Category Archives: General

Sewing Pattern #0422 – a quick illustrated Guide

Welcome back for a new sewing pattern! I made this dress last year in autumn to attend two intimate and small events, a soiree and a Napoleonic ball.

It was not my intention to make a Bridgerton inspired dress, I just fell in love with this extant gown https://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/15-523923-2C6NU0AOS8H16.html from the Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison & Bois-Préau in France.     

I´m sorry, that I didn´t made lots of pictures during the sewing process because I was in a hurry, I made a mistake when cutting the skirt, but I love the result. Due to the newest release of Bridgerton Season 2 I don´t want to withhold this pattern from you.

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Let´s start with sewing! Just some considerations before we´ll start. Take care that there are no extra pattern pieces for the skirt. The skirt is made from panels of fabric, cut into rectangle and trapezoidal pieces. The following diagram shows how to cut the skirt from different fabric widths.

This is another overview how to estimate the width of your panels. The measurements do not necessarily have to be observed exactly. The width of the front panel should be 1,5 times the length from mark ② to mark ② on the waistband. The side panel should measure about 2 times the length from mark ② to mark ③, and the back panel about 4 times from ③ to ④. (When sewing a larger size with 35” (90cm) wide fabric, you´ll have to piece one of the side panels as shown on the diagram – piecing is period). The remaining fabric strips will be used for the box pleated frill at the hem.  

(1) The importance of a mock-up: Quite sloppy pics of my mine. You can see the additional length at the front to fit over the bust.

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An 18th century men´s shirt – Part 3 Ruffles, Stock and Neckerchief

Part1 – Neck and Collar

Part2 – Sleeves

(12) Cut stripes from a sheer fabric for the ruffles, about 1 ½ to 2 times as long as the edges to be trimmed and about 2 ¾” (7cm) wide. Roll hem the two short and one long edge and gather the remaining raw edge.

Take the cotton tape, cut to the length of the edge to be trimmed, and fold in half lengthwise, turn in a narrow seam allowance along the short edges. Slide the gathered edge of the ruffle between the two layers of the tape and stitch in place through all layers. The ruffles are attached to the inside of the neck opening and cuffs with a running stitch and can be removed for washing easily.

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An 18th century men´s shirt – Part 2

Part 1 – Neck an Collar

(5) The sleeves are gathered between the marks (3) and lined up with the shirt, right sides together, matching all marks (3) and (4). On the picture you can see my back stitch, made from the sleeve side. In the end, it would have been better to sew from the shirt side, to hide the longer and uneven stitches on the back with the flat felled seam later. On the second sleeve I made my back stitch from the right side, but unfortunately I didn’t take a picture.

(6) Time to sew the side and sleeve seam. To get a nice result when making all seams flat felled seams later, I stitched all seams from the front side (front bodice + front sleeve), starting and stopping at marks for the vents and underarm gusset. After sewing, I used a ruler to check that my opening for the gusset was the right size.

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The 1845s Day Dress Tutorial Part 2 (Step 5 – 8)

Part 1 – Getting started Step 1-4

(5) The fronts and backs are ready prepared to be stitched together. First seam will be the shoulder seam, stitched from the back with a backstitch. I recommend to sew this seam by hand. At point (1 – red arrow) just the back is notched V-shaped and the seam allowances of the shoulder trimmed back to ¼” (5mm).

The seam allowance along the back neckline is trimmed back too, just leaving the uppermost layer of the piping.

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The 1845s Day Dress Tutorial Part 3 (Step 9 – 12)

Part 1 – Step 1-4

Part 2 – Step 5-8

(9) Take the bodice and mark the stitching line around the armhole. Line up another length of piping and baste in place. Trim back the cord only at the start and stop (in the range of the armpit) to remove bulk and fold the ends of the bias tape crossing each other.

Insert the sleeve into the armhole, right sides together, matching the sleeve seam with the side seam of the bodice. Ease in the excess width of the sleeve by pulling the threads and spread evenly along the sleeve head. Sew the sleeve with a backstitch, right beside the piping cord (sew from the side of the bodice to get better controll of the piping cord). Trim back the seam allowances and neaten with an overcasting stitch.

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