Beautiful Dresses!

It's Beautiful Dress Time! or BDT for short.

This sexy little number is what is known as a Robe a l'anglaise. from the latter half of the 18th century. (17980's or so)  Beautiful cotton fabric with a metallic embroidery design. Center front closure and 3/4 sleeves, which may have once had a few flounces on them. The bodice appears to be tabbed at the hem and, though we can't see it, the neckline is probably deep and rounded.

Now, what's so confusing about this gown is that it appears to be depicted with Pocket hoops as the skirt support. At least, that's what I believe. The silhouette of the skirt is pretty square, all things considered. The fullest part is not at the hips, like you would see with a bum roll.

This is the back view of the same dress, the square hips are really obvious here. And the skirt train seems 'collapsed'.

The silhouette of this gown is beautiful, and misleading. White cotton fabric, embroidery that runs vertical, what appears to be a train, puff sleeves and a below bust waist line are all details of 1805-1810. The wide sash isn't typical of the time, but not totally implausible. What's so strange is the fullness of the skirt. It must be shown over a relatively full petticoat for the time. I love this dress and shape and I am a stickler for accuracy. How can you not love it? It's beautiful!

Education, 7:00am, what is this?

That's it, Autumn is coming, it's official. It becomes official when Starbucks brings out their pumpkin spice lattes.

This means that I start school tomorrow. Which means little time for personal sewing. In theory I could update with what I am doing in school, but since this blog is accessible from my facebook, and I have classmates on there, and we have a not so healthy competition going on.... maybe not?
We'll see.

Let's see, a beautiful gown of the day...

This 1910(ish) beauty has hand embroidery, applique's and insertion lace. It's an overdress, which would have been worn with a colored slip underneath. The Princess cut is absolutely gorgeous. I think it is very similar to this plate, which I found dated for 1909

The gown on the left with it's vertical decorations and high waist are evident of an attempt to bring back the empire waisted gowns of the early 19th century. Something that was just succeeding when WWI brought it to a halt and the style completely changed to reflect the new world mentality.

**Note** My photo collection of gowns has been the work of several years. I don't always know where I got an image from, though I do wish to give proper credit. I apologise, any infringment on copyright is unintentional and meant only for educational purposes. I will say that the first photo (I think is from a private seller [Vintage textiles?] who noted that the neckline was only pinned to be square and didn't fit like that)