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Rate the Dress (ing gown)

Published by The Dreamstress

This week’s Rate the Dress takes us from ballrooms, to bedrooms, with an formal dressing gown that I’ve dithered over showing to you for weeks, because what will you make of what is essentially a really, really, fancy bathrobe?

Last week:  a pale blue paisley ca. 1860 ballgown

It was a fairytale ending for the 1860s ballgown, with everyone singing its praises and declaring it must have been made by a fairy godmother, because if there was ever a historically accurate Cinderella ballgown, that was it!  (with a few votes for Elsa).

The Total: 9.8 out of 10

Almost perfect! (and really, that’s pretty much as close to perfection as RTD is likely to get).

This week: An 1880s dressing gown

This embroidered dressing gown is a fantastic example of the type of goods that were made in Japan for the Western market.

Woman’s Dressing Gown with Belt, Japan, Yokohama, for the Western market, circa 1885, silk plain weave (faille) with silk embroidery; belt: silk braided cord with tassels Belt, LACMA, M.2007.211.784a-b

It features lavish embroidery that combines both a Japanese and Western aesthetic.

Woman’s Dressing Gown with Belt, Japan, Yokohama, for the Western market, circa 1885, silk plain weave (faille) with silk embroidery; belt: silk braided cord with tassels Belt, LACMA, M.2007.211.784a-b

Although there is a very slight nod to the idea of a kimono, the silhouette and pattern shapes are predominantly Western.  The set-in sleeves are just looser versions of those seen in fashionable European dress in the 180s, and the gored back panels add a slightly bustle effect to the dressing gown.

Woman’s Dressing Gown with Belt, Japan, Yokohama, for the Western market, circa 1885, silk plain weave (faille) with silk embroidery; belt: silk braided cord with tassels Belt, LACMA, M.2007.211.784a-b

Woman’s Dressing Gown with Belt, Japan, Yokohama, for the Western market, circa 1885, silk plain weave (faille) with silk embroidery; belt: silk braided cord with tassels Belt, LACMA, M.2007.211.784a-b

While an informal, indoor garment, this is most decidedly a dressing gown for showing off.  It’s one to wear around a new husband, or to take with you when travelling, to impress the hotel maids, or to maintain your status should your host unexpectedly see you in it.

Woman’s Dressing Gown with Belt, Japan, Yokohama, for the Western market, circa 1885, silk plain weave (faille) with silk embroidery; belt: silk braided cord with tassels Belt, LACMA, M.2007.211.784a-b

Woman’s Dressing Gown with Belt, Japan, Yokohama, for the Western market, circa 1885, silk plain weave (faille) with silk embroidery; belt: silk braided cord with tassels Belt, LACMA, M.2007.211.784a-b

What do you think?  Is this the ultimate in elegantly deluxe dressing gowns, or is the mixing of aesthetics less than satisfactory?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

A reminder about rating — feel free to be critical if you don’t like a thing, but make sure that your comments aren’t actually insulting to those who do like a garment.  Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting. However it’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is totally lacking in taste.

(as usual, nothing more complicated than a .5.  I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment, so I can find it!  Thanks in advance!)

How to turn the Scroop Wonders Unders Singlet Camisole into a V-neck

Published by The Dreamstress

June is singlet camisole & slip season.

Here in the Southern Hemisphere, I’m wearing a Wonder Unders singlet under my merino tops, or a Wonder Unders slip under a wool dress nearly every day. And if I was in the Northern Hemisphere, I’d be doing the same thing under sheer blouses and frocks.

Scroop Wonder Unders scrooppatterns.com

Buy the Scroop Wonder Unders Here

In honour of the season, here is one of my favourite hacks of the Scroop Wonder Unders pattern: turning the singlet camisole or dress slip pattern into a V-neck. It’s super easy, and very helpful when you need one under a V-necked top, and don’t want it to show.

I’ll be demonstrating on a singlet camisole (well, actually, two singlet camisoles – so you’ll see the two different types of elastic), but it’s exactly the same process for the dress slip

You’ll need:

  • A Scroop Wonder Unders singlet camisole or dress slip, completed except for the neck binding & hemming
  • The binding elastic called for in the pattern, + 1 1/2″ / 3cm more length.
  • (And obviously), suitable thread and a ballpoint needle

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

Cutting:

Fold the neckline of the pattern down for form a V – it can be as deep or as shallow as you want.

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

Cut your neckline to match the pattern:

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

(feline assistance optional)

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

Measuring:

Now you need to figure out how much to add to the length of the elastic of the centre front neckline – the V-neck is a little longer than the curved neckline, so it needs a little more length.

To figure it out, measure along the folded edge of the little piece you have cut out.

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

Under 2″/5cm?  Add 3/4″/2cm to the length of the centre front neckline elastic piece.

Over 2″/5cm?  Add 1 1/4″ / 3cm to the length of the centre front elastic piece.

Sewing:

Fold the centre front elastic length in half:

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

Using a straight stitch, sew a V shape into the folded centre point, with the point of the V extending 1/4″ / 6mm into the elastic, and tapering to nothing at the sides.

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

Trim the elastic down to 1/8″ / 3mm.

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

Open the elastic out, and finger-press in half.

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

Pin or clip to the neckline of the singlet camisole, matching end points, and centre V-neck point:

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

And sew just as you would for a curved neckline, sinking your needle and turning at the V:

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

And there is your V-neck!

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

Finish the rest of your singlet camisole or dress slip just as directed in the pattern, and you’re done!

The Scroop Patterns Wonder Unders with a V-Neck Tutorial

Enjoy!

Ball gown, probably American, ca 1860, silk, cotton, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983.479.1a—c

Rate the Dress: Pale Blue Paisley

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week:  a 1770s crewel embroidered Robe a la Française

When this Française first made its debut on the internet it received nothing but rave reviews on every forum.  You’re a tough crowd though.

Some of you gave it top marks for its uniqueness, but quite a few of you were not wowed.  You found it too costume-y, cartoon-y, clumsy, and Christmas-y (kaftan-y was a good thing though!).

The Total: 7.7 out of 10

A polarising pick, with a meh result.  Will this week do better?

This week: a pale blue paisley ca. 1860 ballgown

Last week’s dress featured cypress. Cypress trees are an important symbol in Zoroastrianism, and often feature in the Zoroastrian art. They appear in Indian art after the Zoroastrian exodus to India after the rise of Islam in the Middle East, and are probably one of the motifs that led to the development of the boteh or paisley design. So it’s fitting (at least according to the logic of my brain) that this week’s Rate the Dress should feature paisley.

This ca. 1860 dress is made from a spectacular paisley-themed jacquared-woven brocaded silk.

While the scale, shape, and arrangement of the paisley motifs are typical of the 1850s & 60s, the colour is so unusual in combination with the design that I would have assumed this dress was a film costume, if not for its excellent provenance, and impeccably period details in every other respect.

Most early-mid Victorian paisleys come in a combination of warm hues, with frequent uses of red and orange.  Beyond the archetypical kashmiri shawl, boteh designs were usually seen on informal wrappers for men and women, or, in white-on-white, in undergarments.  There are a few other gowns that feature simple appliqued paisley motifs, but this fabric, with its silvery blues, is almost as unique for its timeperiod as last week’s cypress.

Other than the striking paisley fabric, the ballgown is quite typical of high-end mid century construction.  It features a frothy berthe, delicate sleeves made of puffs of tulle and loops of picot-edged ribbon, and a sharply pointed bodice, finished with a double row of piping.

The photographs that the Metropolitan Museum of Art provides sadly do not include a back view, but they do show the dress in a range of colours.  I think of an array like this of showing the range of true colours a garment can have, depending on the lighting it was seen with.  I certainly have clothes that look very different by day (and even time of day), candlelight, and different artificial lights.

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

A reminder about rating — feel free to be critical if you don’t like a thing, but make sure that your comments aren’t actually insulting to those who do like a garment.  Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting. However it’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is totally lacking in taste.

(as usual, nothing more complicated than a .5.  I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment, so I can find it!  Thanks in advance!)