Ikea LJUSÖGA robe à l'anglaise (1770-1780s)

I joined the club, at last! I made my own Ikea Ljusoga robe à l'anglaise! Squeeeee! I waited this moment for almost two years. I purchased the fabric when I joined my group Le Vie del Tempo in 2016 and it laid in its envelope since then. I never had the time to work on this dress before, even if  I started to make a mock up last year. Then things happened and I have been forced (read: forced) to make an elegant  18th century dress for an event at Venaria court. I also lost weight in the last 6 months and I literally had no costumes to wear for our day. Any. My working class jacket now runs too large and same for my floral caraco I wore earlier this spring (le sigh...) so I only could sew something for myself. Three days before the event. Yes, three days. 

I made several italian gowns in the past for my customers but never had the chance to make one for me. I have been extremely lucky to met a buyer that is almost my doppelganger so I recycled the pattern I made for her with just fewer alterations. 

Since my waist is now sensibly smaller I also had to finish my new pair of stays, all made in linen. I now wear a size XS, that's almost incredible for me! So after finishing to bind the corset in a rush I started to work on the lining; the only alteration I made was to shorten the shoulder straps. The bodice length, the sleeves, the back were already perfect. So glad I never throw my patterns away ...

The dress is made of cotton for lining and fashion fabric both, worn over 2 cotton petticoats. The petticoat were made last year and worn only once since then. Of course I made all inner seams by machine and outer finishing by hand, including skirt facing, hem and skirt seam. I didn't bother about the lack of trimmings for now, I can always add them in a second moment. The neckline was filled with a cotton voile fichu. 

Bodice fronts are closed with pins instead of hooks. 

I didn't take photos during the construction because the process was really straightforward. 

The skirt pattern is based onto the 1770-1775 dress featured in Janet Arnold book "Patterns of Fashion 1" without alterations; it seems this lady was tall like me! It is pleated towards the back on both sides and since I'm a perfectionist, I measured every pleat with my seam gauge to be 2 cm wide. Yes, I do these things when I'm late...stupid me. The skirts and the bodice are then joined together using a pick stitch and not sewing them in the "normal way" (so putting the two pieces right sides together); I laid the skirt under the bodice, pinned it in place 1,5 cm approx from bodice edge and then hand sewn all in place. This took a while but the result was worthy and without bulk at the waist. 

The skirt is trained and it's polonaised up using cotton cords inside the dress that form a loop. This loop goes over two fabric buttons sewn at the side seams outside the bodice. Please note: a robe à l'anglaise is not a polonaise dress. Polonaise dress were totally different and did not have a waist seam as an italian gown. 

Now the fun part, the photos!!

The Ikea fabric is not bleached. You can see how the two different shades of white look in sunlight. I finished the look with this straw hat I purchased from Atelier Pietro Longhi. 

And you? Did you make an italian gown as well? What pattern did you use?

A 1750s Ikea floral caraco

New season, new project! Well, to be honest this one was started this winter but you know, I don't have lot of free time to sew for myself. If you read my previous post about 18th century fichus you may have noticed a new, lovely, floral caraco.

I started it between January and February for an event at the end of March, using some cotton from stash as lining (you know, economy!) aaand approx two yards of this famous Ikea fabric. This kind of cotton is thicker than Ljusoga duvet so keep it in mind when buying: it wouldn't work good for a summer dress or jacket. The price is about 5€ at yard so it's definitely budget friendly! 

"Luckily" our event ended to be really cold and windy and the caraco worked perfectly as mid-season garment. 

I used the famous caraco pattern shown in "Patterns of Fashion 1" by Janet Arnold with some alterations. A very, very similar version if you're not good at scaling up patterns can be found on JP Ryan online shop; I loved her cuffs so I used her draws as reference to make mine. I also added a side seam to the bodice to make it a little bit different to my robe à l'anglaise.  My.ma in reference was this beautiful extant piece:

First, I printed the pattern and adjusted to fit my body. I have very large back shoulders and I always have to enlarge period patterns a lot to fit this area. Then, I raised the neckline quite a lot, added cuffs,  attached fine cotton engageantes and a lovely small strip to the bodice to keep my fichu in place. I also omitted hooks and eyes closure for a more practical one with pins since I'm currently losing weigth. When I made the mock up the sleeves were perfectly fitted but now, in just two months, they run large but I can live with that. The rest is still perfect and the back so incredibly well fitted, yay! 

The front edges are boned with synthetic whalebone.

The skirts have two lovely box pleats in the side seams which give to the caraco a very elegant, flattering look. They need to be worn over pocket hoops to show their volume at best. I wore the whole thing with a brown linen skirt and a cotton petticoat. I'm planning a lighter one in red. 

The caraco came together really easily. It doesn't have a waist seam and the wrinkle you have at sides is absolutely correct. I made the lining first and joined it to the fashion fabric as a separate piece; the lining and the fabric have been joined by hand. As usual, my garments have machine made seams but hand finished details. I skipped trims and decorations for now: they can always be added later. 

I could work on it for a very limited period of time but on a normal schedule I would have finished it in a week/ a couple of days.  

I didn't take many pics of the construction, it was really straightforward. I was thinking to add this lovely piece to my Etsy shop as made to order item in different sizes, who knows...