A luxurious late-1870s chemise for Nana
Another bit of my Manet’s Nana inspired ensemble is done. I’ve finished her chemise. It was done save for a bit of the lace trim before I got sick, but got put on hold while I slept for days on end. I used the free 1880s chemise pattern at Tudorlinks as a starting point. It’s a decade later, but chemise shapes didn’t change a great deal, and the basic shape is a good for what you can see of Nana’s chemise in Manet’s painting. It also matches the few extent late 1870s chemises that I could find that look like even slightly like Nana’s I’ve spent a lot of time trying to decide if Nana is wearing a corset with straps, or if she simply has blue ribbons in her chemise. I’m leaning toward the chemise theory for two reasons. First, strapped corsets seemed to have been viewed as more practical, less decadent corsets in the 1870s, and Nana is clearly not a practical woman! Second, there is another Manet painting which almost certainly …