The Chemise a la Reine Diary

To begin I must say I went into this completely unaware. Unaware of how completely sheer this bad boy is (or bad girl, since it's a dress), and unaware of how difficult it would turn out to be. I had thought "easy-peasy", a quick dress I could knock out in like a few days. Hmmm.....not so, not so. Not that it's like extremely hard, but it's not a bag with a drawstring. I mean it is a bag with a drawstring, but it's not that simple. :P

I picked the Chemise a la Reine as the dress for my grandma to wear to the home school ball. It's breezy (so she wouldn't get too hot), it's simple and elegant-not over the top, and it was worn by Marie Antoinette herself. Most importantly I thought it would be best for her since she will not be wearing stays. I figured this particular style would be more forgiving, and harder to tell about not wearing the stays. And I would have the opportunity to make the neckline higher than a typical gown! :)

Here are some pretty inspiration pictures for you to look at before I dive into all the details. :) I found them all on Google images, and do not have the links to the sites they were originally on. I'm sure you could find them if you search for them on Google images haha.

I know that was a lot of pictures but they were all so pretty, inspirational, and useful I just had to include them all :)

Now onto my dress. I am totally admitting here that I made this dress out of what I would assume to be cheesecloth. The store on ebay called it "butter muslin", and other things that led me to believe it was a very lightweight muslin. I'm not sure if this is the fabric you are supposed to use, but I think it worked out ok. It moves and looks as thin as other dresses I saw fellow costumers had made. Most used cotton voile, I'm not really sure what the difference of a lightweight voile and a lightweight muslin is.

There were two dress diaries in particular that I found helpful during this project. One is in Finnish, so I had to keep translating it paragraph by paragraph to read it. Her dress is stunning though, and I very much enjoyed it. Link one. Link two.

I did not have a pattern for this dress...and I do not have the book everyone else seems to have made their dress out of. But that's ok. The body of my Chemise a la Reine is made from 4 panels of 37". The muslin came in that length, and I opted to leave the selvages in instead of trimming the panels down to 31".  The length I used, un-hemmed was 56". The four pannels are sewn together to create a tube.

the fabric

the fabric

the fabric

I machine sewed the seams of the tube, but hand-sewed the flat felled seams.

Then I made a casing around the top, for a drawstring gather. This fabric is sooo open, I just was not seeing how gathering would have worked, plus it unravels like CRAZY. The casing is hand sewed.

Here it is, hanging on Madame.

I cut the sides where the armholes will go. These slit markings were in the center of the side panels.

Then I gathered it to a somewhat neckline so that I could cut the armholes.

For self fabric binding, I cut two strips 3 inches wide and 13 inches long.

Then I encased the front and back with the binding.

Then I pinned the dress at this stage to Madame, just to see the progress. :) The sash is temporary make do from a cravat.

Next was the shoulder "straps", the connecting pieces from front to back of the dress. Each piece is the thickness of three layers of fabric for durability, with rolled hems to finish off the edges. I fitted the dress on Mama, since after all, being Grandma's daughter they are similarly built :)

pinning the scrap fabric as the shoulder piece. 

cutting the armhole to proper size

the actual shoulder piece (hemmed)

The straps as I'll call them, then had one corner folded up, to accommodate the curve of the neckline. The below picture kind of shows what I'm talking about. 

For the sleeves, I wadded up some material down the length of my arm, and cut two of this size. I believe the length was like 26 inches, and the width of course was 37".

sleeve with seam and hem

For the top neck ruffle, I cut 4 strips, 37" long and 5 inches wide. For the bottom, I cut 3 strips, 37" long and ??? inches wide.  I flat felled the seams and hemmed them by hand. I used a running stitch because a whip stitch pulled and wouldn't hold.

ruffle strips

ruffle seam and hem 

And alas, I don't have but one finished dress picture! But never fear because I plan on wearing the dress myself soon, over my new white stays :). Great the about the chemise dress, it can fit multiple people! Which reminds me about the sash....

You can see in this photo that gma has a veeery narrow sash. Why? Well she broke a few of her ribs on a ladder, and so I wanted to get away with as little sash as possible so it wouldn't hurt her. She's doing great now, it's almost all healed up :)

~Theresa

Our First Roba a la Francaise

First up of all the gowns to be posted about specifically is my robe a la francaise. Here's the quick stats. 

Made the evening before the ball. Record time! (I had trimmed the petticoat before) Draped by Bascha, sewed by me. 10 yards of taffeta ordered off of eBay. Total cost $60. The most expensive thing I've ever made haha! (Thankfully Mom's dress cost $11, and Ann Marie's cost $2 so :D :D :D) Machine sewn. 

We didn't really encounter any problems during the draping or sewing of the dress, I'd say it went very smoothly actually. Which was awesome! :D And I am THRILLED with how the back pleats look, way better than I ever imagined! And I could feel it flow out behind me when I walked which was pretty fun too :). 

Yes there was a ship in my hair, it was a birthday present from my younger sister Caroline, painted by me. We had a "ship wreck" in the parking lot where it detached itself from the top of my head and smashed to the ground. Thankfully my wonderful friends and family members were able to secure it back to my hair with some hockey tape and what I believe was a shoe lace. :D 

I'm soooo in love with the fabric!

Coral bead necklace I made for a total of $5. The coral came from a little shop in Blowing Rock.

my great aunt's ring

And here is the original inspiration for me dress. I wish I could produce the original links and everything but I can't find that document. I have it somewhere. I do remember the dress was dated to the 1760's. 

Sorry if this seems scatterbrained. Maybe it is. But that's my dress!
~Theresa

Bascha & I Lost Our Minds Somewhere In the 18th Century

My dears, I'm afraid Bascha and I have lost our sanity, never to have it returned. And as you might have guessed by the title, we've lost it in the 18th Century. Particularly that period between the late 1760's and the 1780's. I lost it first, in the 1760's and Bascha lost it in the 1780's :P. And you wanna know something? We really aren't bothered that much about it!

Here's what happened. Every year, Jessica (our friend that teaches ECD on Thursday nights) throws what is called the Homeschool Historical Ball. Now last year you may remember that the theme was the 40's and 50's (blogged) , and the year before was Regency (un-blogged). Well this years theme was "George Washington" and it was set in the 18th century. And Bascha and I had said this was the year we were going all out, and so we did. And we went all out and it was insane.  :D So there you have it! And 18th century ball we got to costume ourselves up for! And yes, I do have a ship in my hair, all the details will be in upcoming blog posts. :)

If you want to read the post full of exclamation points, it's on my personal blog, Tmarie. It has all the same pictures as in this post, and I think this blog will end up with waaaay more pictures but still ya know, there's the link if you want it :).

I'm still soooo tickled that we did this :D. And so tickled that I can FINALLY share pictures with ya'll, I know there has been a long silence on the blog but now you know why :D And now that we all have evening clothes I think it's about time we plan a 3rd trip to Williamsburg and meet Miss F and Samantha.........:D

And one more thing before I get on the the photos, I've got to link to Ruth. :D She's quite a seamstress and did a fantastic job on her dress and on her younger brother's costume. They both looked soooo good and it was fantastic to see them again :D. Thank you so much Ruthie for coming down to see us!!!!!! You are amazing!

L to R: Ann Marie, Caroline, myself, BASCHA, and Ruth

L to R: Grandma, mama, AM, Care, myself, Bascha :D, Ruth, and Mrs. Jacques

The "squad" L to R: Ben, Grandma, Dad, Mama, Caroline, Ann Marie, Joshua, myself, Joel, Bascha :D, Stephen, Ruth, Mrs. Jacques, Abe. Is it just me or does this photo remind you of a painting? Not any particular painting, just a painting in general.

my fam :) So blessed to have parents and siblings who will be crazy enough to do this with me :D 

Bascha, the blushing beauty that fell out of a portrait from the late 18th century, her dashing brother and her Mum :) 

Ruth and Ben looking all snazzed up :D

My mama looking gorgeous as ever :D She did the hair and wig styling for all of us :) Hair is her forte

my darling Ann Marie and her brother Joel. She looked so beautiful and I love her so much! :D

besties

Again, biggest thanks to my parents who allowed us to be crazy and went crazy with us :D :D :D 

All the young gentlemen. 

Now there will be more photos to come. A blog on my new stays, a blog on our dresses probably individually, and the originals they were copied from, pictures from the ball photographer and of us getting ready, etc. But I hope this is enough to tide ya'll over with :D 

And in closing all I can say is Bascha, Bascha, Bascha.  She is probably the most talented individual I could name for you that I know. I could NEVER have done any my part of the costuming had it not been for her, and did you see her costumes?????!!!! Out of this world! Or rather century :P I love you Bascha! You're absolutely amazing and I still can't get over how good ya'll looked! :D

HIP HIP HOORAY for the #HHB2015 !!!!!!! :D :D :D 

~Theresa, a most excited seamstress