4/6/2009

This polonaise has been quite an experience, let me tell you. The sewing of the gown, that was fine. Went together with no problems. The trimming, however, is where everything broke down.

First concept was this:

Didn't really excite me, so I tried this:

Which failed as well, so I did this:

And didn't really like it when all was said and done. So, I went looking at polonaises in the Kyoto Fashion book, and noticed that most polonaised gowns were self trimmed, particularly if they were in striped fabric. Usually the stripes on the gown ran vertical, whereas the stripes on the trimming were horizontal (it's like this on the yellow polonaise I'm using for my inspiration). I also noticed that many anglaises, which this could also be considered to be one, were trimmed around the neckline and sleeve openings, but not necessarily down the center front skirt openings. Hm. Interesting.

I toyed with the idea of whacking off about 20" of skirt to make the whole thing into a caracao, which had been the original plan for the fabric, before realizing I had about twice the amount I thought I had. That would have been fine, but it seemed like a waste of fabric and I'd gotten so far with it as a gown, I was really going to feel cheated if I suddenly started chopping half the skirt off just because I couldn't figure out how to trim it. Ultimately, I was able to find the bag containing all of the remnants of the striped silk and discovered I had enough to do *something* with. Inspired by the arrival of my back ordered silk hand dyed ribbon trim, I got down to the business of ripping off the white silk gauze ruching and adding a wide band of striped silk, lightly gathered on each side. The gathering stitches are hidden by the ribbon.

Now we're getting somewhere!

I'm going to replicate the self-trimming around the neckline and sleeve openings, getting rid of the rest of the silk gauze ruching that's still attached there. I think this gives the exact look I was after... The contrast is subtle, but the textural effect is what is important. I wanted the gown to look 3-dimensional, especially since all the vertical stripes tend to make it appear flat. Had the gown been a paler hue, I think I could have stuck with the ruched silk gauze, but it was just too high a contrast for this particular fabric. And yes, the gauze is actually off-white. Against the mauve-y striped silk, however, it just screamed WHITE, however.

So, now that particular drama is over with, I feel a little better. :)

3/09/2009

Not much of a dress diary, since I've largely done all the work behind the scenes, but here's the result so far:

I leaned really heavily on the construction notes for the Williamsburg polonaise (Gown 3) in Costume Close-Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern 1750-1790, pg. 24-28. It was the same basis as my first anglaise, but in the three years between the first attempt and this one, I hadn't attempted another en fourreau backed gown. I learned from the first anglaise, however, that I had deviated from the original shape of the waistline in the back, by making the waistline of my gown more or less waist level. The one very notable thing about the polonaise in Costume Close-up is that the waistline is dropped pretty significantly in the back (and slightly less dropped in the front). This required a lot of fussing with the pattern to get the dropped waistline to look right without wrinkling. I still wasn't as successful at getting the waist dropped as dramatically as the one in the Williamsburg collection, but I was happy with the results nonetheless. I also discovered that the Williamsburg dress has a seam in the center back, which certainly would help with the shaping of the dropped waistline. To compensate for the fact that I didn't have a shaped seam at CB, I added side seams to my toile, which helped to conform the bodice to the body and reduce any wrinkling at the waist.

Another modification I made was adding an extra pleat on either side of the en fourreau back. This really doesn't have a practical point, it just looked pretty. :)

The skirt is nice and full, which I'm really pleased with. I have about 40" more in this skirt than I do in my chintz anglaise, and the look is definitely more lush. I think costumers tend to skimp on the skirts in the 18th c. and so I was going for maximum floof to compensate.

The gown is in the wearable stage, but it still needs to be hemmed and trimmed. The current plan is to do 1" box pleated trim out of the same material as the petticoat (dark raspberry decorator silk dupioni from Joann) and run a line of burgundy colored rococo trim in the center. That will run around the neckline, sleeve openings, and down the front opening of the skirt. Other additions will be ribbons and rosettes and all manner of froofy nonsense on top of everything else. It's gonna look smashing!