I copied this gown from the Met Museum | Making a 1790s Open Robe

Hi I'm Dixie and this project is one of the big ones I've had on my to-do list for this year. It's using a striped silk fabric I got for a steal at under ten dollars a yard. I had been looking for some kind of striped silk because I wanted to recreate a version of this gown from the Met Museum. I was specifically drawn to this pleated back detail. Now I knew I'd never find an exact match of this fabric because these yarn dyed i-cat e-cat styles aren't made anymore in silk. In cotton, definitely. Silk, no. But the pale tones reminded me of the original gown and I liked the metallic detail. I don't have any pattern that exactly resembles the original dress so I referenced several of my Regency patterns to get me started. But the biggest consideration with designing my dress was what to wear under it and I'm pairing it with my 18th century chemise gown. You have seen this dress several times by now. It's one I made years and years ago and it is probably my most worn costume ever even though I don't particularly love it. I made this dress using a laughing moon pattern and I wanted it to be a 1780s except this design is copied from a dress dated to 1795 and you can tell when you wear it because the waistline is much higher than the natural waist but it isn't right up under the bust like where it would be on a Regency gown. When I'm going for a 1780s style, I wear a wide sash that hides the waistband but I've also styled it as a mid-1790s dress. It's actually a really versatile design especially with the removable neckline ruffle but what I don't love is the fabric. It's pretty cheap and it sticks to itself and it attracts dust and loose threads. It gets really messy. Because the dress's waistline is lower than most Regency gowns, I needed to make the open robe's waistline lower too. I started by shaping the basic back bodice and my dress form I made last year really came in handy for this project since it was mostly draping. For the front bodice, I used the Black Snail Spencer pattern that I made a couple years ago as a base and adjusted it to match my drafted back. This feature is different from the original gown which seems to just have a narrow strap across the front. Not that I can easily tell because there is no front facing picture on the Met's website. When I cut out my pieces, I made sure to leave seam allowance. I knew that the sleeve would be the trickiest part to draft and I had a few different patterns I could work with. Option one on the left is from my Norwegian wedding gown recreation which I liked because the elbow point has already been thoroughly fitted and that dress has sleeves that are set way far back like in the inspiration gown. But the split lower sleeve makes the pattern piece really wide and I worried I wouldn't have enough fabric. The one on the right is from Laughing Moon number 126 and is one piece and much skinnier. It has these gathers at the inner elbow for shaping but this seems like a slightly later sleeve design than what I'm going for. I also had these options, both are two piece sleeves. The left is from the Amalia jacket and if I flip this piece you'll notice it looks a lot like the first sleeve option but I remembered that there was a lot of extra fabric in that sleeve cap on that pattern. The other one is from the Black Snail robe a la glaze pattern and it is two pieces just layered on top of each other but I've never used this particular sleeve piece so I was reluctant to try it now. I ended up blending two sleeve patterns, the top of the wedding dress sleeve and the lower half of the Amalia because it had less of an angle at the elbow and I thought that would save me a couple inches of fabric width. The original dress has gathered elbow sleeves but I wanted longer sleeves to cover the long sleeves on my chemise gown. The sleeve cap took the most time because I had to somehow get the shape to match the 90 degree angle of where the shoulder strap meets the back but after some trial and error I think I got something that worked and I basted the sleeve in place. I tried on the mock-up which was difficult because it was only half a bodice at this point and noticed a couple issues. It looks real real messy but I think we're getting somewhere. I will have to tweak almost all of this sleeve seam line. I think the top of the shoulder is okay. The back is looking all right but I am going to curve this back section a little bit more. I took it apart, made some of those changes and sewed up a second mock-up. So I got the sleeve put back on and I'm pretty pleased with how this is looking from the front. It's great. I got the underarm looks good. My one issue I have is back here. I feel like this part right here is pulling away from the body and that kind of tells me I need to pinch out like a wedge and then I'll probably take some out of the sleeve as well if I can maneuver that. All right now I'm going to take all of this apart, retrace new proper pattern pieces, make those adjustments and cut a new bodice lining. I sewed the bodice lining and decided not to line the sleeves since the undergown already has long sleeves. Now came the moment of truth, cutting into the silk which involved much math and preparation before committing. I've got a few issues with this fabric. One, it's a big stain right here. I don't know what that's about. And then over here on this side every few inches like the selvedge is cut into. I don't know why that happened either which means if I want to do the skirt on the selvedge I'll need to go to the other side. Then on both ends I have some pretty deep creases from when this was originally rolled on the bolt and a huge chunk is cut out of this side. So I'm gonna have to work around that. For the skirt I referenced Laughing Moon 126. I just didn't use the center front skirt panel. Originally I wanted to tear the fabric to get straight lines but uh as soon as I hit one of those thin metallic stripes the fabric refused to tear so I had to cut it instead. And because the skirt is higher in the back waist than at the sides I had to slope the top edge of the skirt to match. Next I attempted to work out those back pleats. First I tried pleating a scrap but quickly realized the scrap wasn't wide enough so I tried again and ended up with three narrow pleats between each of these skinny metallic stripes. I basted the pleats to keep them in place while cutting. The back shape is at a slight angle because you can notice from the v-shape on the original dress. Once I had both back sides cut I thought it might be helpful to reinforce those pleats. So I basted the back to the lining, removed the pleat basting, then tacked the interiors of several pleats to the lining. I didn't do this for every pleat just enough to keep the pleats from blopping out completely. Next I cut the other bodice pieces and sleeves and this is not a symmetrical stripe fabric so I can't make identically mirrored pieces but I tried to cut the pieces so they at least look good together. I am once again left with a not insignificant quantity of silk scraps which begs the question what do I do with it? This seems to be a theme on this channel lately. My initial thought is like an 18th century muff. I say 18th century not regency because I don't think I have enough fabric to make one of those giant muffs from the early 1800s and then I don't know more regency reticules because can't have too many of those. Tell me what you think I should do with all this in the comments. I would say it's not a full square yard but this is like 60 inches wide. I'd say I probably have three quarters of a yard left. For the sleeve seams I finished the raw edge with a zigzag. It's not historically accurate but it is fast and no one's going to see the insides. For the bodice I folded in my raw edges before I could sew. I sewed the lower portion of armhole by machine then did the top by hand because I had to ease in the cap. As a bonus that's also more historically accurate. I took these pieces downstairs and finished off this entire neckline and I also finished the sleeve hems for this so now these sleeves are ready to get put into the bodice. I recently picked up some trims and notions at a local antique mall but most relevant to this project was this off-colored soutache cord which I thought might work for this project. However upon closer inspection it's got a pinkish undertone that doesn't match the fabric but it's good enough. The cord wraps around little fabric covered buttons. I bought a kit to make my own and I have to admit I have never had much success with these little tool sets. My buttons always come out wonky looking so I didn't have high hopes. The way I was taught to do these kinds of buttons is to back your fabric with a lining because that makes the buttons more durable and also prevents discoloration from the metal inside but I think the extra layer just makes the buttons harder to assemble. Eventually I gave up on that. I also gave up on the little circle template because it was hard to get such little fabric to fully cover the button. I just used a bigger square scrap and trimmed off the excess afterwards. Okay I've got three good buttons and three duds so I'm gonna have to go buy an entire other package of this because there are only six in the package and then I also need to get some muslin to line the skirt. Since the skirt has a train I knew I wanted to add a lining to protect the underside of the fabric. I debated lining the entire thing versus just the lower third but I didn't want a visible line of stitching running across the skirt so I went with a full lining. And for an extra special touch I added a line of twill tape to the very bottom edge to help protect the hem from wear and tear. I chose to gather the skirt to attach it to the bodice like in the original gown. I thought about pleating the skirt to match the back bodice design but I soon learned that I'd have way too much fabric left over on the sides. And lastly I finished up the rest of the buttons. I did three in each of the main three colors. For the sutash I'm sure there's some legit way of sewing the ends of cords or braids together but I don't know what it is so I just whipped them up and hid the seam under the center buttons. I had kept putting off this project because I didn't want to draft the dress especially that sleeve but I am surprised how easily that process went. I had a few issues with the sleeve cap but nothing major like I was worried about and the pleating went faster than I predicted. This project overall went more smoothly than most and honestly I'm pretty relieved about it because most of my big sewing projects and most of life from this year has been a struggle. I really needed something to go well and not give me a massive headache and maybe the sewing gods decided to be kind to me. As for the dress itself, I really love the early regency style. The long lines and trains are dramatic. That slight dip up in the back waist is chef's kiss. I love this fabric and I think the overall fit works well with my chemise dress. I'm wearing this with my regency wrap stays, a bodiced petticoat, gloves, my new reticule, and new boots, and a faux pashmina scarf to cover my hair. Thank you so much for watching. If you like these kinds of dress diary videos please subscribe. I still have more silk in my collection that I need to sew through so expect more of that in the future. Until next time, happy sewing!