Robe à la Française: Trim

Time to pull out my fabric. 

This is the fabric I will be using for the whole gown. I got it in a FancyStylesFabric Instagram sale where I got it for $30 a yard. They do this thing where once a week they have an Instagram live where they sell a selection of their fabrics for a discounted price. It's a great way to get gorgeous fabrics for a cheaper price. It does take a while to ship though and you can't get a sample swatch so keep that in made. I think I waited about a month and a half for this fabric to arrive. I knew from the moment they brought it on the screen that it was going to be my fabric for this gown. This was a big purchase for me and it made me quite nervous. I had been saving for a couple of months as I knew I'd need quite a bit of cash to buy the amount of silk taffeta I needed. Even so, I only got 11 yards which is going to hopefully be the exact amount I need. I have been saving though just in case I run out of the fabric and need some more to finish the trim on the gown.

I decided to only make the trim for the petticoat at this stage and make the rest of the trim if I have enough when the gown is finished. When I do my post on making the gown, you'll hear more about that trim then.

For now, let's get started on the petticoat trim!

After looking at quite a few reference images of fancy plates, gowns in museums, and what other costumers had made, I decided to one row of wide trim along the bottom of the petticoat then two rows of narrow trim above that. 

I drew out the templates from The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking

for trim. I did try to avoid this by using the templates from the AD X Simplicity pattern 8578 but I must have misplaced them when I cut out the pattern a couple of months ago. Thankfully I had some gridded drafting paper which made it a little easier. Although, the AD book is in inches while the paper I had was in cm which meant I couldn't really use the grid. The grid became more a means of making sure my lines were straight.

Once I did that, I measured the templates, added an extra cm to the narrow trim, and cut out the strips. I really liked the longer trim they do in the 8578 pattern so I tried to replicate that. I took the measurement of the wide trim template and times it by three and then cut a strip to that size. 

I then followed the book's instructions and folded my fabric in half, selvage to selvage, and traced on the pattern from the template. I pinned the halves together and was about to start pinking when I realised my pinking shears were not the same ones they had used. Mine has a triangle-shaped edge while the ones in the book are scalloped edge. I quickly got online to find if I could get any in NZ. After a bit of hunting, I found some at Spotlight. 

Now, I don't really like Spotlight very much as I don't think they have a very good range of fabrics for dressmaking, but they're really the only place you can get notions from in NZ. Some local sewing shops have notions but not to the extent Spotlight does. That aside, I ordered some for click and collect. The next day I got in my car and made the hour and a half journey to my closest Spotlight to collect them. I also got some buckram for the stomacher while I was there. Another hour and a half to get home, we were in business baby.

Cutting out the trim with the scalloped scissors wasn't too hard, but my hand was a bit tired after it. I found the embroidery on the fabric particularly hard to cut through. Now time to gather. This took me longer than I thought it would. I started with one of the narrow strips and got whipstitching. I did find that when I tried to gather the first 12 inches down, gathers don't like to go through the embroidery. My thread actually snapped. I had to redo it, but going around the embroidery this time. The embroidery wasn't too large so it didn't affect the look of the ruffles if I skipped over the embroidered parts. I did also leave the bottom edge of my longer ruffle raw as I want it to line up with the petticoat length once I hem the petticoat, so I'll hem the ruffle after that. Overall, gathering the ruffles is pretty straightforward, just takes a while.

After a quick iron, it was pinning time. I don't have a long ruler, so just grabbed a piece of straight wood and marked the center of my petticoat front. I then folded my ruffles in half and put a pin at the center point. I then pinned it all together, put it on the dress form to make sure I liked the way it looked, then prick-stitched the ruffles in place.

Making the trim took longer than I thought it would due to having to use hand sewing over machine. However, I think it is absolutely worth it in the end. I was worried that the trim would make it look messy as the embroidery is already very busy, but I think the amount I used really hit that sweet spot between hard to read and not enough trim. You'll see photos of the finished petticoat in my next blog post.

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

-Maysie