1830's Day Dress: The Dress

It's officially time to make another gown!

As I said in my project overview post, I wanted to base the design of my gown on the portrait of my four times great grandmother, Rebecca Alexander. The closest pattern for a gown in this style was the Truly Victorian 1830s Dress pattern. It's quite a versatile pattern as it offers both day and evening styles for the gown as well as a straight or pointed waist bodice option. 

I started out just cutting out the bodice lining piece for the straight waist bodice. The portrait is belted so I just made the assumption that it would have a straight waist. I made a quick mockup out of the lining and was quite happy with the fit. I then rolled out my silk and got to cutting. I only cut out the fabric for the bodice and sleeves at this point as I could keep the rest of the fabric on the bolt so that when it was time to make the skirt, I could just cut it and not worry about it being wrinkled from sitting for however long.

This pattern makes the bodice gathered along the top half. The portraits dress is pleated rather than gathered along the top half of the bodice so I deviated from the pattern and did this on mine. I was a bit sad as I pinned the fabric to make sure all the pleats looked right before I ironed them down. The pins left holes in the fabric. I have managed to make them less obvious by wetting the spots and rubbing them between my fingers to move the fibers. These holes are still there but much smaller and only really noticeable if you get right up to the fabric. 

With the pleats done, I sewed the lining to the silk fabric before joining the back, side, front, and shoulder seams together. I made some piping to go in the seams. While in the portrait, piping is only visible at the center front, piping was very commonly used during that time on bodice seams. Most fashion plates from the 1830s that I've seen do not illustrate piping on the gowns, but from extant garments from that time, there is much evidence of piping on gowns. Due to this, I made the assumption that the point was just not illustrated but was probably a part of the gown so I added it to mine. 

In the instructions they want you to put boning in at this point. I waited as I needed a hand from my dad to cut the steel spiral boning. I only had two strips and I didn't want to mess it up. In the meantime, it is sleeve time! I've got to say, I think the sleeves of the 1830s are so awesome and silly at the same time. I love how they affect proportions. As someone who had to do a whole year of figure drawing during their degree, the proportions that came from this decade absolutely intrigue me as they are so outlandish. 

The instructions for sewing the lining to the silk were kind of confusing. I thought I sewed it correctly but when I flipped it to the right side, there were still seams showing. I just went and did my own thing to get it to look right. I'm not sure if it's the way they wanted me to do it, but I think it looks pretty good. Gathering these sleeves was a mission. To get the sleeves to fit the armholes on the bodice, you have to gather it down quite tightly. My issue was mainly that my thread kept breaking because it was getting too tight which meant I had to redo it a couple of times. I ended up swapping out my thread from some 30wt thread as it's a bit stronger. This did the trick. I gathered the sleeves down as much as I could, but I still had to put some pleats in under the armpit because there was just too much fabric to fit in the armhole.

I moved onto the bodice boning at this point. There is only a couple of strips just to help give structure. I made some boning covering out of the lining scraps before sewing them onto the corresponding seam allowances. I did have to go back and shorten some of them as they were a bit long and broke my needle when I was sewing on the skirts.

Speaking of the skirt, it's time to sew that. I cut out the pieces in both the silk and lining. I sewed the silks panels together, leaving a 10inch placket at the center back. I repeated this with the lining. I put the wrong sides of the silk and lining together before basting along the top and hem edges. I topstitched the placket to prevent too much fraying. I pinned the center back and front to the corresponding points on the bodice. I then began to pleat between these points. The portrait isn't quite clear on what is done with the skirt. I decided to pleat it because I prefer how that looks compared to gathers. I did a box pleat at the center front and knife pleats leading back from there. 

Once I sewed the skirt to the bodice, I tried it on. A small issue may have arisen where I couldn't close the center back. I'm not quite sure what changed from my initial mockup fit but I knew I'd have to fix this. After much thought and measuring, I decided that the best option was to add some extra panels at the center back. I tried to pattern match as best I could so it didn't look too obvious. I made the panels a bit larger than they probably needed to be but I didn't want to risk having to add another panel because the first panel was too thin. I did have to adjust the skirt pleats to fit a wider bodice but this wasn't too tricky. 

Once it was sewen in, I got my mum to pin where the center back should be. I measured back an inch from there and started sewing on the hooks and eyes. I put them about an inch apart from each other. I used 19 hooks and eyes for the center back. I later added three hooks and eyes to the sleeve cuff, each an inch apart. I then went and whipstitched all the interior bodice seams. I put bias binding over the armholes and bottom of the bodice as these seams were quite bulky from the respective pleats and gathers so I didn't think whipstitching would be enough.

To hem it, I put it on my dress form over the undergarments. I then measured about two to three inches down from where the petticoat stopped and pinned the hem up at that line. I lined it up next to me and made sure it was at the length I wanted which was about ankle height. I machine basted 16cm in from the bottom edge of the skirt. I then ironed that back before ironing the whole bottom of the skirt back at the line I'd pinned. I then hemmed it to the lining. 

Then it was done! I really enjoyed making this dress. I felt like it came together rather quickly, but that's probably because of how long the RALF took me to sew. I have to say, I think that making the dresses for these costumes is my favourite part of the whole process. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy all the other parts of a costume, but the dress is where you get to see it all come together and it is such a rewarding feeling. This dress was especially rewarding to make because I based it on one of my ancestors. All those people who came before me are the reason that I'm here today. To keep their memory alive by recreating what they wore is extremely gratifying.

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

-Maysie