"A night of splendor and elegance. . ." Annapolis grand ball for General LaFayette 1824

 We decided to go to the ball in October which meant I needed a ball gown more appropriate for winter.  The one I made for early fall was thin cotton and I wanted silk.  When I first started researching mid 1820s garments, I really fell in love with this gown in the Metropolitan Museum and I thought I might reproduce it. I went as far as resizing the embroidery pattern and getting wool floss.  I got so busy that I knew I couldn't get the embroidery done so I changed plans.  Plus I had already made a white cotton ball gown.  

Moving on, I found so many other gowns worthy of recognition.  The 1820s are all about the trim.  What kind of trim would be easiest and most efficient timewise to do?  I really fell in love with gowns that had leaves on them.  Here is a sampling:

American wedding gown

Detail from gown in the Met

Full length photo of gown in the Met

Met gown on a mannequin

And finally my favorite which is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art:

Note how the leaves/stems for that typical "V" shape on 1820s bodices.  This bodice inspired me.  I ended up making larger leaves thus needing fewer of them.

The skirt trim appears to have ruched bias cut fabric between the two large pieces of cording.  I was hoping to copy this trim.  As time went on, I started scaling back --first deciding to eliminate the bias cut backing then finally reducing my trim to one strip of cording with leaves on it.  

I used the Laughing Moon 138 pattern as a basis which is the same one I used for my previous three 1824 gowns.

I had 4 yards of this silk left over from the 18th century sack I made last year so I figured I'd use it.  I ordered swatches of some coordinating silks to use for the trim and found the perfect one.

The heavy cording I found at the fabric store was just too dense to use for bodice trim so I made silk turn cord with a wide seam allowance to give it just a bit of dimension.  After that was stitched on to the bodice and sleeves, I cut some paper leaves to determine the size I wanted.  The first ones I made out of silk--16 of them--ended up being a bit larger than I wanted so I put them aside for the skirt.  The leaves were made by stitching two layers of silk together, pinking the edges close to the seam and turning them.  I then took a little pleat in the bottom of each (they mirror image each other in pairs) and stitched those.  Here is the bodice and sleeves:

The sleeves were done first then they were inserted into the bodice.  The sleeve seam and neckline are piped. The sleeve piping is smaller than the neckline piping.

Finished bodice front

Bodice back without closure.  These gowns were typically pinned or had ties.  You do find some with buttons.

I had some leftover cording from my corded petticoat which worked well for the skirt.  I had made the skirt then split it where I wanted to add the large piping.  Then the larger leaves were stitched on.

All the leaves were stitched on the ends.  I didn't want to stitch them flat as I wanted them to have some dimension.  I made a total of 72 leaves.  Had I kept them to the dimensions of the original gowns, I would've ended up having to make many more!

I decided to do ties for the back closure which meant raiding my fabric dye stash to make the 1/4 inch cotton tape coordinate with the gown.

Here is the finished gown:

Front

Back

1820s hair is always a challenge for me with my stick straight hair.  The following products work miracles for curls that will last for days:  

I set the front of my hair the night before using this curl cream on dry hair and 3/8 inch bendy rods.  I used 5 on each side and curled them toward my face.  I'm a back sleeper so this works well for me since it doesn't require curling the back.

Here is the finished result--dressed for my tea earlier in the day.  I used a long braid hairpiece and a bun hairpiece that I added over the small bun my hair made.  The side curls were positioned with hidden bobby pins.

Here are the accessories I wore for the ball:

The images on the reticule and the kid gloves were taken from extant 1824 souvenirs in the collection of LaFayette College.

Dressed for the ball:

The ball was "a night of splendor and elegance" as described the by Maryland Gazette in 1824.  It was held in the same venue as the 1824 event--McDowell Hall at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.  Here are a few photos from the ball:

It was indeed a night of splendor and elegance.  Kudos to the Historic Annapolis team for a wonderful event.

I was sewing up to the last minute but was pleased with the outcome. I really like this gown and while the design ended up simpler than my original vision, I was happy with it.

Another Stop on LaFayette's Triumphant Tour - 1824 silk daygown

It seems that I've really gotten into the 1820s so why not do a couple of silk gowns for the cooler months? I need a nice day gown to wear to a tea in December.  I had found a silk day gown on an auction site that really appealed to me.  It has the same lines and sleeves as the cotton gown I made in September.   Let's look at the details:

Dated to the mid 1820s.  The lines are fairly straightforward on this frock.

The fullness of the skirt is concentrated in the back of the gown which is typical for this period.

The back skirt fullness really shows from the side.  This view also allows us to see the size of the top shoulder point on the trim.

The neckline is piped.  The straight edges of the trim are also piped.

There are no apparent back closures which means it either had ties that are missing or was pinned.

Close up of trim.  The trim appears to be bound and trimmed with some sort of twisted cord which is probably couched.

It appeared that the trim on this gown would be the most challenging feature.   I decided to make the bodice up with no piping in the seams.  I did choose to add it to the neckline.  I didn't have enough of the checked silk I was using but I had several yards of coordinating blue silk that I had bought for a bonnet that went well with this.  I made the bodice and a plain long sleeve that I had drafted for my my summer gown.  

The next task was to draft the trim.  I measured the bodice from front waist to back waist over the shoulder to determine the length of the trim, also marking the top of the shoulder.  I started to draw the trim but wasn't happy with the proportions so I ended up using the photo immediately above.  I traced the trim onto plain paper then put it in photoshop.  I resized the image to the measurement of the actual size.

I printed the pattern out actual size (it was tiled), cut it on the fold out of pattern tracing cloth then pinned it on my bodice.

I like the proportions of this trim.  I cut out one piece and tried to bind it but was unhappy with the results.  It was just way too fiddly with all of those points.  I decided to cut it double, stitch the pointed edge right sides together and turn it.  It still needed some sort of cording but I just couldn't find anything that came close to that of the original.  Raiding my silk floss stash, I found the perfect color!  Next, I decided to look at a variety of knotted embroidery stitches and play around with that.  I ended up really liking the Portughese knotted stem stitch and found that 4 strands of the Soie d'Alger floss was perfect for that. 

One skein of floss wasn't enough for me to finish both shoulder trims but I went ahead and piped the straight edges and stitched them to the gown since it would be a few days before I could get more floss. 

Next up--the waist band.  I determined the width I wanted, cut a crosswise strip of the fabric and piped it then added it to the bodice.

One thing I hadn't banked on was the fact that silk garments often end up smaller.  I'm guessing that it just has less give.  This happened to me here.  I made the gown to be buttoned in the back like the 2 previous 1820s frocks I had done.  The bodice met at the top but gapped at the waist so I adjusted the back turn in to add more width.  Had I realized this earlier I would've let out the side seam since I always use a 1 inch side seam for fitting.  At this point I realized that I would need to use ties to close the gown so I found a decent blue procion dye in my stash to dye some white 1/4 inch tape.  This way I wouldn't have to worry about tucking the ties into the back.

I'll trim the ties to make them smaller but I think this will work out.

The skirt was made up using French seams and stitched to the bodice.   I ended up having to trim off a good amount for the hem.  Here's the final fitting worn over my corded petticoat and stays.

Here is the finished gown:

I'm quite happy with the way this gown turned out.  It ended up taking way longer than I expected as I spent so much time on the shoulder trim.  I'm glad I took the time to do it the right way though.  

A brief look at the 1820s

With the 200th anniversary of LaFayette's Triumphant Tour in full swing, I continue to get a lot of questions about 1820s styles.  Most people ask about wearing Regency clothing.  You can certainly wear what you would like and Regency is earlier than the 1820s which mark the beginning of the Romantic period.  A fashionable lady will want to wear current styles.  Let s take a quick look at some of the characteristics of the 1820s.  These slides are taken from a powerpoint that I made earlier this summer.

1820s underpinnings, most notably the shift and stays, are similar enough to Regency garments that they do not need to be addressed.  A corded petticoat is a must for this era though as it helps to create the more conical shape of Romantic Era gown skirts.

A look at fashion plates

Note the elaborate skirt trims in fashion plates and on extants.  This is a defining characteristic of the 1820s!

A look at mid 1820s exants

Note the variety of neckline depths.

Cording is frequently ncorporated into the skirt trim to create more of a flare on the gown skirts.

Good examples of 1820s roller prints which were popular. Note how the print is used to emphasize the "V" shape of the front bodice.

One of my favorites.  Note the use of large cording in the trim.

1820s bonnets are very different from the earlier poke style bonnets.  These are almost more like large brimmed hats.  The brim narrows in the back which make them sort of a cross between a bonnet and a hat.

Hairstyles consist of a center front part with curls on each side of the head.  The rest of the hair is drawn up into curls or a sculptural bun with braids and loops.  These bun styles become much more dramatic later in the decade and into the 1830s.

Footwear was similar to that of the Regency Era in that it was very flat.  The toe shapes have evolved into a rounded or squared off style instead of the pointed styles of the Regency Era.

Other items:  Caps are similar to those of the Regency Era--large with lot's of ruffles, many of which tie under the chin.  Chemisettes were also still worn.  Ruffles at the neck were still worn but many have not become more like ruffle collars that lay on the bodice.  

Hopefully this quick little guide will help those who are still planning their LaFayette event garb.  There's much more to cover but this should help with the basics.

I would urge you to try the 1820s!  I like the styles much more than Regency wear as I find it to be more flattering.  The one thing I dislike is the back closures as that means I need a helper to fasten my gown.

It's always something!