The Gallery:

July 2008
Taking Tea at Loren's Farm.

May 2008
Below are some favorite photos, the rest can be found in Belmont 2008.

May 2008
The hat. Additional photos can be found in Belmont 2008.

The Dress Diary:

Jan 2008
When I made my first Chemise á la Reine in the summer of 2007, I put it together knowing I was fudging and not doing it in a period way. I just couldn't for the life of me figure out how this deceptively simple frock was constructed... not until I saw Katherine & Kendra's reproductions at Costume College. Have I mentioned before that I'm a visional learner? :P

I took my Chemise á la Reine apart in August and since then it's been sitting in a bin waiting to be put back together. The day has finally arrived!

the plan
I have decided I didn't care for the stark white of my original cotton voile on me. White has never been my color but I thought I could live with it in this case. I can't. So I'm going to dye my fabric, I'm thinking a pale peach or champagne color.

I'm pretty confident I can use the same fabric (barring issues with the armholes) although I might lose a bit of the train. Well, it turned out longer than I expected anyway. I did remove one panel of fabric from the back. Looking at the pictures 7 panels (36" wide) was a bit much. I'm also redrafting the sleeves, as I wasn't happy with mine.

Here again are my favorite chemise á la Reine pics. I have a few more I've collected since last year, I'll post them later.

I'm relying heavily on online dress diaries, particularly Katherine, Kendra & Ithilwyn 's but here are a few more helpful links as well.

• Katherine's dress diary page
• Kendra's dress diary page
• Ithilwyn's dress diary

• Manchester Art Gallery (extant dress)
• Museum of London (extant dress)
• Kalen Hughes study page
• Aubry's chemise dress tag (locked)
• Casey's chemise dress (more pics here)
• Jenni's chemise dress

Jan 24
The first step is to dye the Chemise gown. Like I said, I'm thinking a pale peach or champagne color. Some form of off white really. Not being an expert when it comes to dyeing I turned to my old friend Google and starting searching for peach dye recipes. I came across several pages for dyeing flesh colors for dolls. The most helpful of which was this:
http://www.dollstreetdreamers.com/back_alley_articles/flesh_dye_recipes.pdf

There are lots of different recipes and suggestions in there. I happen to already have Rit tangerine dye in the house so I was delighted to find a recipe that mixes tangerine & pink rose. So I went to Jo-Anns yesterday and got the pink rose.

I followed the original recipe which had 2 parts orange to one part pink (#1), then I tried adding more pink (#2). I dumped out the dye bath and started over, this time reversing the original, 2 parts pink to one part orange (#3). I liked that but decided to add more pink to see what would happen (#4).

I still liked #3 so that is what I went with. I filled to tub sink with hot water, 3/4 cup salt, 1/4 tsp pink & 1/8 tsp orange, wet my fabric and dumped it in.

At the moment it's in the washer for a rinse & spin cycle with white vinegar. I'll have to wait until the cycle is done but it doesn't look like it dyed evenly to me. The shoulder straps look darker. I'm trying to hold on to the hope that it's just my imagination and not freak out but it's a challenge. Maybe I'll go work on my Poe sleeve and listen to my current audio book (Anne of Green Gables). That should keep me calm, right?

Jan 25

YEEESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It worked!!!

The dye job came out perfectly even, no spots or anything, and the color is perfect! I don't know what your monitors show but after the rinse cycle and a tumble in the dryer in person it's a pale blush color in person. Champagne is probably a good name. It's a great color for me and shouldn't be too much color in a chemise á la Reine.

I'm so excited! Hey, maybe I'm finally getting the hang of this dyeing thing! :>

Jan 25

Sadievale came over yesterday for a sewing day. We spent a fair amount of our day NOT sewing but it was fun. We shopped at Jo-Anns, ate Vietnamese food, had tea & Pims, giggled and schemed.

I didn't get too far with my sewing but progress was made. I think I'm finally getting this chemise gown thing! I'm excited it's starting to make sense to me at last. I marked, pressed and hemmed the front drawstring. Then I dug around in my ancient bin of silk ribbon embroidery supplies and found, to my delight, matching narrow silk ribbon to use in the drawstring. Sweet!

Feb 6
I'd tacked down the ends of the drawstring ribbon earlier this week so tonight I turned my attention to running the gathering stitches. I first evened up the scoops I'd made in the armholes, so both sides matched. I then marked the center back and where the arm scoops both began and ended with strands of purple thread.

I ran three gathering stitches on the machine, from the end of drawstring to end of drawstring. I next gathered up the whole piece as tightly as I could to make sure all the gathering stitches had the same tension.

Starting in the center back I released the gathers to fit my measurements (I used the original fitted lining as my guide), first the back, then the back shoulder strap, then the arm hole, then the front shoulder strap. Once everything was the correct measurements I evened out the gathers so they were all pretty, pinned the back binding & strap and sewed. I repeated with the front shoulder strap and finished off all the ends and binding by hand.

I'm excited - my chemise gown is finally looking like a chemise gown again!

Feb 7
Sadievale and I had another sewing "date" tonight and for once we actually sewed! First step was finding an already sewn sleeve toile in my stash so that saved some time! I pinned the sleeve toile to the chemise gown armhole. I didn't want to stress out my delicate fabric so I just pinned, laced up in my stays and tried it on. Totally forgot to take pics - sorry about that!

I'm really pleased with the chemise gown, looks good. The front is a little full and I have to pull the drawstring as tight as it will go to ensure the neckline isn't too low. As it is I'll have to pin the top of the dress to my stays as the neckline sits barely 1/8" above the stays.

I had S mark the waist for a drawstring but I'm still trying to decide if I want to do that. I just don't know! Taking out a panel in the back doesn't seem to have shortened the train at all so i will have to re-hem that. I want a slight sweep in the back this time, not a train.

For the sleeve I used my basic 18th century elbow length pattern. I wasn't happy with the long sleeve of the original (it needed major re-working) and I've never been thrilled with the poofy sleeves seen on so many 1780s chemise á la Reines so I was delighted to find two chemise á la Reines with plain elbow length sleeves, my favorite style. So that is what I'm going with. I'll add a lace ruffle too, probally in a narrower lace.

The fitting looked perfect so I was all ready to cut out when I realized it was 11:30pm and I don't allow myself to cut after 11pm. So I called it a night.

Feb 8

I put in the sleeves tonight. I used spray sizing on the voile to stiffen a bit before I worked with it - made life much easier. For now I've just zig-zagged the end, I want to try it on before I hem it.

I also worked on the lace ruffle. I've gathered the edge of the lace with a running stitch and pinned it on. I need to try it on first but I'm thinking it's too much... something isn't quite right. *ponders*

Feb 9

Spent the day sewing with Sadievale. My first task was to lace up in my stays to take measurments for the redingote. While I had the stays on I tried on the chemise dress. The ruffle was too much. I think I still like the lace, it's just too full. I'm going to take some of the gathering out and try again. It's way too fussy on me right now!

Mar 6
I took the chemise on my trip to San Diego. I *almost* got all of the ruffle sewn on. It looks much better with some of the fullness taken out of the lace...

May 3
Right now I'm sitting in my re-vamped chemise dress waiting for B to mark my hem. Barring the event being canceled due to rain I'm wearing it to Belmont's Seurat Sunday tomorrow. I'd forgotten how much fiddly stiff was left to do. I should be able to get it all done today but still a bit of a pain.

It's a delightfully cool frock but I'm not convinced I like this style of gown on me. I have a feeling it's really one of those outfits that needs all the accessories (ie big hair) to look right though.

I wanted a new hat for the occasion but this week has been to hectic. I'll have to see how the fiddly bits go today... definitely something simpler than I'd imagined earlier this week. Oh well!

boring list making for me:
finish stitching lace at neck
add lace to sleeves
hem
cut, sew & finish sash (green check taffeta)
hat?

May 4
Alright I take back everything I said about chemise gowns. I SO feel like a pretty, pretty princess right now!! *rubs hand with glee*

I'm off to Belmont - I'll be back this afternoon with pics!

May 4

Second time is always the charm with me. I had great fun wearing my chemise á la Reine to Costume College last year but I simply adore the re-vamp version! It came out better than I could have imagined. The accessories really made it, that and some Big Hair (TM). I adore the green silk taffeta check I used on the sash and hat. I bought in the autumn (possibly to cover a hat with) but couldn't quite decide what I wanted to do with it. I'm so glad I waited as it really is perfect as a sash and hat pouf.

The hat. I love how something so thrown together can look so cute! The pouf I totally made up as I went along. It's a circle (17"x17" - well more or less) flat lined with 4 layers of nylon net. I pleated the bottom until it was the size I wanted then added a self binding to finish the edge.

I eyeballed everything, snipping here, pleating by "oh this looks about right". It was fun! The yellow vintage flowers were from the lovely bauhausfrau (thanks so much Loren!), the feathers & ribbon from the stash. Everything is pinned in place and the binding hasn't been finished either. I still stayed up way too late working on it. I just couldn't stop once I'd started!