Time Traveling | 18th Century Dinner Party

Over the weekend I felt like a straight up royal, all dressed up in a 1770s pink silk gown. Adam and I drove to Ohio’s oldest hotel, the Golden Lamb, for an intimate dinner party with guests dressed in their best 18th century ensembles. We had such a great time and loved meeting historical fashion enthusiasts! And seeing their gowns and suits close up was a thrill! Many thanks to our gracious hostess Amber, who organized our event!

Let me tell you about my look from head to toe! I loved every single step of this project - researching the history, finding inspiration, sewing and especially wearing it. If you’d asked me a year ago if dressing up in Georgian finery would be my favorite hobby… well, I probably would have believed you. I love it!

I started getting ready for the night by putting on my sleeveless shift and embroidered stays. These were the only items that went over my head and I wanted to have those on before I started my elaborate hair style. I worked with 3 day dirty hair which had already been powdered a couple times. I divided my hair into a front and back section and to create the height and used a skein of yarn (thanks for the tip Yunna!) and pinned my hair over it and directly behind it. Once I was happy with the coverage and height (covering all of the yarn can be a tad fiddly), I pulled my remaining hair into a low bun. Then, I clipped in a hairpiece that had been previously wet set into five curls. Adam helped me pin those curls over the edges so the base of the hairpiece was invisible.

After a vigorous spritz of hairspray, I lightly powdered all of my hair. The photos don’t quite capture the coverage, but it looked awesome! Some might wonder - why was grey/white hair a trend in the 18th century? From my research I believe it first started with the use of wigs by royalty in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many believe it was to cover the baldness brought about by STDs (seriously) and then evolved into a fashion trend. White wigs were the most expensive and thus the look of white hair became most fashionable. Pastels blue, pink and purple powders were also on trend. A tax levied on hair powder at the end of the 18th century helped it fall out of style. I really look forward to expanding my knowledge of historically accurate hair styles but I really loved what I came up with for this occasion!

For makeup I simply powdered my face, did a berry colored lip and used the same lipstick to dab onto my cheeks. I did a quick swipe of mascara and was done!

Before I put on my gown, I dressed in additional layers to add more volume under my gown and petticoat. First, a simple white quilted cotton petticoat worn with a false rump stuffed to add more fluff to the back of my dress. Then I tucked my sheer fichu into the top of my stays (which can also be tucked into your petticoat at the waist… but I needed my bodice to lay perfectly flat and didn’t want any of the fichu edges showing underneath!) At this time I also had on white stockings and my American Duchess Kensington buckled shoes.

Next up - the gown! I used six yards of pink silk to make both the petticoat (underskirt) and gown. On the petticoat there is a 7” ruffle with scalloped and pinked edges sewn to the hem. The dress has ruched sleeve cuffs and trim around the neckline and center front opening. At the neck and sleeve edges I also placed a narrow sheer ruffle. The matching petticoat, also called a ditto, is intentionally short - those Georgians loved to show a little ankle!

At my waist I have a 2” wide band of brocade silk, which actually came from my grandmother’s wedding dress (see her wedding photos here). Me, my sister and all of my girl cousins have had a piece of her dress for our weddings (I wrapped mine around my bouquet). I was rushed on what to use and wanted silk so I asked my mom if there was enough of this fabric at home to make a simple belt. She stitched it up for me and handed it off as we headed out the door for our road trip. No, it’s not perfectly 1770s in motif but it looks great, it’s special and perfect to me!

Lastly I pinned on a corsage made of springy faux flowers. I’ve seen this in a lot of portraits and illustrations and I love the way it add dimension and color to my overall look.

And that’s it! We had such a wonderful time and I’m already on the hunt for a venue closer to home so I might host something similar in the future!

Inspired By | 18th Century Pink

If we’re friends on Instagram, you may have seen some photos of my weekend journey time traveling to a historic hotel in Ohio with Adam for an 18th century dinner party (yes, it was amazing!) Before I share those photos, I wanted to break down my inspiration for the project and share some images that guided me through my most recent costume adventure!

When I saw the photo above left, I knew I wanted to re-create a similar gown. My first historical project was for a daytime event and made from Red chintz and blue stripes, so for a dress of the same era, but for the evening, I wanted to go 180 in terms of materials. Both are Italian style gowns, but as you’ll see soon, the end look is quite different! So the photo on the left - that’s the main image I kept going back to when thinking out this costume. I love the lush sheen of the silk, the matching petticoat and trim, the soft sheer fichu (neck scarf) and the beautifully arranged floral accents. Six yards of a pink and cream shot silk (one color running each way) later and I was ready to make the 18th century evening gown of my dreams.

As I prepped for the event and tried to nail down styling, I decided to re-watch one of my favorite costume films of all time - Sophia Coppola’s 2006 Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst. Fun fact - I was very excited to see this film when it came out and was actually on a work trip to Paris when I saw it in theaters there! It was even a week or so before it debuted in the US. If you follow my stories you know I am the kind of person that gets a lot of JOY out of things I love, so just imagine what it was like to see this movie on my first trip to France! IT WAS AMAZING!

But back to the film! I was rewatching and noticed the dress - my dress - or at least the dress I wanted to recreate. A little googling later and a very fun tumblr called Recycled Movie Costumes and I realized the original inspiration dress above was originally created for Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. The practical side of me loves that this gown got multiple lives in different movies (also worn in a Royal Affair). While my gown isn’t a screen copy of the one you see here, it definitely captures the feeling. It’s also pretty historically accurate while still letting me feel like I got to make some design decisions. Guys! This was a dream project and I’m already imagining how I might rework the dress for future occasions!

For my hair I also turned to inspiration images - some modern (like the editorials at the top of this post) and some from portraits of the time like the image above and to the left. For my hairdo the main elements I knew I wanted to incorporate were feathers, flowers, shape and powder. Creating a somewhat similar look too a lot of trial and error, but was majorly worth it. I felt like it was pretty historically accurate but I still felt beautiful wearing it.

I also ended up buying a rose gold wig and styling it time and time again only to end up powdering and poofing my own hair instead - a last minute decision I’m really happy with in hindsight. I will say the wig I bought was amazing quality and not expensive, so I hope I have the chance to wear it another time.

So that’s a little about how I got inspired for this project and this week I’ll share some photos of myself all decked out at the event! It was raining cats and dogs, but Adam worked his magic and got some pretty shots - I can’t wait to edit them and show you!

Time Traveling | Making My Blue Brain Hat

I love hats! Especially the fancy, floral, floofy numbers from bygone ears. For a large part of history, women wouldn’t leave the house without a chapeau!

For my 1780s look, I decided to work with a straw hat I had in my stash. Once upon a time I thought I might have a go as a milliner and thus collected a lot of straw hat bodies and blocks to make new hats of my own. This base was actually a modern hat, but the size was perfect for this project. Here’s what it looked like when I started.

After removing the inter and exterior bands I started steaming the hat out. Moisture allows the straw to relax and take a new shape (which is why you may have noticed if you get a straw hat wet at the beach, it will lack the definition it had when you bought it). I wanted it to have a very shallow crown, like a bergère hat that was popular in the 18th century. I knew I’d be covering the hat with fabric, so an identical shape wasn’t necessary - just the rough form. I also found that I could flip the back brim up and it would hold nicely, which I knew would be a good place to slip in some decorations. I gave the whole thing a good steam and let it dry.

Next I started on my fabric covering. Around the brim I created half inch pleats using a cotton sateen, a bajillion pins and a ton of patience. I first pinned the pleats to the edge of the interior brim, as you can see at the right. As I brought them to the edge of the brim, I let them spread just a bit and then brought them back in on top where the brim meets the crown. This was an easy place to become too perfectionist and fiddle! One thing I like to remind myself about historical sewing is that imperfection is historically accurate. We’ve become so accustomed to huge racks and full size runs of identical garments it’s no wonder something handmade feels a bit foreign to the eye with a little jumping stitch here or a slightly bigger pleat there. I’ve started to really love what a handmade piece looks like - one of a kind!

So anyway, when I got the brim pleats to a place I liked with pins, I hand sewed it down to the straw.

With the whole brim complete, I moved onto the brainy bit at the top. I used the same fabric but in a darker shade of blue and I love the combination of the two. For this part I turned to The American Duchess Guide to 18th Dressmaking (which I highly recommend!) and used their tutorial in the 1780s section to create the texture. Once it was all pinned in place, it also got tacked down with heavier buttonhole thread.

Now that the top of my little hat looked perfect, I set out to make the inside of the crown just as lovely. I made a very large and shallow tube (only a few inches deep) which I gathered at one side and created a drawstring channel at the other. The gathers were drawn in to match the circumference of the crown and sewn down. The drawstring channel was also draw up using a piece of string, tied, trimmed and tucked into the new crown covering. I also made two ties that were tacked down before the gathered interior crown bit went on. These let me to pull the hat down tightly and further emphasize the flipped up back!

Lastly was the question of feathers - how many and in what placement. After trying a bunch of different combinations, I settled on just one white feature layed horizontally in the back and tacked down.

In all I used 1 yard of light blue fabric and just a half yard of the darker blue. I had enough leftover to make a matching waist sash/belt to coordinate everything together. Because there are so many pieces to an 18th century kit (shift, stays, petticoats, bum rolls, socks, shoes, buckles, gown, fichu, apron and hat to name a few) I think I’ll keep my costumes from this era in the same general color story with this pretty blue as the common link.

I can’t decide if I should make one more gown (I do have the fabric on hand) as a birthday present to myself (it would photograph so beautifully in the snow!), do some modern sewing or start planning for the next era. I realized when I was sick for a day earlier this week that I cannot not have a project sitting around to pick up and play with. And as all of our outdoor chores are coming to an end for the season and it’s time to sit by the fire for the next few months, I do think another lap project is in order. Are you interested in progress shots or is a big reveal more fun? I’m not sure which way to take this one on. Let me know what you think!

Time Traveling | 1780s Italian Gown

Ta da! Here’s a look at my completed 1780s Italian Gown that I’ve sewn for an event later this month. It was a complicated project - from making historical undergarments like a linen shift, stays, petticoats and bum rolls, to the finishing touches like a silk neck scarf, sheer cotton apron and hand made brain hat! And then there’s the fabric, which was an existing reproduction print that I over dyed and recolored by hand painting in with a new palette of colors. And every single stitch was a pleasure! I learned a lot about hand sewing during this project (I love using silk thread now!) as well as new-to-me techniques. This post is going to be a long one, so grab a cup of tea in your prettiest teacup and let me tell you more about this project!

Historical Background

Italian gowns were very popular during the latter part of the 18th century, replacing English gowns almost entirely. What’s the difference you ask? English gowns look similar from the front in many ways, but the key difference is how the back portion of the dress is constructed. An English gown is fitted to the body through a series of pleats tapering to the waistline and then opening up into a full skirt. The other key style of the 18th century was the Robe a la Francaise which flowed from the top of the back bodice downwards to the hem.

By contrast, the Italian gown features four main back bodice sections that were cut pattern pieces (not pleated), a very pointed center back and a separate skirt with small (1/4 inch) pleats.

Cotton prints, imported from India (and appropriately called Indienne) were also very popular during this time period. They were predominantly on a white ground and the number of colors increased the cost of the fabric. I started out with a white chintz print, but I wanted to be a little different from the crowd so went with red instead (read more about my inspiration here).

In the end, I wanted this project to be a mix of historical reference and accuracy paired with personal design preferences. Something informed by the past but also not a carbon copy of a portrait or extant museum piece. I think I did that!

If you’d like to see some of the images I used as inspiration, here’s a link to the pinterest board I’ve been adding to for the last three months.

Now… onto the dress!

Gown

To create this dress I used the Fig Leaf 101 pattern and cut the sleeves one size smaller. I fit the dress with a mockup after completing my stays, which give the torso a conical shape that minimizes and curve of the bust (and pushes it upwards for major cleavage!)

The fashion fabric is a reproduction cotton (see it white here) I picked up from my insta-friend Penny River Costumes (see her etsy shop here) which was dyed using Rit dye in Wine and then painted in using white gel pens and chalk paint pens. It took between 20-30 hours to complete, but was incredibly satisfying and relaxing! I’d work on it at night after my kids went to bed while drinking some red wine and listening to podcasts. Needless to say I will not be testing this dress out in the rain and plan on being very careful not to get it dirty and will only spot clean it as necessary.

The dress bodice is lined in left over natural linen from my stays. The 18th century seamstress was incredibly thrifty and did whatever she could to conserve fabric and notions. I found myself unpicking seams and reusing the thread and carefully cutting my fabric to make best use of the yardage. Speaking of, I was able to eek the gown out of just three yards of fabric and even pattern matched at the center front bodice! Another thing I love about 18th century sewing - 1/4” seam allowances!

As for the construction, I chose to reference the pattern instructions but used modern techniques. I assembled it in the way you might do a lined tailored jacket by sewing both lining and fashion bodices and then joining them via the neckline/front opening. I used my machine for these seams, as well as the sleeve lining. From there, I turned to hand sewing for attaching the outer sleeves, skirt and finishing the lining. I also made use of the selvage edges in any place possible to get more out of my fabric. The front edge and bottom hems are merely turned once and finished with a tiny running stitch.

At the last minute I pinned up my skirts a la polonaise (not a true polonaise, which has a different bodice cut and construction!), because my hem is just short of the petticoat. I can fix that for the next time I wear it, both by doing proper tapes under the skirt (to hold it up just right) or by shortening my petticoat a smidge. Each skirt is over 9 feet of hem and I have a lot to get done (i.e. the costumes for the rest of my family!) so that’ll come down the line. Hopefully before my event or I’ll continue to wear it poofed up or don my red petticoat instead.

Underpinings

Although they aren’t visible from these pictures, let’s talk a little about what goes on underneath the gown! First there’s the shift - a simple linen slip with a wide neckline, sleeves and knee length hem. Women of the 18th century didn’t have huge wardrobes and to help keep the outer dresses clean longer, shifts were worn. Women of all social classes would have more than one shift that could be regularly laundered. On top of that are my stays. Next is a quilted petticoat that I gave a double turned hem which really gives my skirts more width and bounce! Lastly is a split false bum which accentuates the narrow point of the bodice and fullness of the skirt at the same time.

The shift is from Simplicity by American Duchess, the petticoat was done using my measurements (the hem is 4x my waist circumference) and the false bum is from the American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking.

Petticoat and Apron

I actually made two petticoats for this dress - although I didn’t begin with that plan. I began with a white cotton petticoat, made in a similar manner as the quilted petticoat and dyed it three times to try to get a deeper burgundy than the dress. My first attempt was splotchy, my second was a perfect match (but was too matchy matchy for me which says something!) and the last was a quick dip in black dye.

After my first dye I thought perhaps I had some more white cotton laying around and could do a light tea dye to see if an ivory petticoat would work. That’s when I stumbled on some white and blue striped cotton I got for a song ($2/yd and super wide!) in my stash. I pleated in all of the white stripes so it made a blue waistband and sewed that up in one night. I kept going back and forth on which petticoat to use and at the last minute thought - what about a Georgian style apron?! I had some super sheer cotton (from Burnley and Trowbridge) to spare, so using historical references, I made a simple apron with a pretty ruffle at the hem. I was so against aprons at the start of this project and now it might be my favorite accessory. The brightness of the white was something I changed by a dip in a tea bath to create a very delicate ivory.

Accessories

I’d like to do a whole post on my hat, so I’ll briefly tell you that I used an old hat I already had, removed the original interior and exterior bands, reblocked it and then covered it with cotton sateen. I used the American Duchess book as a reference for the brainy top and did pleated fabric around the brim. It was entirely hand sewn!

To coordinate, I made a simple belt using left over fabric in two shades of blue! It’s not laying as smooth and flat as I would hope, so I’ll probably take it apart and use a sturdier fabric as as a base and then cover it up again.

At my neckline, I’m wearing a silk gauze scarf tucked into the bodice of my gown. I’d like to add some sort of decoration to the center front - perhaps a bow or a corsage of little pink roses?

I also made a sheer silk cap (using the American Duchess Guide) but did not wear it for these photos. I may go with a huge hairdo and cap for my event just for something different next time I wear it) In the meantime, If you’d like to see it now, check out my instagram stories for videos!

Lastly, my shoes were a gift from my mom and are from American Duchess (as are the buckles). I was planning on thrifting or recovering something else so receiving these was just… ahh, I feel like I could cry. Thank you so much mom, not just for the shoes, but for being encouraging of my sewing my entire life and for being so enthusiastic when I text you updates of my costume. It really means a lot to me! I’m wearing over the knee socks I already had that are DvF, but the color and pattern feel like something a funky Georgian would wear! Hems were intentionally short during this era to show off those beautiful shoes, socks and sexy ankles!

Final Thoughts

You guys - I really love costuming. REALLY REALLY. If you watch my videos you can probably sense my excitement and passion for this hobby. I would say it’s a new hobby, but it reminded me of how I used to do this as a child and it’s so cool how it’s all come full circle. I love history, I love research, I love historical dress, I love using my hands, being technical and artistic in one project and I love how I feel when I wear these pieces. I love thinking of how women would express themselves through clothing 250 years ago just as they do today. I love how pieces were meant to be mixed and matched and how a smart woman would chose colors and fabrics to make the most of her wardrobe. I love the way my skirts flow as I walk, how I hold my posture wearing my stays, how I lift my chin to keep my hat from wobbling around, how my apron and feathers dance in the breeze. I feel like me wearing this ensemble. I love everything about this project and I cannot wait to wear it at an immersive historical event with my husband and children also done up in their 18th century wears! And it should also be noted that the community of women who share their expertise and passion are so inspiring! I’ve messaged so many of them with questions and they are so welcoming and knowledgable! You know who you are! Thank you!

Lastly - are there any Hoosier or Midwestern 18th Century enthusiasts out there? Please be in touch - I would love to host an event locally and have you join!

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