1830s Pelerine

I finished another UFO! When I made my gold 1830’s dress, I also cut out the fabric for a pelerine, as my inspiration original had a matching one. However, I didn’t have occasion to wear my dress outside, nor did I have a hat to do so, so the pelerine didn’t have any urgency. It also had many scallops, so I left it. But I’ve been on a UFO finishing streak and I now have a 1830s bonnet, so it was time to finish the pelerine!

I chose to finish my scallops by lining them instead of binding them as it would cost less fabric and I thought it might be easier. I don’t think it was all that much easier in retrospect, but I’m happy enough with how it turned out. I did add the piping between scallops and the pelerine though!

I tried two versions of the scallops beforehand, and settled on the deeper scallops. In retrospect, I should have drawn them out fully, as the trick to clean scallops is that you can cut the seam allowance all the way to the point. Turns out that’s very difficult if your stitching lines are too close. I did this right in the sample, but in many places in the eventual thing I had to snip some stitching to make it lay nice (and then use fray check, which is definitely not what you’re supposed to do…). Drawing out the scallops would have helped to keep enough space between the stitching lines.

I’ve tried to illustrate this below. Red is how to do it, with the green arrows showing you could cut all the way between the red lines. Blue is how not to do it, as there is a large overlap of the stitching lines of both sides which will make the scallops impossible to turn around.

I like how I now have a pretty versatile set of 1830’s things. I have 2 dresses, one green and one gold. The gold has detachable lower sleeves, so can be worn for both evening (ball) and day wear. The green would work for (non-ball) evening and day activities as well, it’s copied from an evening gown but has long sleeves to work for day. I have a brown/white bonnet which will go with both dresses. I have an antique white cotton pelerine which will go with both (though probably looks best on the green), and I have a gold silk pelerine which would work both with the green and the gold dress. Ideally, I’d have two more additions to this: a white bodice/blouse to wear with the green skirt (as the gold dress doesn’t have a separate skirt/bodice it won’t work with that) and make it more informal; and a coat, for which I actually already have green wool fabric. Those aren’t up next though, because I’ll first be making an 1890s vest of the leftover fabric of my split skirt. I’ve already started on that!

New-year ball in Ghent

As mentioned in my 1830’s dress post, I wore it to the new-year’s ball in Ghent. The theme was 1830-1860 this year, and it was the perfect excuse to finally make this dress.

The ball is held in the opera of Ghent, in a beautiful baroque style room. This year, there was a dance workshop in the afternoon, which we went to as well.

After the workshop, it was time to eat, and then prep for the evening! I started on my hair, as I’d never done 1830’s hair before. I tried to photograph the process, maybe it’s helpful!

As I don’t have any hair shorter than hip length, I used fake hair for the side curls. This is such a typical thing for the era, I didn’t want to do without. These are real-hair extensions which I modified, and I’d curled them with rollers (wet-set) before.

My other piece of fake hair was a very long weft. I used this to supplement the braid. Although my hair is very long, it’s not very thick, so I can usually use a little extra volume.

 

Firs step was making the typical v-shaped parting. I then put everything up in a very high ponytail.

 

Next was clipping in the front extensions. I then took two pieces from my ponytail and made two small rope braids, which go over the line of the extensions to hide them. (A quick note: this took a lot of fiddling and even more pins, I really want to find a quicker way to do this…)

The front done, I pinned the weft into my ponytail and braided the whole lot. I then wrapped it into a bun, taking care to wrap the second time on top of the existing braid to create height. I then hid the ends and elastic inside the bun.

 

And done! To finish it, I clipped in two huge flowers to the side of the bun. For another tutorial (including the famous loops), my friend Nikki has a wonderful tutorial on her youtube channel here.

The ball itself was really nice. There was a lot of dancing, and swooping crinolines. I quite liked my corded petticoat, it was definitely easier to dance in than a hoop!

 

 

In-between dancing there was social time with friends, taking pictures, and just looking at all the other lovely people. Some pictures!

The golden girls, with Josselin (my partner in crime for the weekend) and Corina. Gold was quite a popular color in this era! I love how we’re slightly chronological, early 1840’s, midway 1830’s and early 1830’s.  (It shows beautifully in the hem length!)

 

We did a 1830’s group picture at the end. It took a while to get us in order, but eventually we managed to behave.

 

Some more pictures of my finished dress

 

Late 1830’s sleeve inspiration

I mentioned some of my plans in my last post. By now, the 1780’s project has been done (iteration 1, at least), and I will wear it next weekend. Expect more posts after that, because then I’ll actually have proper pictures of the whole thing, dress and hat.

It also means I’ve been slowly shifting focus onto the 1830’s project. Just a quick disclaimer; I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to finish this before the January deadline, because I also have a lot of other (non-sewing) stuff going on. But I’ll very probably start it nonetheless.

For my first 1830’s project, I’ve actually chosen a dress from later in the decade. And that means it also doesn’t have the huge sleeves the 1830’s are so famous for. I didn’t do that because I don’t like large sleeves, because they’re really fun. I made that choice, because in the latter half of the 1830’s, you get sleeves which basically start with the same amount of fabric, but where the sleeves are then pleated and smocked in various ways to make a relatively narrow sleeve out of all that fabric.

And I just really love this style of intricate sleeve. So, in this post, some inspiration pictures of 1830’s sleeves you might not have considered typically 1830’s huge, but which are very pretty!

This dress started my love for the sleeves in this era. Three rows of tiny pleats, with strips of fabric in-between, and piping, of course. I found this picture ages back, and for a long time, it was one of the few 1830’s dresses I truly found pretty and inspiring. The craziness eventually grew on me, but I still love this dress.

Dress, 1837-1840, V&A T.184-1931

 

Then, of course, there’s the dress I’m planning on recreating. With the same narrow gathers at the top, but than a wider band around the sleeve with a rosette.

Ensemble ca. 1836, MET museum 1988.105.5a–d

 

There seems to’ve been a bit of a thing with gold colored silk dresses in this era, if you look at the MET collection, as they have a lot. This one also features the typical small pleats, but finishes off the bottom one with a bit of lovely trim. (And look at those tiny gathers at the wrists!

Dress ca. 1836, MET 1973.226

 

There’s endless variations on the theme, and all are just a little different. This one has very narrow pleats, finished off with a bit of ruffle.

Evening dress ca. 1835, MET 1984.89

 

This dress actually keeps up the gathering all through-out the sleeve. It has tiny cartridge gathers at the top, and then after that bands to gather the volume down in different places.

Dress ca. 1835, MET 13.49.22a, b

 

The previous dresses are all in silk, but the trend was definitely applied to cotton dresses as well. More difficult to see, due to the prints, but it’s all in the details!

This one is actually quite similar to the palest gold dress above, but with two rows of pleats before the gathered ruffle.

Dress 1837–39, MET C.I.38.23.2

 

Most dresses feature long pleats, but this one has gathers instead. You can almost see where the gathers have been stitched down in places to keep them in shape.

Drss ca. 1837, MET  1983.241.1

 

A bit more difficult to see because of the angle, but the cut of this bodice is so pretty it deserves a spot. The sleeves seem to have two rows of pleats and bands inbetween.

Ensemble ca. 1837, MET C.I.56.27.1a, b

 

Most of these dresses were from the MET, simply because they have the best pictures, but to finish off, a Dutch example. I’ve had the pleasure to see this dress in person, and admire the sleeves.

Wedding dress of wool with woven silk stripes, 1836. Gemeentemuseum Den Haag 1018228

 

Inspiration – Summer

It’s hot here. The record for the warmest night ever was broken last night, and coming Saturday the national day-record might even be broken, as current predictions are 36 C (the record being 38 C). For people in other parts of the world this might not be much, but for the Netherlands it’s quite unique. So while I’m drinking loads of water and eating ice cream, some summery dresses.

The romantic period, between the Regency and Victorian era (ca. 1820-1840) is quite under-represented by historic costumers. The reason is probably that it takes some getting used to. It’s the era of dropping waists, growing skirts, huge sleeves and some fabulous hair (think of styles like in this fashion plate ) . There’s also quite a lot of extant examples of light cotton dresses, and I think the style is growing on me.

 

1820s, Augusta Auction

ca. 1820, Met museum

1823-1825. Sudley House, Liverpool museums

1826 Met museum

1825-30, Met museum

1826-29, Met museum

1825-1835, Augusta Auction

1830s, Vintage Textile

ca. 1830, V&A

1830-1835, Augusta Auctions

1830s, Kerry taylor auctions

circa late 1830’s, Time travelers antiques

ca. 1840, Met Museum