Romantic Era Dress Project

So here I go with another dress for my History of Costume and Textiles Class. Both this dress and the last one (Regency) were part of the same lecture. I think this one turned out nice in some ways but not as good as the Regency dress in others. You will have to let me know what you guys think. I will explain as I go along.

Ok lets start with the undergarments.
She has on "Open" Drawers (out of ivory silk), a chemise (off the shoulder with a drawstring neckline, made of batiste) and a peticoat out of silk with lace and ribbon trim. I added pleats at the hem for both body and to make the peticoat just the right length. She is also wearing a corset (plastic boning, linen and silk). Oh ya, stockings by kemper but altered to fit. And shoes I made her (more photos of that later).





Its the corset that I have a real problem with. It overlaps in the back at the top and does not close at the bottom. But mostly it is too long I think. It rides up way to much at the CF and CB. My doll is also a little nipply and it shows right though! I think I need to have those sanded down someday. And I need to glue her thigh "moblity" joints. (YA they are mobil alright ) And since the corset is the foundation for everything else the dress is not fitting as well as it should.

Her shoes: I need Regency/Romantic era shoes for my girl. I could not buy them so I made them. The uppers of the shoes are made of silk (burgundy on top and gold silk for the lining) I put matching ribbons in for ties but they are already tearing out. I will need to resew them by hand. I think I will add embroidery or beads to cover the stiching that will be needed. Anyway I found a great stiff, thin felt for the inside souls and glue on white felt for the outside souls.





I have two pairs of feet for my girl so I covered the flat feet in a platic bag (very thin) and used them for the last for the shoes.

More in the next post!

 

The dress was made of a wool blend lined in a light weigh gold silk. The gown is fully lined. I put the skirt and the sleeves through my embroidery machine first. I was useing a varity of threads for this project. I like how this aspect came out. The pattern was reduced slightly for the sleeves. The sleeve pattern is a leg of mutton design and I again used beads on thread shanks for the buttons.

The waist band is the same silk as the shoes and reticule. The bodice laces up the back and most of it is covered by the collar. I found that in my stash of random stuff! The collar is held on by sewing on one side of the neckline and uses the bead button on the other to hold it on. That way the dress can open and close up the CB. The skirt is sewn to the bodice inside the dress but I did not like how the CF pleats turned out on the bodice so I used the sash to cover up that. It needed the color anyway... More on the reticule on the bottom of the post.








The reticule is made of the same silk as everything else. I does work (open and close). Again the emboidery is from my machine but it is not the same pattern as the dress. That seemed too matchy matchy...



Overall the dress is good in the sleeves, the emboidery and the skirt but the bodice does not fit as tighly as I would have liked. Its ok for now. I need to re-do this outfit I think....

oh ya, the model is IH Iris.

 

Thank you ann!
I have a vision of this dress or a Regency dress made of the same batiste as the undergarments, and I have a lovely silk ivory stripe to match it with. Maybe some ivory on ivory embroidery with it. I put a sample of the batiste through the embroidery machine with a good stablizer and it did not rip it to shreads as I was expecting. Hummmmmm
I think I need to do 1920's dress or a 1930's gown first.....or Early Victorian....or......or......