Challenge 2021:9 The Regency servant's dress
Kategori: Allmänt, Historic Sew Montly 21, Regency, tjenestepige project
I have not produced a lot of sewn stuff during the pandemic. Which is a shame, since the temporary stop to overnight work trips and such has technically given me a lot more quiet nights at home, also on workdays. Alas, that didn't help. I only very rarely finish stuff without a deadline, and since March 2020 that deadline has been a "maybe" at best. Inspiration/commitment to "maybes" is not where I excel.
Anyways, after hesitating for the longest time, my "maybe" deadlines are starting to look very much like real ones. My first one is up in three weeks, and I haven't really started yet. Ipp. That said, the deadline for the ongoing project is only six weeks away, so rather than to put that aside and start yet another I decided to finish the one at hand first. Because yay finished things is good for the soul and so on.
The background
A few years back in the pre-Pandemic before-times a friend cleared out her stash, and I jumped at a blue fabric with a black print, without thinking too much (or, actually, asking sensible question about fabric width). When it arrived, it looked in every way as I imagined it would, but it was about 80+ cm wide. Most fabrics you get around here are either 110 or 150 cm wide, so I didn't expect that. However, I had no immediate project in mind, I just thought that the fabric was pretty - so I put it in my stash for the time being. Then I stumbled upon this picture:
Tjenestepige (maidservant) by Johannes Senn and G.L. Lahde. Danish, Ca. 1810. From “Klædedragter i København” (Clothing of Copenhagen).
While this fabric is dotted and mine printed with small flower shapes, this was too close to ignore. As far as I know, the images in the collections seem to have been coloured from the start. I can't be sure, of course, but no at least no googling I made produced anything but varying prints and print quality with the same colours. So, I had a reference of a bright blue regency dress with a black dot print AND I happened to have a bright blue fabric with a black dot print. This was obviously a project waiting to happen.
The project
About 3 m of 80 cm wide fabric is... hard to make dress out of. Even if you, like me, are in the smaller size range. After what was likely hours of sketching, I realised that it was simply not going to work. At least not if I didn't get really creative. I have a background in folk music and traditional Swedish costuming (on a very superficial level), and there it's not uncommon to have a panel in a different fabric at the front of the skirt, where it would be hidden by an apron. The same can be seen in other historical fashion, when a cheaper/less fancy fabric would be used for parts of an outfit not seen when worn. The Tudor gowns with a forepart and lower sleeves is another example. So, I could easily google about 20 extant examples from other periods (earlier and later), but what about Regency? Google wasn't very helpful. I think I remember one (I want to say it was green, from the 1820s, also Danish but apparently I was daft and didn't save it anywhere where I can find it again), but not very many extant examples online. Finally, I decided that either I was to have the dress with an inserted panel or I wasn't to have the dress at all. This is me, going down the dreaded "there are examples both before and after of this solution, so it's at least plausible" route*
Two problems remained: How to make the piecing work, and what to piece it with? The dress fabric has a soft and rather heavy hand to it (heavy as in heavy for its thickness, rather than heavy-heavy). I strongly suspect it's a viscose/rayon or a rayon blend type of fabric** - but given horses and mouths an all that. It's a good drape, ok?? The problem was to find something that would at least roughly match that for a panel, to not throw the drape entirely off. Turns out that is nigh impossible, so I ended up using a small piece of really thin wool fabric from my stash. Since I didn't want to cut up a useful piece of fabric, producing a less useful scrap piece, I used a scrap piece. So.. I pieced the piecing.
The X marks the inserted panel. Top: the layout to create the panels. Bottom: The layout of the pattern pieces in the fabric. The bib (far left) was not cut on fold obviously, so that left a small strip for the top of the front panel of the skirt - to prevent the inserted panel from showing above an apron waistband, if possible. Note that the sleeve pieces are also pieced...
To get that 65*46 cm piece, I had to put four pieces together. All in all: 16 pieces for the skirt.
To get that 65*46 cm piece, I had to put four pieces together. All in all: 16 pieces for the skirt.
By now, I was in full thrifty mode and decided to use old worn out and bleached linen curtains for the bodice lining. I have kept them in my stash and used them fore a plethora of projects by now. Coloured linen is not very historically accurate, but re-using fabric is - and it doesn't show.
Despite all the historically questionable decisions already made, I decided to hand-sew that dress. Mostly because I like hand-sewing, and at the time I started the project I had ooooooceans of time. Again with the stash-busting, though. Cotton thread (for cotton fabric) would probably be most correct, but I didn't have cotton thread and didn't feel like buying new thread when I have a drawer full of thread already. So: Gütermann it was.
For most of the joining seams in the skirt, I used a running stitch and flat-felled the seams to create a slightly stronger seam (and a nicer look, and no need for securing fraying edges). For seams with more stress on them, such as the seam attaching the arm, I used backstich and then a line of running stitch - for security, and to convince the seam allowances to go towards the bodice, to later be hidden under the lining. I have increasingly taken to secure flat-felled seams with a running stitch. It goes faster, and I have grown to like the look on the outside of the garment.
The lining, and the little pad that's (I hope) also will keep the apron strings from sliding down later. I found a leftover piece of bias tape that was just enough to save me for messier solutions around the neckline.
I chose the simplest version of a bib front dress I could imagine, adding a bit of coarser linen for the closure part. A leftover piece for ribbon for closure.
The front without the bib - worn over a bodied petticoat in wool and a shift. I am not sure if petticoats in wool were a thing, but I live in Sweden and use my gear also when it's not summer. I will use a wool petticoat, so sue me. I normally use stays, but didn't for the trying on. The stays do very little to alter my shape, actually: at least not enough to matter with this type of dress which has no plunging neckline to (try to) fill.
I decided to use a hook and a thread loop near the lining, and then pin the corner of the bib to the dress. Which is basically what qualifies this dress for the Closure challenge - before I have used either just hooks and loops or buttons or both. This is the first time I use pins for an actual closure.
The finished dress looks less than amazing on the mannequin, with the pad (padded with scraps from another Regency dress project) making it a bit hunchbacked and square. The mannequin also messes a bit with the hemline: the dress looking shorter in the back on the mannequin, while actually being longer when I wear it).
I added ties made of scrap fabric.They had to be made rather short since I didn't have that many scraps, so have to be tied in the back. That means I will mostly need help when dressing. Normally I can tie a bowtie behind my back, but having to tie it above the pad is slightly more than my shoulder flexibility can handle.
The (almost) finished dress. Front, side and back view. The hem is still pinned in this photo, and sorry about the poor quality. I really need to get fancy photos of my outfits...
The leftover pieces. I get points for not wasting fabric! The bigger scraps will be kept in case I need to patch the dress later.
The challenge
While this project would fit a number of challenges, I have other ideas for some of them, so while this is partly a Waste not want not thing, I still add it to Closures (beacuse of the pinned bib front)
Material: Rayon or cotton rayon blend, blue with printed black flowers.
Pattern: Heavily adapted from Sense and Sensibility. with the usual disclaimer (decent patterns, scary outlook on gender equality)
Year: 1810s
Notions: Polyester thread, some bias tape, some cotton tape, small pieces of linen. Two tiny dress hooks.
How historically accurate is it? Not too bad construction wise, but I get all manner of points deducted for materials. I'd say 60%.
Hours to complete: About 50 or 60. Handsewing eats time, so does complicated layouts and a looooot of Googling for references.
First worn: Not yet, will wear it for a Larp in December, Pandemic permitting and all that.
Total cost: About 30 euros for the fabric. The rest is scraps and odd leftovers from other projects, which I will count as 0.
*This is also an excellent way to risk the distinct look of a given time period going away entirely and is not Best Practise. I know.
**By now it might be clear to the reader that the above * is likely the least of my Historically Accurate worries.
**By now it might be clear to the reader that the above * is likely the least of my Historically Accurate worries.
