A new chintz gown for Mrs. Chew

 I had an event coming up that was yesterday.  Figuring it would be warm in the middle of May, I decided to finally make a chintz gown for Mrs. Chew.  She has quite the wardrobe of silk gowns but nothing suitable to wear in the warmer months.  I had 14 yards of this one CW print in my stash.  I was hoping originally to make a sack out of it but I've found that the old CW prints are just too heavy for sacks so an English gown would do the trick.  I certainly had plenty of fabric for trim and it looks like I may get a jacket out of the yardage as well--mainly to wear in the car going to and from events.

I used my regular self-drafted folded robing English gown pattern.  I knew I wanted some passementerie on the trim edges because fine hemming that heavy cotton was something I had no desire to do.  I cut the gown out, tweaking the fit a tiny bit and making the robings about 1/4 inch wider.

As I always do--I made the sleeves first. Still undecided about how to do the trim, I figured I could at least put the passementerie on the edges of the sleeve flounces.  In order to do this, I pressed a tiny hem--about 1/8 inch--to the right side of the ruffle and simply stitched the passementerie on top of the hem, hiding the raw edges.  It turned out well.

Then I cut and prepped everything else--back pleats, darts, robings etc. --while trying to workout the kind of trim strips I wanted in my head.

Here's what I came up with.  I cut the strips the desired width (plus 1/4 inch) and about 1.5 times the length of the area to be trimmed.  I pressed the tiny hem toward the right side like I had done with the sleeve edges.

Then I stitched the passementerie on using fairly large running stitches on the back--basically like spaced prick stitches.

I was torn between doing a row of gathers up the enter or on each side.  I went with the later, folding in each trimmed edge 1/2 inch and whip gathering.

After the gathering was done, I opened it out and pressed it to control the puffiness.  You can see the finished trim on the sleeves and stomacher below.

I had a hard time deciding how to arrange the trim on the stomacher.  Making S shaped swirls is more finicky when you have trim strips that are gathered on both edges.  I do that configuration often with pleated trims.  I went with diagonal straight strips.  Then I made a bow with some shot silk I have in my stash.  I love this particular silk and may end up using the rest of it to make a mantelet to wear with this gown.

I cut the trim strips for the robings and skirt edges 1/4 inch wider than those on the sleeves and stomacher.  Here is the gown with trimmed robings.  I'll wear it this way for my event but my intention is to trim the skirt edges and trim the petticoat though I'm still undecided on what I want to do with the petticoat.  I also made some plain linen voile sleeve ruffles.  I have some with wide lace but I decided that the plain ones were more suitable for a day gown.  The robings look wider on the dress form as she's way skinnier than I am!

Since I would be wearing this with a plain linen voile apron, I made a matching half handkerchief.

Lastly, I got out one of my favorite caps (the Annabelle) and decided to make some silk trim to match the breast bow.  I really love doing millinery trim out of taffeta.  The bows hold their shape and stay so crisp!

Here's the gown in its current form as worn.  I'll update when I get the rest of the trim on. 

I really like this gown.  The fit is a bit better, not being as restrictive around the armscye.  It was comfortable to wear for the 2 hour plus drive each way to my event.  I know I'll get a lot of use out of it.

Cliveden has Elizabeth Chew's chatelaine in their collection.  The next side project will be finding components to make a reasonable facsimile of it.