Madame de Pompadour dress
A long-time reader of this community I decided to post my first diary.
With an 18th century event coming on I decided to make a Madame de
Pompadour Dress for it. My character is a noblewoman so I bought quite
the shiny fabric for it. However, I still have not decided on a Robe a
l' anglaise or a robe a la polonaise quite yet. But first I needed
panniers, since I was sure I wanted some seriously wide silhouette like I
admire so much in Glenn Close's dress in "Dangerous Liaisons" . So I
bought some sturdy but soft linnen and boning and set to work.
First
I measured the wide band to my hips and decided where the boning was
coming. I measured three tunnels for the boning to be sown directly as a
fold in the fabric. Then sowed them down on both sides, for strengh.
Once the wide band was closed the tunnels would form three half circles
since the tunnels were partitioned off about two third of the width of
the fabric.
I
reinforced the tunnels with an extra linnen strip on the end where the
end of the boning would be, to strengthen that part and to make sure the
strip would rest against my legs instead of all the fabric.
I
attached a rectangle for a larger tunnel at the top, to hold the
panniers at on a central strap. I made these detachable so I can also
use one of the two panniers later if I need it under a victorian bustle
gown.
Then
came the afwully fiddly job of putting my halfround boning in the
tunnels. For this I used stiff coil bought in the hardware store, bent
to a half circle that matched the line of my hips. The bones kept
slipping back and once one bone was in place, it was impossible to get
the other two in. So all three had to go in at the same time, each
advancing about three centimeters before I had to push in the other. It
took ages, but finally they went in. However, I noticed that once on my
dressdummy they all sagged slightly at the far end of the hoop. So I
handsewed an extra strip on to hold them level.
Then I had to do away with all the extra fabric I held over at the top end
in the triangle between my waist and the first hoop. This was done by
what I call fiddling. Just fold and handsew till you get it all even.
And the finished results. I am not too happy with how the rings on the
right and the left don't line up, but i will be adjusting that later.
First to make the skirt to go over this. Since the event is already in
three weeks time and I cannot go in just panniers&corset :-)
With an 18th century event coming on I decided to make a Madame de
Pompadour Dress for it. My character is a noblewoman so I bought quite
the shiny fabric for it. However, I still have not decided on a Robe a
l' anglaise or a robe a la polonaise quite yet. But first I needed
panniers, since I was sure I wanted some seriously wide silhouette like I
admire so much in Glenn Close's dress in "Dangerous Liaisons" . So I
bought some sturdy but soft linnen and boning and set to work.
First
I measured the wide band to my hips and decided where the boning was
coming. I measured three tunnels for the boning to be sown directly as a
fold in the fabric. Then sowed them down on both sides, for strengh.
Once the wide band was closed the tunnels would form three half circles
since the tunnels were partitioned off about two third of the width of
the fabric.
I
reinforced the tunnels with an extra linnen strip on the end where the
end of the boning would be, to strengthen that part and to make sure the
strip would rest against my legs instead of all the fabric.
I
attached a rectangle for a larger tunnel at the top, to hold the
panniers at on a central strap. I made these detachable so I can also
use one of the two panniers later if I need it under a victorian bustle
gown.
Then
came the afwully fiddly job of putting my halfround boning in the
tunnels. For this I used stiff coil bought in the hardware store, bent
to a half circle that matched the line of my hips. The bones kept
slipping back and once one bone was in place, it was impossible to get
the other two in. So all three had to go in at the same time, each
advancing about three centimeters before I had to push in the other. It
took ages, but finally they went in. However, I noticed that once on my
dressdummy they all sagged slightly at the far end of the hoop. So I
handsewed an extra strip on to hold them level.
Then I had to do away with all the extra fabric I held over at the top end
in the triangle between my waist and the first hoop. This was done by
what I call fiddling. Just fold and handsew till you get it all even.
And the finished results. I am not too happy with how the rings on the
right and the left don't line up, but i will be adjusting that later.
First to make the skirt to go over this. Since the event is already in
three weeks time and I cannot go in just panniers&corset :-)