18th Century Cottons

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

When making an 18th century dress (or any historical garment before the advent of synthetic fabrics) you have essentially four options: wool, silk, cotton, and linen. Of course, the most common of these today is cotton. But most cotton isn't appropriate for 18th century clothing because of the print. So what cotton prints are appropriate?


I did some research. All the gowns in this post are cotton.

First we have the most common kind of cotton print. White or cream background with some sort of floral, viney pattern.



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These are really the quintessential cotton gown. Some of the patterns are more dense but follow the same basic principle:


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From LACMA

And here is another example of the floral-on-white pattern:


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There are other floral prints that aren't so viney but are more spaced out. Prints like these are easier to find these days. These prints remind me of a garden tea party.
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From the V&A

And there are also some ridiculously big floral splotches on white, like these two:

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From LACMA


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From the Met

That first one is a little ridiculous! It's like, neon fruits. Almost graphic! Also, check out the border print on the second one.


Then we have stripes. It appears that stripes, when used on cotton, were more for work dresses or for middle- to lower-class gowns. You probably wouldn't see Marie Antoinette at a ball in a cotton dress of any print.

This gown is the only cotton striped gown I could find online.


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It's hard to tell, but it's got tiny blue stripes all over. The pattern is: wide white stripe, narrow blue, narrow white, narrow blue, wide white, etc. The page says that it was a middle-class woman's gown.

Finally, there are some surprising prints that don't really fit into any of these categories. This is the weirdest 18th century dress I have ever seen.


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The print looks way more 1840s-1860s to me than 1780s! Here is a close-up of the fabric;

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Weird. But it's comforting because I can so see this being in a store today. These are from the V&A.

So, you ask, where can I actually get a moderately accurate looking fabric to make a cotton gown out of? There are online stores that specialize in that sort of thing.


I haven't personally ordered from any of these so I can't really tell you which are good.

Some other articles on the topic:
(She has fabulous articles on everything 18th C.)

Diamonds are Howl's Best Friend

Sunday, August 14, 2011

I've been working on like 5 different projects. Of course the most impressive at the moment is the Howl jacket. I've gotten the diamonds I need sewn on, and now I need to get more grey fabric to finish the outside. Then I'll sew the two layers together including the diamonds. Here's what I've got now:



Also I'm working on a modern adaptation of an 18th century robe a l'anglaise, some 18th century stays and those miniatures still. I should've taken pictures of those things but whatever. Still pretending people actually read this blog...

-Madame Taylor


Howl Jacket, etc.

Monday, August 8, 2011


On Saturday a family friend and fellow Quaker called and told me she had a bunch of sewing stuff and fabric to get rid of and did I want it? OF COURSE I wanted it. So I went over there yesterday. There's some great stuff and some okay stuff and some weird stuff but I totally love it all.



Isn't that white floral on the top just wonderfully 18th century? I want to make a polonaise out of it. But we'll see, I have to make stays and all that first. The ugly orange blocky thing is heavy weight linen. PERFECT for the inner layer of some stays. Not useful for very much else. There is a lot of patterning paper and these cute 70's pattern drafting kits. I love it. Oh, and that Walmart bag of scraps.

And see that white box on the far left? That's filled with yards and yards of handwoven teal silk from Thailand or somewhere. SWOON.



MEANWHILE...
In the spring I got a comment on dA on the Howl's Moving Castle jacket I made last fall. This person wanted me to make her one. I told her that I was busy at the time but she didn't need it until late September. So we've been emailing back and forth and yesterday I started working on Cindy's Howl jacket!

I made the lining first. It's made of the same red poly satin that I used for the first one. I somehow miscalculated and ended up with twice as much as I needed, so I had plenty to make this one with.

Same for the pink front and sleeves, I had plenty left over. So all I have to buy is the grey for the back, and the yellow ribbon edging. Sweet!

Here are the other pieces I've cut out so far. The pink is the front (the sleeves are under), and then there are 12 diamonds and 2 half diamonds. Really I need 18 grey pieces total, but since 6 of them are half-diamonds, I think I might be okay on the diamond front. If not, I have to get more grey anyway so I'll cut out some more.


In other news, school starts on Thursday. I'm still working on the mini 18th century things. Did I mention miniature stays take just as long as their full-size counterparts? Well, I actually wouldn't know, since I haven't made those yet. But I did win a pattern on ebay.

Sorry for the bad pictures. They're from an iPhone.

-Madame Taylor

Progress on the 1/4 Scale Stays

Friday, August 5, 2011

So remember those 1/4 scale 18th century things I told you about? Well, I thought I'd post about the progress I'm making!

I started the polonaise first and realized it doesn't fit my miniature dummy, who was made for the renaissance stays. So I decided to make a new dummy, but first I'd need to make some stays to go with the dress. So off I went.

I got the basis for my pattern from here and then fixed up the dress bodice pattern to look more like that. The boning layout is also based on that.

I traced around the pieces onto "linen" (cotton scraps) and "silk" (poly satin). Once they were cut out I started sewing the layers together. There were some "oops" moments, including the one when I realized I couldn't get boning in from the top if the top was already sewn shut! Luckily I remedied this. Here is a picture of half the front, the piece I've currently made the most progress on:




The green is my "sturdy layer." There's going to be another lining after it's all together.

And here are all the pieces laid out side by side.
I haven't slit all the tabs yet because poly satin frays like nobody's business. For the edges I'm basically doing some sort of buttonhole whipstitch around them. Yes, I know it will take forever. I didn't start this because I wanted a quick project!

So that's those. I'll hopefully post about the dress itself soon.

Bloggin' Time...

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Ooh, the very first post of a brand new blog!

I created this blog as a presence in the wide world of sewing/costume/historical garb on the internet. I follow so many blogs of this sort and I figured it was about time I had my own.

What do I do? Well, I'm about to be a senior in high school and I've always loved costume. I sew clothes for myself and I adore fashion history. Currently I haven't made any full-size historical costumes but I adore making miniatures. Right now I'm working on a 1/4 scale renaissance corset and a 1/4 scale 1770's polonaise, both based on Janet Arnold books. This fall I'll be making parts of a full size renaissance costume for some customers for their dance performances.

Maybe I should've put all that in my about me. Oh well.

This blog may not have too many pictures because of the orneriness of my computer. But we'll see.

Enjoy!

 
Madame Tailor - by Templates para novo blogger