A note of warning... this is really long winded. If you are here for the pictures, just scroll down to the bottom of the page.
The 18th century caught up with me... It always fascinated me (in fact, it is my favorite period, right after the renaissance), and when two years ago there was that wedding where "come in some/any historical dress", I made my red dress with the notion "if I have the dress, the event(s) will come too". Sure enough, last year there was two for Mare Temporis, and I wore the red dress for a couple of other times too (like for the historical market, and such). Also we could see, that there is interest, from our teammates to do 18th century stuff, and from venues to have us do living history in 18th century, so at the yearly assembly for the foundation the decision to make an 18th century subdivision was made, and this year we had even more invitations.
In the meanwhile I did develope my 18th century wardrobe, added an Outlander set, did the petrol-colored dress, and I added the green jacket to use with its petticoat.
However, about a year ago I had an idea... I was thinking, that we ARE in Hungary, and who is an important and recogniseable personality in 18th century Hungary? who, incidently has white hair, and wears a lot of blue dresses? Maria Theresa, that's who.
I went to highshcool in the eighties, when the socialist regime was still in power, and I do not remember learning much about her in our history classes... except she is a Habsburg, and the Habsurgs are the opressors of Hungary, thus we do not like them, and her either.
Duh, as usual, the truth is so much more complicated, and the more I read about her, the more complicated person she seems.
Anyhow, here I was happy with my idea, thinking of blue rococo dresses... and then, when we had to narrow our target period down, I suggested the 1770-ies, because MT still lived then, but the dresses were - in my opinion- not only the best, but the widest possible selections... I mean, the older style francaise and court gowns were still in, but the newer style closed front English and italian gowns were already coming in, there were polonaise-es, there were caracos, jackets, a lot of things to choose from. I was also thinking, okay, her husband died in 1765, but mourning rules were more lenient in the 18th century than in the Victorian age, so she probably wore black for a year, and then she changed into dark purple, dark blues and dark silvers....
And then I've read some books about her. And more books.
NOOOOPE. After her husband died, she wore black to the rest of her life. Ughhh. Black is so not my color. You rarely see me in black, even in civilian clothes, unless it is a base for something really colorful, I do not wear black, and never wear all black. But here I am in the trap I cornered myself into.
I really have nobody else to blame, but myself. I said we should do the 1770-ies (okay, the others agreed, but still), I wanted to be Maria Theresa. But then, I would not be me, if I would not confront something like this head on. I consulted Lívi, one of the leaders of the reenactment group... Would it be better to make a light blue/silver dress and make Maria Theresa recogniseable to everyone... or make a historically appropriate black dress, and giving us opportunity to talk about her as a wife, as a mourning woman, about the mourning customes of the 18th century? We agreed in the latter choice would be better for the first round.
So black it is.
I was also going back and forth about the style of the dress. As much as I like the style, I knew it would not be - probably- a closed front italian gown. They came into fashion later in the 1770-ies, and the queen was not exactly fashion forward. However, all the paintings I found about her mourning days, show her from the front, which is an open front, with a stomacher, that has bows, but they do not show the back. That left two style, an open front english gown with a stomacher, and a francaise. I was leaning toward the english gown, that en-furrow back is enticing, and I didn't felt I am ready for a francaise. But, but... It is THE queen. In fact, she is the empress. she needs something regal, and I learned from making stays, that (at least, for me), they are not *that* big of a deals, and those who made them (you-tubers, I am looking at you) making them look a lot fussier, than they really are. But still, it is a francaise. They look so complicated. I think this is the place to tell you to lighten the mood, that we (between me and N. and my son) call those dresses that have panniers underneath "TV stealer-dresses" in reference to that meme circulating on facebook. Francaise dresses are the "TV stealers with the flapping back".
In the meanwhile, I encountered some private egsistential crisis, kept questioning myself, and, partly as a result, ended up taking on a lot more work than I should have. Or not, it depends from which viewpoint are we looking at it. I like fighting deadlines, I like being able to do things nobody would think possible. A many page translation overnight? Yeah, bring on. Two concert one day, at the opposite end of the country? Hello, I am coming, Two different event, in two different period, many hours drive away? I am in. An 18th century jacket at half a day? yeah.
And then, Laura, one of our firejugglers, for whom I promised some stuff turn of the century circus stuff, asks, if it is possible to make her clothes two weeks before we agreed, because an event appeared for them, and it would be cool, if she has the thing she could wear... Oh, right. Okay, I might not have the new dress I wanted for the Győr event, but everything for our team, right?
So I gave up on introducing the empress in the Baroque wedding, but then someone cancelled a two - maybe three days worth of sewing work. Now, that felt bad, and I don't even know why. When I originally accepted, there was no deadline, except "sometimes in the fall", but now they wanted a conrete date within a couple of weeks, and, I could not promise, with full honesty, that the stuff would be ready by then. I knew, most probably (knowing myself) it would be done, but anything can happen. Anyhow, there was a couple of extra days...
You know, I am not the one to shy away from a challenge, so at a crazy moment, I said, darn it, I am going to make that black dress. And I am making it a francaise.
Over the years, I watched so many videos on making that style (and other 18th century stuff), and I had a few thoughts...
As a base, I used the simplicity pattern by the American Duchess, and looked a lot at the instructions of the book. Also, I did had in my mind the ton of videos I watched (Inlcuding the one made by the Encahnted Rose, Minji Le, The Petticoated Swashbuckler, A Janeite sews, among others (whew, glad that Youtbe keeps a history of what you watched...), and then did, what felt right for me.
Sorry, I am bad at photodocumenting my sewing, especially, when I only have limited time...
Started with the mock-up of the bodice lining. When that fit as I liked, I redraw my pattern. One of the difference from the Simplicity AD pattern and the book, that the Simplicity version had the shoulder strap added to the front, while the book had a separate strap. I kept the added version, but redraw the line. Then, I had a desision to make... I had a relatively stable linen, I use to line stuff, and I had a nice, heathery one, that looked great with the black taffeta. By now, who read my blog (or know me), one of my pet peeves is how the inside of clothes look like. I know historically they don't always cared. I know, historically they did not had things like zig-zag and/or overlock machines. But still. It makes me feel so much better, if something I made, looks good from the inside too. I decided to combine the two fabric, and made the lining double layer, and baglined, I also used lacing (as I saw in Minji Lee's video), instead of ties.
Then I cut out the main fabric, and started the most important, most visible, most anything part of the francaise style dress. Those back pleats. The long lengthwise seams were sewn with the machine, but the pleats were stitched down by hand.
Right, I am pretty much caught up with the rococo.
I've been sewing a lot of 18th century stuff this year, not only for myself, but for some of my teammates too...
There is a huge project I want to show you, I am only waiting for the pictures to come back,
but until then, I am wondering... I started to write up the post, but it become a looong and winded proze about a bunch of hows, and whys, and I am curious, if you would want to read it, if you want to know some of the thought process, how do I come to a decision to sew something, what to sew, what from to sew it and how, or you want the pictures and I should shut up?
So, how shall it be?
Until then, here are some more pictures of our small, but growing 18th century group within Mare Temporis, photographed in Vác, at their event, in July. And just wait until our pictures shot last weekend in Győr will come back...
