1780s blue round gown from MoMu museum

novembre 22, 2018

1780s blue round gown from MoMu museum

New season, new costume replica. Not that new, considering I was thinking to reproduce this dress from 2016 or so... It took me two years of planning, waiting, looking for sources, collecting fabrics, waiting again, patterning and so on but I did it!

I'm talking about this famous 1780s round gown (also labelled as Levite) from MoMu museum in Antwerp! I guess many of you already saw these photos on Pinterest...

There are very few resources available about this dress and very few photos as well. It's shown with or without lace cuffs and the big fichu hides the back completely, making the visual understanding of the garment almost impossible. Bodice front also looks like pinned or closed with well hidden hooks.

The skirt pleating also looks weird for 18th century standards and if you came to this conclusion you're absolutely right. The lady of Atelier Nostalgia (check all her social media, she makes gorgeous costumes!) was so kind to explain me the skirt was re-pleated in 1860s, I suppose to accommodate the new fashion trends. She's Dutch so she definitely has more info about this dress (thanks dear!).

This really helped me in figuring out how my dress was going to be.

The pattern

I altered my robe à l'anglaise pattern and used it as base for bodice and skirt. Being a round gown, the front skirt is attached to the back skirt at sides, as a normal 18th century skirt you'd wear as a separate garment. It sounds confusing but it's really easy to understand how it works when you're going to wear the dress. The beauty of round gowns is you don't have to make a full, separate skirt, you have all you need in a single dress but - on the other hand - you cannot play with different skirts to create a variety of looks.

For the back I went for en fourreau cut. Worst idea ever. I never worked with en fourreau cuts before and I've to say they're not easy as they seem. The pleats have to be made before sewing the back to the rest of the bodice, need to be ironed and basted carefully to look symmetrical and then hand stitched to the lining to be secured. Sounds easy? Not at all. My back turned out lovely but not so perfect so I wouldn't recommend this technique to a beginner.

The long sleeves of the dress were self drafted using the 1790s sleeve diagram provided by American Duchess in her book.

The skirts were made as usual, cutting the back longer according to my measurements across the faux cul and folding the excess at front inside the waistband. Of course I left slits open at sides to reach my hanging pockets underneath.

I decided to close my bodice with pins as usual. Pinning is not only historical accurate, it also permits you to wear your beautiful dress if subjected to weight alterations.

The fabric

Italian cotton in petrol blue, really similar to the original one (which was in silk taffeta), cotton sateen for the fichu and bodice lining, silk organza for the cap and net lace for the sleeves.

Working time

I would say the working process took about a week but because I had to pattern the sleeves from zero and I struggled a lot with the back pleats; otherwise, I would have been able to complete it in 5 days or so. Of course this dress features lot of hand stitching.

And now...the photos! When we took the pics (it was during an event so excuse the people and the modern elements on the background) it was rainy, cloudy and muddy so I wore my wool short cape to stay warm.