Starting A ‘Bridgerton’ Pelisse à la Lady Danbury

Lady Danbury’s pelisse in this scene is actually made of layers of organza! I’m not so bold. Mine is taffeta.

Have you caught Bridgerton fever? I have!

I absolutely adored the glimmering gowns, character-defining color palettes, and strong aesthetic voice of costume designer Ellen Mirojnick. And so, naturally, I’ve been inspired to create a Regency footwear collection for Fall 2021, and that means lifestyle photoshoots, yay!

And lifestyle photoshoots mean sewing, yay!

First up, Lady Danbury and her fabulous burgundy, wine, and purple wardrobe. She wears a couple pelisses and I’ve always loved these Regency garments. Whereas there are two sparkly non-HA evening gowns in the works, I wanted to go a little more accurate with the pelisse.

Lady Danbury’s lavender pelisse, much more fabulous than my make, but very inspiring.

I splurged on an intensely gorgeous burgundy figured silk taffeta from Silk Baron.

I’m using the Black Snail 1815 Empire Spencer or Redingote #0319. I got the PDF download and spent a lot of scotch tape assembling it. There are some confusing parts of the skirts pattern assembling that require cutting and extending (to save on printer paper, I guess). There are also some confusing match marks, or lack thereof, but generally speaking the pattern pieces match up well, fit, and are historically accurate in shape.

I made some changes to the pattern. The first was to fold back the overlap skirt front so that the opening is center front instead of on the side. The second was to add a grown-on lapel to the collar, which is easier than you might think and kindof fun. Just draw that shape right on there as big or small as you want.

Comments

The {FREE} American Duchess Cape Pattern

Click Here for the pattern Howdy! Since we put our Patreon to sleep, we needed to find a new place to host the #ADCapeCult 1910s Wrap Cape pattern . So it’s going to be here! I have to host this on Google Drive, which means you will likely get a pop-up when you click “download” warning you that this might be hooky. I assure you it’s not – it’s just Google looking out for us. Download, enjoy, and tag #ADCapeCult on Instagram!

A Little History of Mary/Marlowe Elizabethan & Jacobean Shoes

Anyone who has ventured down the Renaissance Rabbit Hole has at some point run into The Shoe Problem™. What the heck did the Tudors, Elizabethans, and Stuarts wear upon their feet? And where can you get shoes like that? One of the surviving examples of late 16th century shoes from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. We don’t have a lot of surviving examples of late 16th century footwear simply because of the age, but what we do have are a lot of portraits showing off some pretty stellar shoes. In the time of Henry VIII, shoes were flat and fairly simple in shape with either round or very square “cow mouth” toes, the primary decoration coming from slashing and perforation. Around the 1580 and 90s, though, heeled shoes come into vogue. Charles I circa 1616, © National Portrait Gallery, London It’s a common misconception that Louis XIV introduced heeled shoes in the mid-17th century. In fact, both men and women had been wearing heeled shoes for a good 80 years already. Early on, these hee...

1780s Embroidered Italian Gown – Skirts and Sleeves

In the first pos t on this project, I constructed the bodice front and back. Now it’s time for skirts – the fun part – and sleeves – the evil part. Skirts first. My fabric was blessedly 60 inches wide, so I used two panels with the seam down the center back. I went for the smallest pleats I could, though honestly I’ve never been able to achieve those really tiny 1/4 inch ones, and I actually don’t think I even had enough fabric in the skirt to do so. An attempt at really small pleats I don’t think I had enough fabric in my skirt, even at 120″, to do those 1/4″ pleats so I ended up at about 3/8″ to 1/2″. My favorite thing about Italian gowns is how messy they are in the waist. You just turn up the bodice bottom edge, slap it on over the skirt, and stitch it on. The secret is to then split the center back of the skirt under the point and fold it down. This makes the skirt lay nicely around the deep V. Turn up and baste the bodice waist edge and slap it on straight over the pl...

ads

ClothingUniforms

Search This Blog