1780's silk gown

Well hello, I am really bad at updating this blog, but I am working in just as slow a pace in real life as well, especially now when summer is over. But I am trying to find the time for some sewing.

The latest produced is a 1780’s robe a l’Anglaise, although it is still actually not finished since I have planned for it to be just as decorated as the matching petticoat I did last year for another project that is slowly emerging. I totally fell in love with the blue coloured silk and I couldn’t stop seeing that thunder-blue Anglaise in front of me. I have always wanted a robe a l’Anglaise completely with decoration and separate petticoat all in the same fabric and this was it, so I saved up a bit more money and fortunately the fabric was still there in the store after the few months of waiting, so I finally got it! 

I am not actually a very blue person, I try to wear and sew as little as possible in that colour since I think it is mostly a quite boring and very common colour, but this shade of silk was just so beautiful, too beautiful to pass out on.

I have always had a bit of trouble with the construction of Anglaises, my body isn’t really made for that design since I have a long middle back with a sharp curve to it, but my hips and waist on the sides of the back are really high(it almost look like my waist goes right under the bust when I wear high waist clothing) and then at the front sides my waist drops again so it is hard to get a nice and smooth waistline and no wrinkles at the sides of the bodice. To make it even worse I have a really bad posture(not too visible in the pictures though which is good). Apart from that a new pair of stays with a higher back to help with the later would probably help a lot. I really need to do those stays soon…

Anyways, I am not totally satisfied but I think I will be more so after decorating it so that a few fixing extra seams will be covered up and it will be less visible that it was really tricky to make it mould to my body and still look like it should as an Anglaise.

I decided to wear it even though it wasn’t technically finished yet to a little get-together in a beautiful 18^th century house, and here is some pictures!