Sunday, March 24, 2013

Historical Fortnightly #6: Stripes!




The Challenge: Stripes!

Fabric: Cotton

Pattern: My own. It's a fairly basic cut.

Year: Last quarter of the 18th Century

Notions: Ummm.. thread? Some pins?

How historically accurate is it? Well, they did have cotton and they did has stripes. The cut is accurate but it's machine sewn. You can see more examples of short gowns here on Heileen's pintrest page.

Hours to complete: 1/2 hour. The striped petticoat I made five years ago. The short gown really only took a few minutes to put together.

First worn: Not sure yet.

Total cost: Free! The fabric was stash and even then, someone else bought it for me.

So, the full story: I made the petticoat for a robe a la anglais way back in 2008. The dress is not period - it has built in structural support because I could not make a pair of stays at the time that would fit me at all. However, I wanted something vaguely 18th C for a tea (this was the good Costume Con for those trying to figure it out at home). The dress, again, was not perfect but it wasn't horrible either. I still make petticoats the same way.

Although it wasn't period, I wanted to "save" the petticoat and make a shortgown for the outfit so I could have "day" and "night" wear easily. I never got around to it because my ability to make 18th C clothing evolved since then and I just didn't bother. However, the Historical Fortnightly gave me a good excuse to just sit down and cut out the short gown. I'll probably sell the entire outfit later on Etsy. But it is rather cute, or, rather, I think so.

The shortgown is all one piece. The cut is exactly like my 16th C Turkish outfits so it took all of 5 minutes to figure out how to cut it and measure it. Once it was cut out, I just had to sew up the top of the sleeve, the sides, and the hem. It really was only a half hour to make the entire thing - which may make me make a lot more shortgowns in the future if they are this easy.

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