Robe à la Française: Pocket Hoops

I was quite excited to make these. I think that Panniers are the thing that gives Robe à la Française's the almost shelf-like hips that made me fall in love with this kind of gown.

I bought some beautiful vintage finished, piece-washed linen from a local market a couple of months ago. The company has just started an online store. I'm very excited to see what comes from them.

I didn't have any pattern-making paper yet, but I did have the American Duchess X Simplicity pattern 8579. I used the pattern for pocket hoops from this. My only issue making these panniers came from using this pattern. Honestly, it was really my own fault for not reading through the instructions on how to make the panniers before cutting out the fabric. The AD X Simplicity pattern calls for you to cut around the whole pattern piece, while the pattern in the book calls for you to cut the pieces on the fold. This gave me the extra job of having to sew up the side seams. It wasn't a big issue, just more of an annoyance as I could have avoided the issue if I had done my research a bit better. Other than that, I found using the pattern from the AD X Simplicity pattern a good alternative to drawing your own.

From there it was smooth sailing. The instructions are pretty easy to follow. Sewing the ties on, I got a little confused with some of the wording, but opped to sew more rather than less as the book does tell you "These need to be strongly stitched on." 

Other than that, the only issues I had were with supplies. I haven't been able to find a place where you can buy reed boning to the width that they specify in the book so I had to order from overseas. I ordered most of my supplies in early February. It took over a month for the reed boning to arrive. That's no fault of the seller. For some unknown reason, the boning was stopped in Japan for about two-three weeks. I'm not quite sure why it was even in Japan, but it caused me much frustration it halted my ability to make these panniers which in turn halted my ability to continue making anything else for this project. It was a very happy moment once the boning arrived. 

Once the boning was in, it quickly started to take shape, literally. About four hours after putting the boning in, the hoops were done!

I am so so happy with how they turned out! I can see how everything is going to come together and it's just made me even more excited to start working on the actual gown.

I'll talk to you soon. Have a swell day!

-Maysie