A Polonaise Jacket

Here's a Polonaise Jacket I made for my dear Aunt Harding.  Its made from a ribbed cotton fabric and lined in linen.  Pattern is draped.  All seams that can be machine sewn are and what shows is hand stitching.  There are a fwe things still left to do to it, like find some tassles and trim for the back seams, but overall it's finished. 


Robe a la Polonaise
 It is a fitted back gown that is looped up to create poofs in the back. It started to become popular around the 1770's and later....


Norah Waugh states in Cut of Women's Clothes on pg 73 that the robe à l'anglaise was often equipped with tapes to draw up the skirt, and on the topic of the polonaise says:
Though this term is often applied to any eighteenth-century dress with back drapery, it belongs, strictly speaking, to an over dress that appeared c. 1775. This was cut like the man's coat of the same period, with centre back and two far-back side seams all terminating in inverted pleats, the front being in one piece with an underarm dart. It was caught to the top of the bodice centre front ...
 There is a distinct difference that defines the style of Polonaise as opposed to the verb: to polonaise.
  

V. Polonaise:
 The open skirt of a Robe a l'Anglaise could be poofed up by tucking the front corners through the pocket slits (also known as "retroussé dans les poches"), or, later, by means of tapes and loops sewn into the skirt.” It was a trickle up of fashion from the lower class shepherdess and milk maids who would ruck up their skirts to avoid getting them dirty.

 
N. Polonaise:
Its a popular style in the 1770s and 80s defined by the separate outer front which drapes away from the body.  The back is also cut similar to a mans jacket with inverted pleats. It can be a short jacket with no polonaising down to a longer gown, with polonaising.
Contrasting and self trimming was evident, as well as silk gauze pleated along the edge of the gown and a large gathered flounce on the petticoat.  Stripes also became popular with this style.


Now that we are done with the boring explanations, I choose to do the Polonaise Jacket from Norah Waugh's The Cut of Women's Clothes, Diagram XXI

I have since finished it and added the box pleated trimming....but here are some pics of before the trimming. I've also added a piece of boning down the center front to keep the line straight so it doesn't buckle.

Cheers,

Kate

Red Rover, Red Rover, Bring Your Stays over....

So I am ALMOST done the stays for Mrs. S.  They are made from 3 layers, 2 cotton canvas and 1 is a rough textured red silk.  The binding is a faux suede that I had  purchased at a fabric store in Vancouver BC many years ago.  I bought it because it was literally identical to real suede but much easier to sew through.  The channels are machine sewn as I don't have the patience or the ambition to do it by hand.  I'm not that hard core!  LOL.  I used German  Plastic Whalebone, cutting and sanding each end so that it had less of a chance to poke through the fabric.  I also used metal grommets which I'll cover in thread to make them look period.  I just have to finish up the binding and put in a lining. 

Now that is one gorgeous figure! 



The bowed shaped front of the 1780's



Raspberries Anyone?!?!

So I've also been working on two bridesmaids dresses for my sister in law Miss Maggie for her upcoming wedding in August.  They aren't completely finished yet, just needing the zipper, a hem, and the skirt part of the lining. 

The fabric is silk dupioni from http://www.silkbaron.com/  I absolutely love his silks.  They are such a nice quality and weight for a fabulous price.  He has great lead time in shipping and fanatastic customer service.   I probably sound like a walking billboard, but I just can't rave about his stuff enough.

Here is one of them....Stay tuned for dress # 2

Busy Beaver....

So I've been insanely busy the past few months, both with sewing and with everyday life.  The hubby lost his job, so I was a mad scramble to find a new one and to put the hous eon the market so we weren't paying for two mortgages.  Yesterday he signed the last of the paper work and the house is officially sold! 

YIPPEEE!!!!!

He is currently on his way across Canada with the last of our possesions from the old house.  Its been almost 6 weeks since I've seen him last and boy do I need a break.  Being a single mom is hard!  I'm so thank full that I don't have to work and look after the kiddos....Big Kudos to those that do! 

I have been working on a few different things over the past 6 weeks: modern bridesmaids dresses for the fabulous Miss A, breeches for the boys, shirts for the boys, a brunswick for Miss Mary, Stays and a muslin for Mrs. S, and a camp dress for myself as all I have is the pink polonaise, which is completely unsuited to camp life! 

I finished it with time to spare....2 weeks till the Liverpool event.  2 Weeks!!!!  I never get my own things finished with that much time to spare.....LOL!

Here are pics of the lovely camp dress....

I had to polonaise this one as I cut it very short.  I forgot to cut out the sleeves so I had to take enough off the hem to do so....Stupid rookie mistake!  lol.  Its also closed with hook and eyes and there is a little rippling at the bottom where the point is, that is really irritating to me.  Its made out of Linen and lined in linen.....Enjoy!

Adventures in Breeches

After I finished my polonaise, and The MAN and I attended a soiree to celebrate Robbie Burns, I asked him if he wanted to join the world of re enactment.  He agreed and told me that before I was allowed to man any more girly clothes, I had to make him a proper set of clothes.

Super excited that The Man wants to play dress up with me, I started right away on a pair of breeches.  For inspiration I found these, which were originally made from buckskin.  I love the how the fall front comes from the side seam, the decorative stitching,  and overall esthetics of the front fall shaping.

I made up the pattern and had to wait 6 weeks for the hubby to be back home.   He agreed to let me take pictures of him, under the orders that I chopped him off at the waist. Mission accomplished!  The overall design in almost perfect.  I a few alterations to make.  Mainly they are too big, too long, and the seat needs more fabric to allow for more movement in the legs now that I have them pinned tighter.

I pinned one leg on the inseam and you can see that the one side is wrinkling on his upper thigh near the junk.  I like the hang of the leg that is not pinned. 

After they were pinned there wasn't much room in the seat, and although he has a cute bum, it's not period accurate.  I was hoping to make a compromise between the ubersaggy bottomed period version and the modern version of the pant.  I'll be reshaping the seat and adding more volume to get the right look.

Gonna have to shorten them

He was pretty concerned with what i was writing on his bum....Alteration notations of course!  Like I would do anything otherwise, (wink, wink)

Overall I think they worked out pretty good for the first muslin.  I have a few changes, but nothing major.  After I make a basic version for his first set of clothes, I plan to make a pair out of a nice soft chamois leather.  I'm so excited to be finally moving forward on his clothing, but not before I fix a few zippers, a grad dress and a bridesmaids dress, which are all due next week.


Cheers,

K

Evolution of the Casaquin

I have been pretty busy these past few days,  I have put together half of the main body pieces of the Casaquin.  Then as I was putting the one side of the comperes front together, I decided that I was gonna embroider a few flowers onto it. 

Silly girl.

I love how I CANT do anything simple...LOL

Here is a little preview of what I have done in since yesterday.

I used needlenthread.com. for reference and she has wonderfully easy how to videos for beginners.

Starting out.  I used the stem stitch on the vines and the french knot on the flower.

On the purple flower I used a loop and catch stitch, and on the rose buds I followed the instructions on her site and used a bullion stitch.

Almost done!

The back....not too messy!

Casaquin Toile

This was my inspiration jacket.  Its a gorgeous Pet en L'Air.  It's pink, the fabric is fantastic, the bows, the ruffles.  It's super girly and I love it!  It also has a very interesting back.  Most Pets have a 4 large box pleats, 2 on top of each other, where as this one has tiny knife pleats.  Of course I'm a sucker for being different.  lol

I left off with pics of fitting the pattern with no SA (seam allowances) on Mrs. S and making the minor alterations and then making the pattern ready for a toile.

I cut everything out and VOILA....

My Casaquin.

You can see the thin piece on the front panel.  I had to do that in order to fit the pattern piece onto the existing jacket piece.  It will be covered by trim after so nobody will see.  And besides piecing is accurate right!?!?!  lol

The sleeve is hanging perfectly for an 18th century version.  If it was a modern jacket the sleeve is tilted to far forward.  The only adjustment I made to the sleeve was to take out a few cm from the sleeve head as it had too much ease and it wasn't fitting smoothly

I amaze myself sometimes!  LOL.  The fit is perfect and I have so much range of motion.  I'll definitely be able to run after kids and wrestle them down in it.  To be honest tho, I never have had much luck fitting myself and so have always been unhappy with the garments I've made for me.  I can fit and sew ball gowns and wedding dresses perfectly for other people, just not when it comes to myself.....UGH.  But I think I'm gonna be ecstatic when this one is done.  Yippee for me!

Stay tuned....=D

Casaquin Anyone?!?!?

 I was given a dupioni silk copper suit jacket and skirt that is 10 zillion times to big for me.  Mrs. C Originally made it for a client of her's but the client didn't want it so it was passed on to me!

Whoo HOO!

I have hung onto this suit for a least a few years and finally found a used for it.  There really is alot of fabric in this suit and skirt so there was no point in throwing it away if I could salvage it.  Besides It's silk and silk is expensive.  Especially GOOD silk.  You can tell alot about the quality of the dupioni by the amount of slubs in the fabric.  Really textured and slubby (the ridges and bumps) the cheaper the fabric.  This is because the manufacturer is using the short, imperfect (not smooth) strands of the silk.

For the past two days I have been working on an 18th century Casaquin. First  I draped a pattern then drafted one.....


I started a a drape on Mrs. Squishypants and it was going smoothly, too smoothly....lol!  Once i had the drape I transfered it to pattern paper and drafted a two piece sleeve to go with it.  It looked okay when I made a muslin but the fit was off.  I dug into my shoulder and wasn't very comfy.  So I tried for hours to readjust the armhole shape to get it to work.  I gave up.  As a pattern drafter, I couldn't get the shape from the drape to translate onto the pattern since I didn't have the bust line or the Arm Hole Diameter to work with. 

So I started from scratch and used a pattern this time.  Although draping is faster and works wonders with bias material, it wasn't the right application for a fitted jacket.

Basic Block  Size 8 front and back No seam allowances

I used my basic block and traced it (without seam allowances) onto a piece of white cotton sheeting.  I then used that block to drape over Mrs. S (who was is stays) to get the right fit.

Front

Back

From then on it was fairly straight forward to get the design lines drawn and a pattern made.

closing and transfering darts front

Back closing and moving darts

extending the shoulder seam to the back

working draft no seam allowances

fitting the front pattern

fitting the back pattern.

I ended up transferring the dart out of the back into the center back which helped the princess line in the back lay flat. 

After all the little changes where made to the pattern, I added seam allowances and put the bottom on and added pleats....Stay tuned!

THe nightmare is over!

WOW!  Its all I can say...the Zone front Polonaise from hell is finished.  I'm starting to like it.  I think! LOL. 

I have been so lax in updating the progress of the dress so I probably will do a few different posts.  I don't want to make this one to long.

So I perused my last entries to see where I had left off on chronicling the polonaise....I have been very bad!  lol.  Well I ended up getting the Peach petticoat finished and spent hours upon hours on hand sewing running stitches and gathering and tacking the 10 meters of ruffle that went on the bottom of it.  I also pinked both the top and the bottom edge of the ruffle.  I think in hindsight I will be trimming off the "hairs" that have developed on it and using some Fray check, just so that the edges can stay nice and fresh.  I added the ruffle because the petticoat was about 3 inches too short, for my tastes anyways.   I know I could have gotten away with the hem being short as most of the fashion plates and extant garments I've found show the gowns to be ankle length, but I wanted to be able to hide my shoes since I have nothing that remotely comes close to the typical Louis style.

I had to make a new bum roll as the one I currently have is for a Victorian bustle and wouldn't work.  I went with a petal shape as I wanted the back of the skirt to be supported when I gathered it.  I thinks its pretty cute!

I had so many problems with this dress and I was frustrated with myself both in my draping and fitting.  Although in my defense one can only do so much with a mannequin and pin to oneself is a bit tricky.  I tried the gown on when I was almost finished, all I head left to do was finish taking the rest of the trim on the zone.   TO my dismay I had almost no movement in the sleeve.  It was too tight across the bicep and pulled when I tried to move.  I also forgot to add any kind of seam allowance to the neckline and the result was it was to wide and showed the straps of my stays and part of my chemise underneath.  The whole top felt very uncomfortable.  I had just enough fabric to re cut the sleeves, but only after I altered a pattern for a modern sleeve into the shape of a 18th c type sleeve.  After I had done about 6 or 7 new sleeve mock ups and finished tweaking as much as I could I re cut the new ones and sewed them in place.  I also realized that I had cut the armhole to low on the bodice which contributed to the pulling on the bicep and limited range of motion.

Before I did the sleeve however I cut apart the top of the bodice and made new straps to widen the shoulders so it didn't fall off the shoulder.  I wish I had stopped and taken pictures of it, but I was frustrated and annoyed I just wanted to get it done! 

So then I finally get the sleeves done, the rest of the trim attached and I try in on for the final fit.....AND  IT DOESN"T!!!!!!!

Oh my F"N GAWD!!!!!

I took it off, threw it on the floor and kicked the bathroom door a few times....okay...ALOT!  I'm happy to report the door is solid and still in one piece.  I have to be honest I contemplated cutting up the dress into a thousand different pieces.  Yes I was THAT insane with frustration and anger.  After I calmed down I looked at the best way to fix the dress...AGAIN!  I ended up taking it in in the center front.  It was the easiest way.  While I was taking it in I also decided to put in a piece of boning to keep the front straight so it wouldn't wrinkle.  I hate sewing hook and eyes so I found a piece of hook and eye tape and used that and hand sewed eyes instead of the eyelets I did before.  The eyes worked so much better.

The stays also had a transformation.  I cut the straps off and ended up sewing pieces of fabric in between the tabs.  I found that when I was wearing them it was digging in where the tabs opened up.   I also noticed that when they settled into place at my waist they were too short.  more of an under bust version rather than over bust.  I also had to take them in so they were tighter, since I had lost weight since I first started making them.  I most likely won't finish this set of stays.  They were a mock up to begin with so I know the changes I'll have to make to the "good" pair.

When I finally got to put on the gown an all of the accouterments I left out the chemise.  I don't like the way it fits...I plan on reworking the pattern into something that's not so voluminous.

In the end I finally got a gown that can be worn....Which I did to my first 18th c event.  More on that with some nice pics of myself and the hubby all decked out....

Stay tuned!

P.S....I forgot to mention that during this horridness of constructing, deconstructing, constructing...my wonderful boys decided to have a chocolate pudding war (my sewing room is the dining room since it's the only room in the house with a table) and slopped it all over the dress.   I managed to get out the chocolate, but boy was I mad....

Work work work....

For the past week I have been working on my Polonaise faithfully every day and I am pleased to show you the progress.  There are a lot of changes I plan to make on the next English gown I make, but for now I have  a  few pictures for your viewing pleasure.  I am trying to get it done for a levy on New Years Day....Here's keeping my fingers crossed.  I do have doubts tho...I am having troubles figuring out what kind of trim to use...should I self trim it, do I do gathers or pleats?  rosettes?  hmmmm...Ideas ladies?

I have also gotten a lot farther on it, but have been so busy with it I haven't taken much for pictures.  I have also done a petal shaped Bum Roll....the kids laugh cuz it makes my butt huge and anything to do with big butts makes them laugh!  BOYS!

Here come the Polonaise!

So for the better part of the day I have been draping my Zone front Polonaise.  Its coming along perfectly.  I do have concerns about draping sleeves tho, you know it's one thing I have never done! I didn't have a pattern so I did what I usually do when I don't have a pattern, I drape it on  Mrs. Swishypants, (name courtesy of AShton), my mannequin.  Here are pictures of the almost finished set of stays and the draping the bodice or the polonaise.

Front with half of the stays bound with faux suede binding.

 

The sketch of  the 1780's Polonaise

The back with en Fourreau pleats.

Close Up of marking the side seam for the front

 

Front Side Seam pinned

Front, you can see the shape of the zone.