Blue Silk "Petal" Gown Based on Sturbridge Gown

Hope Greenberg

Greenberg blue silk petal gown image Greenberg blue silk petal gown imageOld Sturbridge Village Museum has been generous in making images from their clothing collections available online. Several years ago I 'harvested' an image of what appeared to be a pink silk gown. Based on the length of the bodice, the width and cut of the skirt, as well as the layout of the decorative shell or petal element (diagonal lines radiating out from the waist towards the shoulders) their date of 1820 concurred with similar gowns depicted in Ackermann's Repository of Arts from the early 1820s.

The gown is a fairly simple design with no embroidery or excessive decoration, but there was only one image, a full-length front view, so I put it on my list of "things to consider making someday." When Sturbridge posted additional detail pictures I knew it was time to give a try. Surprisingly, the close-up views showed that the gown was not pink, but rather a brown and white narrow striped silk.

I wasn't quite sure that I wanted a brown striped gown. That's when I remembered a piece of silk tissue taffeta I had gotten at Delectable Mountain Cloth in Brattleboro, VT. It was a deep blue shot silk that was the same weight and hand as a coppery brown piece I had gotten there a couple years before to make a pelisse gown. An absolute joy to work with--like sewing air but never slithering off the sewing machine. But did I have enough? It was 44" wide and I had 5.5 yards. I wanted to make the 5-piece skirt of the 1820s (one front panel, one back panel, two trapezoids on either side) instead of the 4-piece version so common in the 18-teens.

Greenberg blue silk petal gown imageThen there were all those petals. First I needed to figure out their shape and size, then determine how many would be needed. The close-up image of the hem area was invaluable. It showed the petal was a semi-circular piece with a deep v-fold. I experimented with several shapes and folds and came up with what I thought would work. But how many and how large? Using the petals on the bodice as a guide, and seeing how far they overlapped each other on the hem, I ended up deciding that each petal pattern piece would be about 4.5"x4.5." There were 6 petals for the sleeves, 8 on the bodice, and about 40 on the skirt. I added a few more because I seemed to be taller that the original wearer and so would end up with a longer, and wider, skirt hem.

After doing a rough calculation of the needed yardage I realised it was going to be frighteningly close. Usually I don't make skirt pattern pieces, preferring to just measure and cut. This time I knew that would not be wise because the margin for error was so narrow so I made the skirt pattern from some old $1/yd cheap brown lining and basted it together to see if the proportions seemed right. (It was a silky poly so I thought it would hang more like silk than using muslin). Then I drew it all out on graph paper to determine the best layout, and laid out the pattern pieces to be sure they would all fit. I ended up narrowing the skirt pieces just a bit so that they would.

Greenberg blue silk petal gown imageThe pieces are:

Greenberg blue silk petal gown image Greenberg blue silk petal gown imageThere was not enough fabric to line the petals so I used a different piece of not-so-nice silk for them since that would not be seen once the petals were sewn on. They were cut first so that I could use them as pattern pieces for the main fabric. Laying, pinning, and cutting them individually took a long time but I was taking no chances.

The last cutting challenge proved to be the bodice. If you examine the original you'll see that there are no darts. The original wearer was less...er...curvy, so I had to figure out how to construct my "matronly" version with no gathering or darts. Fortunately, the center front is a single piece with piped edges, so I was able to cut the side front in a curve. After much trial and error, and even more frustration, I ended up with the pieces shown here. (By the way, while I'm working on padding out my dress form and have the volume roughly correct, the...er...distribution of the volume is not yet sufficiently exact to drape on. That would have made things much easier. Ah well, that will be the next project.)

Greenberg blue silk petal gown imageI sewed it all together, fiddled with it a bit, then gathered and sewed the ruching to the hem, then the hem band. Next up: pinning on the petals. (Oh, I had folded and stitched down the little v-fold earlier.) Before pinning them on I basted a length of 5/8" organdy ribbon at the appropriate distance from the hem to act as a guide. This kept them straight and offered a layer onto which to sew them without pulling too much at the silk. Once pinned, again with much fiddling to make them evenly spaced, I hand stitched the bases to the ribbon, then, from the back of the fabric, stitched the petals along their top edge and a few along the bottom making sure to catch only the lining so no stitches would show in front. That actually took less time than the pinning! They flapped a bit while dancing so I'll stitch the bottom edge down completely before the next ball. For the petals on the sleeves I simply pinched the fabric around their base, then did a few other pinch and stitch to control the fullness. The neckband is a bias strip. I like to run a drawstring along the neckline to prevent 'gaposis' but I need to do a bit more work there--the neck is still too wide.

One thing that I did not add to my version: piping across the sleevehead. My shoulders are already so wide I hate to make them seem even more so by adding that line. I may do so later.

Greenberg blue silk petal gown image Greenberg blue silk petal gown image Greenberg blue silk petal gown image Greenberg blue silk petal gown image

 

Hope Greenberg, c. 4/2015