The gown

This gown was made as a test for a costume for an opera I am working on. The character's name is Rosine, and she is wearing a dressing gown in the 1rst act. This pattern was taken from my course books, and the sides of the bodice have the iconic 18th century folds going up and down from the shoulder seam to the waist, where in theory there shouldn't be a seam and the fold should open up into the fullness of the skirt. I remember that we drafted a custom pattern of this type in class and it was a real nightmare to get it to work with pattern paper, the folds are curved and therefore they don't want to sit flat. It worked a lot better with the calico of the mock-ups that we made, but I had my doubts about how it would work with thicker, stiffer fabric, and I wanted to test it before I committed to using this pattern and to help me choose the best fabric.

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It was as much of a struggle as I had imagined, but I figured out that with if I shear the fabric slightly in the folds, and with a lot of hand sewing things down directly on my dressform, It works decently. I needed to make stealthy inner pleats in the waist to handle all the material but luckily you cannot tell. It is very interesting that the cut and design are very 18th century, but the overall look doesn't really put my mind in that time period.

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The chemise

The white dress is a chemise, or undergarment layer, but similar to the 'Chemise à la Reine', it is meant to be seen. The fabric is see-through but gathered tightly enough for modesty. I absolutely love this textured cotton dimity fabric from Renaissance Fabrics.

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The hat

I made the hat from a store-bought one by simply turning up the edges. Then I added a strip of false suede and a few feathers: customization!