Elegant Lady's Drawstring Dress Pattern #2

Make your neckline bias binding/drawstring casing from your fashion material, using the guide on the pattern sheet. Pin binding around the bodice neckline, beginning and ending at the center front and folding under the center front edges as shown in the instructions.




Stitch, taking care not to catch the bodice lining pieces as you go.



Trim seam allowance down to 1/4" and clip curves.


Fold under the raw edge of the binding and fold the binding to the inside of the neckline to create the drawstring casing.








Press neatly and pin in place.




Stitch, making small running stitches all the way around the neckline and making sure outside stitches are tiny, even and neat.

Felled Seams

I have used this two-step seam method for most of the seams in the Elegant Lady's Closet drawstring dress.


Sew together the seams at 15mm as indicated in the pattern instructions. Open out the seam and trim back one of the seams, in this case I've trimmed back the fabric that was attached to the 'lining'.


Fold the outer edge in over the narrow edge and crease.



Fold again and pin.


At this point you can do a plain hem stitch.


I did a simple running stitch that suited this garment.

The Elegant Lady's Closet Drawstring Pattern

This historically accurate regency gown pattern is selling through Regency Reproductions and of late some home sewers have asked if there are any step-by-step photos demonstrating how to make this dress.

Here below are some quick photos in the hope they will be of assistance. The text used with the illustrations comes from the pattern instructions.



1. Bodice


Pin the bodice back and side back together, matching notches and easing curve as necessary.


Stitch.


Do note that the side back curve ends below the shoulder of the bodice back piece. This is correct and creates an inward curve for the sleeve.


Clip curves.





Press seam toward the side.



Press and fell both side back seams (see post on felled seams)


Make a narrow hem on the top, bottom, and front edges of the bodice front 'lining' pieces. [I prefer to do a running stitch by hand here]



Pin and baste front lining piece on top of bodice front piece across the shoulder, around the armhole, and down the side seam, right side of lining to wrong side of bodice, matching up armhole edge and side seam. [my basting line is 10mm in from the edge]






Pin bodice front and back pieces together at shoulder seams, right sides together. Stitch.


Press seams toward the back of the bodice.


Fell both 'shoulder' seams.


Pin bodice side seams together ("lining" will be on top). Stitch, stopping at the first dot and resuming at the second dot.


[Snip thread between both, as long as you have knotted the thread. My machine does an automatic knot.]

Regency Seams

Below are three scans taken from my silk regency gown showing how the bodice is joined to the skirt. You can click on the images for an even closer inspection. The bodice has been completely finished, with the linen lining whipstitched to the outer fashion fabric. The skirt edge has been left raw, and sewn with diagonal basting stitches.

Above: Standard view of the seams.

Above: Seam from the skirt side.

Above: Opening up the seam to show edge treatments.

Regency Sleeves

Christmas brought a pleasant surprise this year, with a copy of Hovets Drakter, full of colour illustrations of costumes, and with some interesting illustrations of Swedish regency dress. Below are illustrations showing the lattice sleeve of the Swedish court gown.

Desideria, Crown Princess, 1810
Oil painting by R. Lefevre

Empire style bodice with the 'graphic geometrical lattice sleeves'.

Queen Frederika, 1802

Regency Seams

Looking closely at the side back and shoulder seams you can see that they have not been sewn together in the manner you might see 18th century garments, particularly frock coats. In these garments you see a two layers (fashion fabric and lining) sewn face to face with a piece of fashion fabric, then the seam is ironed towards the single piece of fabric. Over this seam and single piece of fabric is laid a piece of lining, the seams tucked under and then whip-stitched to the existing seam.
(After Christmas I will put up an example)

In this gown it looks like a lining piece has been attached to each pattern piece, whip stitched so that there is a small amount of fashion fabric showing on the inside. Two pieces are then sewn together so that a ridge forms, and is shown at the side and shoulder seams in this photo. I cannot open the garment up to confirm this theory, but on close inspection it looks very probable.

Regency Seams

Clothing construction methods were different in regency times. They did not have overlockers or sewing machines - it was done by hand. Fabric was very expensive and less plentiful, making frugality a necessity. Garments were fitted to the body and not sewn together from patterns.

Today we sew seams together by machine, right sides together with seam allowances of 1.5cm. The seams are then ironed, graded, notched or clipped to lie flat when turned, then ironed again. In regency garments in our collection the seams are narrow and outside seams are carefully finished to enclose all edges.

Bag-lining is very popular today, with lining pieces cut from a pattern, sewn together to make a garment, and then inserted into the garment towards the end of construction. In the garment below the fabric and lining have been treated as one during construction. Each piece has its lining attached to it before it is added to the next piece of fabric.

The construction methods and pattern style of these two dresses from England is very similar to an embroidered muslin dress in the Snowshill Collection c.1810 featured in Costume in Detail by Nancy Bradfield. The sleeves are very long, they feature apron-front bodices pinned at the shoulder. Both have white linen lining, the silk dress has tiny sleeves under the long sleeves and both feature narrow under-pieces at the front. Both have decorated bodices.


These photos show the side back and shoulder seams, together with the raw edges of the armscye seams inside a silk dress in our collection. In my next blog I will show how this method is done with step by step photos.


This shows the inside of a cotton dress in our collection.


This photo shows the lining of the front bodice and where the silk finishes.


Above are the finished seams of the front opening which are pinned closed underneath the bib front.

Seams joining the front skirt with the bib front. Shown here are the inside seams.