The foundation of the 1630's gown

So, here I was, happily sewing the boning channels in the foundation when I idly glance at the pattern and realize that I have assumed something of the pattern that is completely wrong. As you can see on my pattern, I have placed the lacing panel at the front.

 

In reality, which you can clearly see both on the pattern and the X-ray, the lacing panel is actually placed on top of the front/side piece.

 

I have stared and stared at this pattern and haven’t even noticed it until now. However, in reality it doesn’t matter much for my fit. I still need to make the front a little different to ensure a good fit.

The fit after the foundation has been boned is quite good, I’m thankful to say. Here it is machine basted together, but will be ripped apart and be separately covered with taffeta before assembled permanently. The front doesn’t lace completely shut, which is according to plan. Experience has told me that it will be laced shut after a while.

 

 

The back, however, is still, even if I made it significantly narrower, still a bit wide. I will let it be, though. With the shell fabric on top and then a collar, I doubt that it will be noticeable.

There is also a lot of cleavage. It is kind of hard of me to not have, being amply endowed, but that will be better too when I can lace it shut. The taffeta stomacher will be boned too and give some additional support.

The taffeta shell fabric. Front and back are longer than the foundation and there are also six gussets to give additional hip width. Fabric is always hard to get right on photos. The taffeta is actually two toned in purple and pink.

It looks a little better here, but a bit too yellow.

Starting the 1630's gown

Vacation is over and a nice vacation it was too, I have no complaints at all. Now I have a tremendous backlog of blogs to read- it will probably take me a week or so. My sewing plans for the rest of the year is to continue to finish my already started to project. I haven’t been completely good there; I have started a few completely new ones this year. The current example is a striped 1790’s gown. I’m making it completely by hand and am just about to set the sleevils. I have also, finally, started the 1630’s gown! I have been a bit angsty over the pattern, but then I realized that I could use my 1790’s stays. It may sound strange, but actually makes sense, because the back seam is placed in just about the right place and it is also raised to hit just above the waist.

So I traced the stays onto paper, and then draw in the right shape for the bodice. The pattern for the original can be found in Seventeenth-Century Women's Dress Patterns by Jenny Tiramani and Susan North. The foundation is in linen canvas, enforced by both buckram and boning, and it seems likely that it could be used without stays and that is how I want to interpret it. There is a problem with that with the original because the front is laced with a panel that is just about 10 cm high, stopping well beneath the bust. As breasts were not left to roam free, this may mean that stays were worn underneath it, but it can also mean that a now missing, boned stomacher was worn with it.

Here is the finished pattern. The original lines of the stays can be seen as a faint line. The pattern has a narrow back piece and a long front/back piece as well as the lacing panel. The areas shaded with blue are reinforced with heavy buckram and the red with a lighter weight. I haven’t drawn in the boning channels, but there are horizontal ones at the back and a few for every reinforced part. The original has much wider boning than I have, so I will have more boning channels. I will also sew it on machine; the canvas and buckram are much too hard to my hands for something else.

 

After a quick fitting it was clear that the back was too wide and the shoulder straps too long, but that are easy fixes. I also decided against a stomacher and will instead raise the front almost up the faint lines of the stays. It is purely for comfort, from experience I know that an extra stomacher in stays is fiddly and my heavy bosom wants to escape, it is better to have all together. This might not be the period correct way of doing it, but I feel that it will be the best solution for me. A slender person with a smaller bust could probably use the stomacher option with excellent results.



Excuse the terribly crooked shift, that is also inisde out.

I had intended to find buckram in two different weights, but I also wanted to start this project now, so instead I will use the same linen canvas as the foundation instead of the heavy buckram. I am currently sewing the boning channels and pad stitch the various interfacings to the foundation. The shell fabric basically uses the same pattern, only it is longer with slashes for the gussets. Each pattern piece will be finished with foundation and shell fabric before the whole bodice is to be assembled. There are also wings to be cut, boned and covered with fabric and, of course, the enormous sleeves. All in dark purple taffeta.

 

1630's gown

After finishing three 18^th century projects this year, I feel a bit tired of that century. I want to focus on my forties wardrobe and I want to finally get a 17^th century outfit. Two, actually, J need one too. I have a dark purple taffeta that I plan to make into a bodice and skirt, based on the one at V&A I posted about here. I’m going to simplify it a bit and forego the slashing and pinked edges, making it look more like this one.

 

Anne Sophia, née Herbert Countess of Carnarvon by Sir Anthony van Dyck, 1633-35

I like the plain collar and there is a pattern for a similar one in Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 4. The gown is terribly low-cut, though. Judging by the curve of her breast the nipples must be over the edge of the dress, though they are hidden by the linen band. For my 21^st century sensibility that feels a bit risky, not to mention that my bosom needs a bit more support. So I will raise the neckline accordingly.

 

Pearls stringed like this can be seen on several portraits, which are pretty but seems a bit fragile. Here you can see that the pearls are just decorative; there is a pink ribbon that does the real job of holding the bodice together. I think it is worn over a white stomacher, though I guess it could be just the chemise. A stomacher seems much more likely, if one look at the fashion for the time, though. In either case, I will make a stomacher, either white or in the same fabric as the gown. I’m keeping the bows, but haven’t decided on the colour yet, even if white is pretty.

 

The cuffs are ruffled, but plain. One of the reason this painting appeals to me is just the absence of lace. Finding the right lace would add to the cost of the gown, but that’s not really the reason- I just like the plainer elegance of the collar and cuffs on this gown.

 

The first step, though, is to create a pattern. I could enlarge the pattern in HH, but that would demand heave alterations. Instead I will use my 18^th century stays patterns as a base and then re-draft it with the 17^th century pattern as a guide.

 

The first step in J’s costume is the skirt. In Patterns of Fashion 4 there is a pattern for a skirt worn by Admiral Claes Hansson Bielkenstierna when he was wounded in 1659. It appeals to me for several reasons. It’s Swedish and of the right time period, but it is also a plain and practical skirt, even if it was worn by a nobleman. The picture Livrustkammaren provide is very bad, as you can see, but if you check Arnold you can see that even if it is plain, it has a funny little spider web detail at the bottom of the front slit.

 

 

Livrustkammaren 21454 (5793:1)

Inspiration post for a 1630's gown

The need for some 17th century clothes is starting to get a bit pressing and though I probably won’t have time to start any bigger projects until October, (The whole house is getting the plumbing updated and as we will be without water and bathroom during that time, we will soon have to live in the summerhouse until it’s finished.) I still wanted to put some of my thoughts and the images I have collected together for an inspiration post.

One of the bodices featured in Seventeenth-century Women’s Dress Patterns is this bodice at Victoria and Albert.