démodéadjective: old fashioned, out of style, unfashionable [from French, the past participle of démoder "to go out of fashion," from mode "fashion"].
gallery: 18th century costumes
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18th century stays (V2: 2007; V1: 2001-02?)VERSION 1: Made (the first draft, anyway) at Costume College. It's made of two layers of corset coutil, with a plain muslin lining and white satin for the outer layer. My two irritations with it are: I'm not too hot on the silver/grey ribbon that I chose to edge the stays with, but there's no way I'm doing THAT over! whew, was that a pain -- all of it had to be hand sewn! Also, the pencil lines that I drew for the boning channels shows through the white satin. UPDATE: I had originally thought that the boning would dig into my overly abundant hips no matter how far up I cut between the hip tabs -- but I have to report that this is one of the most comfortable corsets I've ever worn. Lots of support, no rib pressure, what's not to love?
VERSION 2: So while I love the fit of these stays, the fabric choice never yanked my chain. It was nice and boring, which is fine if no one is going to see them, but when an event came up where I'd be wearing my undies, I decided to do something more fun! I was inspired by the many extant stays with contrast cording in the seams (what I'd call piping, although I doubt it was called that in the 18th century). I used some peach/gold silk taffeta left over from my latest francaise, and picked up some green shantung for the binding and cording. I also wanted the look of more pieces than I actually used, so I recut the pattern into more pieces just for the cover. Since I loved the fit of these, and I really didn't want to go through all the work of making stays, I ripped apart my old pair and recovered the coutil/boning. It wasn't too bad, although I did have to redo all the hand sewn eyelets!
18th century pocketMade years ago, when I randomly was inspired to do some embroidery.
18th century tart costume (2008)When Bella Donna performed at the Northern California Pirate Festival, we were excited to get a chance go 18th century and to have a bit more fun than we usually do. Courtesans in the 16th century are serious business; in the 18th century, "courtesan" has a slightly different meaning (note the addition of quotation marks!) -- so we decided to go as tarts. We hit on the idea to use light colors in order to distinguish ourselves from all the red and black worn by most performers/attendees. I wore my standard 18th century shift (to which I added a bit of lace at the sleeves), my peach stays, and made a fabulous stripey (in various shades of peach, red, and green) petticoat to fit over my side hoops. The best part was because I knew I'd be out in the grass/dirt, and only wearing this as a petticoat, I was free to use synthetic fabric (which I hardly ever do these days!) - which made the petticoat very cheap! It's loud enough that it didn't need trim, either, so it was quick to sew. With it I wore a HA-UGE 18th century wig, which I made following this tutorial. Sadly, I am not a professional wigmaker, so it didn't turn out as neatly as I would like, but it got the point across. I'm not sure if it will last for more than one wearing -- I would like to try to redo it, but I'm not sure how to do it any more neatly. But I finally fulfilled my desire for Big 18th Century Hair, and that was exciting! The hat is one of Jen's mini-tricorns, although all credit for the late night, 15 minute crappy covering job with a bit of fabric and some Fabritac falls on my shoulders. One of these days I'm going to spring for one of her fabulous custom hats! In the meantime, I'd like to trim this with some ruching or something to mask the messy job I did. Add to it all as much jewelry as I could get on, a bunch of patches (again, credit to Jen for making us skull-and-crossbones patches - whee!), and my red & white striped parasol, and you get 18th century tart-age!
See
the Pirate Festival gallery on the Bella Donna site for more pictures. |
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Hiding in the closet until I can face the horrendous fitting issues again. Read commentary and see more photos on the project page.
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The robe à la polonaise, which was à l'anglaise, which was a roundgown, which was a caraco... à la parisienne! Read commentary and see more photos on the project page.
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Finally has been trimmed!. Read commentary and see more photos on the project page.
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Of all the characters in Marie Antoinette, I loved the Comtesse de Polignac the best (come on - red hair, champagne, lines include "Fabulous!"). Of all her dresses, I weirdly loved this gaulle (or chemise à la reine) the best. Why best, I have no idea, but I was struck by: it's not white (us redheads don't look good in stark white), it's fitted in back (some fitting somewhere is a really good idea when you're a curvier girl), and it's just too darn cute! So I knew I would have to make it at some point.
After peering at fuzzy screencaps for a long time, I determined: the dress is fitted in back (probably to a lining), gathered in front (no lining - you can see the sheerness); long fitted sleeves of the kind fashionable in the 1780s, with no pleating or gathering at the armscye; some kind of sheer, ruffly trim at the cuff; round waistline; long full skirt; rosy red sash at the waist.
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My version is made of a very light peach sheer cotton lawn. The back is patterned off of my 1780s robe à la polonaise, with the shoulder straps cut a bit more curved at the back to mimic the back neckline. The back is lined with white cotton muslin, and interlined with peach silk organza (no, not period, but readers of this site know my love of silk organza as interlining). The back skirt has a round waistline that's seamed (ie not cut in one with the bodice - no way to get that fitted bodice back with such a full skirt) and gathered.
The front of the dress is patterned off of the gown in The Cut of Women's Clothes, with a slight scooped neckline. I turned over the edge of the neckline to make a casing there, and used a long strip of the lawn fabric to make a waistline casing. Although I couldn't get the sides (under the arm) quite as flat as the film gown, I found that once I attached the gathering ribbon at the waistline and put tension on it (ie to gather up the waistline and tie it off), it helped a lot to keep the fitted back attached and to smooth out the area under the arm. The front is unlined.
The sleeves are patterned off of the long, fitted, shaped sleeve in Period Costume for Stage & Screen. I was surprised to find that I was able to get that similar no pleating/gathering at the armscye - I think the sheer fabric, and lack of lining, helped - in that the fabric was able to stretch. I had to mess a bit with the pattern, particularly pulling up the undersleeve piece a bit, as I was getting some weird wrinkling on the underside. Late 18th century long sleeves are cut with a very decided angle to them at the elbow, and I found I just naturally held my arm in that position throughout the day. The cuff is trimmed with two layers of sheer, ivory silk organza, box pleated separately (ie so they don't stick together).
Except for the skirt side seams, the long vertical seam where I pieced together the front panels, and the armscye, the entire dress is handsewn. I just so prefer the look of handsewn seams on 18th century projects, and once I started it seemed silly to stop (for example, I kept thinking, "Oh, just machine the waist casing! It's under the sash! No one will see it!" - but when it came down to it, I couldn't stomach the thought!).
I wore the dress with a long sash made of red and white striped silk shantung (left over from my stripey bustle gown) -- which although I cut to be very wide (3.5"), kept folding on itself down to about 2.5"; I think I need to interline it with something, or just cut it a bit shorter -- a beautiful faux 18th c. portrait pin given to me as a birthday present by Shawna, and of course the whole ensemble is worn over my shift, 18th century stays, bumroll, and petticoat.
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