with the results.

The strips were then gathered using a whip stitch and then attached to the dress with running stitches.

I had a piece of very old handmade lace that I added to the neckline and sleeves. And I made decorative bows from dark brown silk taffeta.

The large pouf hairstyle was made over a large rat and a few hairpieces were needed to complete it.

C. 1770's shoes

The shoes are made of white duchess silk satin and lined with soft leather. The insole and outer sole are both leather. They are hand sewn with linen thread.

After first wearing:

The construction:

(I apologize my possible lack of professional / correct terms. I hope I can be understood regardless.)

I have wanted high heeled 18th century shoes as long as I've been interested 18th century clothing. However I never found anyone who would be willing to make well over two inch heels professionally. And so I had the idea of making a pair.

I was aiming to achieve the heeled silk slipper look that I adore as opposed to a sturdy, more utilitarian shoes. I'm quite happy with them, although there's of course always something I want to improve for my next pair (high italian heel, pink and black like the ones in Bata shoe museum). After all this truly was a learning process. The hardest part was having no-one to ask advice from or help with the pattern or anything, but I survived. And the shoes seem do their job well. They are surprisingly comfortable and they haven't deformed in use. Not that I have gotten to wear them a lot yet, but I've been testing them on several evenings out of curiosity.

First came the heels. My husband carved them from a dried block of wood for me. In this picture they are almost in their finished shape.

The first thing that needs to be sewn are the uppers. I decided to line them in soft leather instead of my first choice linen. It made them act less like a sock and more like a shoe. 

Then I sewed the front part of the outer sole inside out.

Next came the insole. It was sewn to the rest of the uppers and heel cover simultaneously after the shoes were turned right side out.

Then I fitted the wooden heel inside the cover and determined the final shape of the outer sole.

After that the heel was secured by stitching it to the sole.

And then they were finished.