A 1890´s Ball Bodice Part 1 – Research and Fitting

Some years ago I fell in love with an 1894´s evening gown from Worth. Just a drawing but the dress looked so elegant with its giant sleeves, small waist and flaring skirt, embroidered with branches of wheat. At that time I thought that I couldn’t do the thing with my sewing and embroidery skills. After some years of practice and research I decided to start with that dress, planning to wear it at the ball, during the Belle Époque week in Kandersteg (Switzerland) 2019.

Here is another extant gown from Worth, accessible via the online collection of the Metmuseum, shows a similar embroidery design. The dress dates just some years later, about 1900, without that giant sleeves, but with almost the same shape of bodice and skirt.

For the skirt I used as a base my 1890´s Fan-Skirt pattern. I made the front gore a bit narrower, with the side seam moved forward to the position of the original darts, an extra side piece with darts at the position of the original side seam to fit the hips.  I made the skirt with a train, which was not a good idea at all, as I had to loop up the train for dancing. And I danced a lot when wearing the dress the only time so far.

All embroidery is machine made, except the sequins and pearls, nevertheless it took me hours finishing the skirt and bodice. All the emboridery of the bodice has to be done before sewing the darts and joining the bodice pieces.

In this tutorial I´ll focus on the bodice, in the meantime I made to different versions, the same you get when buying my pattern. View A shows the bodice with the giant sleeves, closed edge to edge in the front with hooks and eyes, decorated as close to the template from Worth as possible. View B shows the bodice sleeveless, with a button down front, suitable for evening gowns from 1880 to 1890 and again the time around 1900, when the giant sleeves came out of fashion.

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1890´s Ladies Vest Tutorial Part 3 – sewing together and finishing details

Part 1 – preparing the back

Part 2 – preparing the front

Now it´s time to sew together all parts of the vest.

Sew the front facing to the bottom facing, matching all marks, right sides together and press the seam allowance towards the bottom facing. Close the center back seam – the collar, right sides together, trim back the seam allowance and press open.

Line up the facing with the fronts, right sides together and sew along the front, bottom edge as well as the collar, reduce stitch length at corners. Trim back the seam allowance, sloped at the corners, notch the seam allowance where the collar starts to turn.

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1890´s Ladies Vest Tutorial Part 2 – preparing the fronts

Part 1 – preparing the back

Now it´s time to sew up the fronts! Take great care with pattern matching when sewing with patterned, checked or striped fabrics. Never cut both sides on fold fabric,

Sewing with this delicade silk brocade I decided to flatline the entire fronts, which would not be necessary when sewing with e.g. a wool satin. I prefer to stitch in the flatlining by hand to unpick some stitches easily if necessary during the sewing process.

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1890´s Ladies Vest Tutorial Part 1 – preparing the back

This is another tutorial to support my customers when sewing with my patterns. This time I´ll show you many details sewing the View B of my 1890´s Ladies Vest pattern (comming up soon). In general ladies vests from around 1890 were made in the same way as gents´ with an interfacing supporting the front, so this tutorial is full of classic tailoring techniques, like flatlining, sewing in interfacing and how to attach bridle tape.

When browsing the internet for research about vest fabrics, I fell in love with this silk brocade fabric. Brocade fabrics are not easy to sew, for non-experienced sewers I recommend sewing with plain fabrics like satins from cotton or wool.

Originally a twill cotton fabric (Silesia) was used for the back and lining, but feel free to use any light to midweight cotton fabric.

Let´s start sewing!

The back is made up the same way for View A and B of the vest. Join the back parts along the center back, right sides together and finish as a flat felled seam: Press the seam allowances to one side and trim back the lower one to ¼” (7mm). Fold over the wider seam allowance and press before edgestitching from the wrong fabric side.

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19th century welt pockets

19th century welt pockets where made different from modern welt pockets. In this tutorial I´ll show you the period correct method.

Baste a piece of linen or cotton to the wrong side of the left front, covering the pocket opening. Mark the pocket opening with a basting thread, clearly visible on the right side of the fabric. Cut your welt from fabric, matching the pattern of your fabric, with a 1/4” (6mm) seam allowance added to top and bottom and a 5/8″ (1,5cm) seam allowance added to the sides.

Fold the welt in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, press the edge and reopen. Attach a cotton tape along the fold to the inner half of the welt with a catch stitch. Sew the outer pocket bag to the inner half of the welt using, right sides together, stitch exactly between the marks of the pocket opening and press open the seam allowances.

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