1786 Gown of Figured Stuff with Balloon Hat

I've wanted a fashionable wool gown and I planned this one several years ago.  I even cut the bodice out but life got in the way.  Anyway, this gown is and Italian gown made of figured wool stuff.  My other wool gowns are working sort gowns from the mid 1770s or earlier. Here are my textiles:

I've noted references to figured stuffs and birdseye stuffs in ads.

Baltimore 1788

New York 1786

I used my normal Italian gown pattern that I draped to the lining of my L&S gown --the process of which can be found in this post.   You can see a summer Italian gown in this post.  The gown and petticoat were completed except the sleeves and hems.

I wanted this gown to have a long sleeve with a button cuff similar to that on a cutaway gown in the new edition of Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 1.

This sleeve has an interesting pattern piece.  It's one piece and splits at the elbow which probably accounts for the "bump" at the elbow in the sleeve fabric.  Here is what the pattern piece looks like.

I wasn't sure if I'd like this so I looked at the 2 piece sleeve pattern that I have in a pdf pattern I've had in my collection.  I did some flat measuring to make sure the sleeve would be full enough for my arms and I redrafted the shoulder line so it would fit the armscye in my gown.  I made a muslin of the sleeve and it was too loose below the elbow and the elbow curve wasn't in the right place so I stitched new seam lines with black thread (I used natural muslin for the fitting muslin.).   I got it to fit the way I liked and the black thread enabled me to lay pattern tracing cloth over the sleeve and trace the seam lines of the pattern.  I added a seam allowance and cut my new sleeve pattern.

The upper sleeve seam was stitched right sides together with 4 layers (2 lining and 2 fashion fabric) then the pieces were flipped right side out to do the lower seam from the outside with a spaced back stitch.  I turned up the hem, turned in the edges t the open cuff and stitched that in place.   I pinned the cuff closed to see if I could get my hand through it without unbuttoning it and I could so I decided to stitch closed buttonholes and sew the buttons on top.  I thought it would look neater--much like is done on the pocket flaps on men's coats.  Buttons were wood button moulds covered with fabric.

Sleeves were stitched in the gown.

Once the gown was hemmed I started on my hat.

The 1780s are a fun time in fashion.  Vincenzo Lunardi's balloon launch in 1784 translated to some new fashion crazes.

While researching Lunardi or balloon hats, I came across this funny story from London which was reprinted in a number of American newspapers.

Balloon images were printed on many souvenir items such as fans and broadsides but it was the balloon hat that really took off (no pun intended)!

My dear friend Ruth pointed me to this lovely family portrait of the Payne family in 1787 from the Philadelphia Museum of Art where you can see women of different ages in their balloon hats. 

Here is a fashion plate of two straw balloon hats:

Since these are European images, I thought I'd do a little search in millinery ads in the U.S. to see if balloon hats had caught on here and indeed they had as can be seen in this ad from Boston/Providence:

My first thought was to make my hat like the one in the left fashion plate above with a straw brim.  I decided I wanted it completely covered with silk.  I started with a thrift store straw hat that had a large brim--measuring around 20" in diameter.

I removed about the top 2 inches of the crown and left it open.  This is easy to do by snipping the stitches that hold the straw braid in place.

Then I needed to figure out how large to make my center pouf.  I started with a 33 inch circle of cotton net, holding it in place on the hat.  It seemed just way too large so I cut it to 29 inches then

I settled on a 24 inch circle.  I cut 2 layers of cotton net for a little support and one layer of pink taffeta.  I layered the circles and ran gathering stitches about an inch in from the edge.  I made sure to mark the circle at the 1/4 marks and I did the same on the hat brim.  I pulled the gathering stitches up to the size that looked right to me.  You don't want them against the base of the crown.  Rather, my gathering stitches, when the pouf is placed on the hat, were about 3 inches from the edge of the brim.  I pinned the pouf in place and measured to make sure that it was placed an equidistance from the edge all around. Using a millinery needle and strong thread, I stitched the pouf to the straw brim.

I placed the hat on my silk and traced around it with a chalk marker to create my brim circles.  I cut the circle about an inch past the mark and cut another one from the brim lining silk.  For the outer brim I cut the center of the circle out, slashed it all the way around and put it over the pouf onto the brim.  Then I turned the slashed edges under and pinned in place.

I pressed under the outer edge of the lining circle and trimmed the allowance to 1/2 inch.

I whip stitched the inner edge of the brim piece to the hat, tucked the outer edge around the straw base and  used wonder clips to secure the it in place.

I added the lining piece and clipped it in place with the upper brim piece. 

After whip stitching the lining in place, I slashed the center open and pinned it to the inside of the crown.

I basted the slashed points to the hat band.  In the absence of a hat band, I would baste it to the straw  crown.

To make the crown lining, I measured the circumference of the crown on the inside and added 1 inch for seam allowances.  I decided on how wide I wanted the finished lining band to be, deciding on around 5 inches.  A strip of linen was cut 6 inches wide by 24.5 inches based on my crown measurement.  The short ends were seamed, leaving about 1.5 inches open.  A casing was made on the long edge with the open seam, folding in about 1/8 inch then another 1/4-3/8 inch.  That was stitched in place with a running stitch then a length of 1/8 inch wide cotton tape was threaded through the casing.  The other long edge was pressed under 1/2 inch.

The lining was pinned in the crown then whip stitched in place.

The hat is finished except for the trim.  I would love to have taffeta ribbon.  I need something crisp.  I've decided to cut ribbon from some satin striped silk organza that I have.

Here is the finished hat.  I will retrim it at some point.  I'd like a more substantial ribbon as the fabric strips don't have finished edges and the bow loops don't fluff up enough.  I also need to make a better plume and I've ordered some larger white ostrich wing feathers.

To wear this gown and hat, I need to have proper 1780s hair which means big and wide!  I have severaal ways of doing this:  a curly version involving a hairpiece and a frizzled version involving a wig.

Handkerchiefs in this period were also quite large and often knotted or wrapped in the front.

At some point I will make a sheer ruffled apron and either a sheer ruffled half handkerchief or one with a ribbon striped border like those above.  Right now, I thought I'd go with tambour work accessories.  I have a large half handkerchief that I save for the mid 1780s and later.

Here's the gown and hat. In retrospect, I should've been more judicious in my pinning as there are wrinkles showing on one side of the bodice.  I only used 2 pins on that side and didn't pull it as tight to the body as I should've.  Live and learn!

I'm happy I finally finished this gown.  It's nice to have a winter mid/late 80s gown.  I'm also happy to have a 2 piece long sleeve pattern in my arsenal.  The balloon hat was fun to make too. It's not as versatile as a flat hat but it's so iconic for the mid/late 80s.  I'm sure I'll be able to find other things to wear it with!