Regency Project: Chemise

Back in July, I decided to use Halloween as a deadline and make a full historical Regency era outfit. I actually started off with the corset since I knew that would take longest and the other clothes would be based off the fit of that (I will post about the corset next, don't worry). After finishing the corset, I knew I needed a chemise to go under it. The chemise is basically a historical camisole or undershirt. It's the base layer for any era before the 20th century and only changes slightly over time. I knew a good chemise would come in handy for various eras if I decide to make more costumes in the future, so in August I made this chemise.

 

I went with Laughing Moon 115 for the pattern because that's what I used for the corset and the pattern included a chemise as well, so why not? For the fabric, I decided to go truly historical and use a lightweight linen. This is handkerchief weight linen from Fabrics-Store.com, which is seriously the best place to buy linen at a great price. When this linen came in, I knew it was a little too sheer for me to wear it as a regular shirt, but it worked perfectly for this project. It's thin enough to be breezy to wear and absorb your sweat to save your corset. I went with the higher neckline option on the pattern, but honestly I think the lower one would have been just fine too.

The pattern is only a few pieces and it involves sewing under-arm gussets. This was my first time actually sewing a gusset (I've seen it done before, but not done one myself) and it really wasn't too bad. I machine sewed the gussets and then hand sewed the seam allowance into a felled seam for a smooth finish. Next, I hand sewed the neckline so I could control where the cording went. I got the whole neckline hand sewed on only to realize that I had misplaced the back for the front of this chemise. I had to unpick the center front and center back, redirect the cording to come out the other side, resew the eyelets for the cording to come out of, and then hand stitch it all back closed. I was pretty miffed about that, but I'm glad I made the effort because it would have bugged me to no end having the cord tie at the back on this. 

Here is a closed up of that hard won neckline, lol. I used baker's twine for the cording because I have a ton of it on hand from other projects. It's a bit cumbersome to get your gathers evenly distributed as you put this on since you want it to gather up on the back and the front, but I'm hoping to figure out the sweet spot and then never have to untie it. 

There are tiny machine sewn eyelets inside the neckline edge that the cords come through and then I just tuck the ends into the inside of the chemise when I wear this. You can kind of see my hand stitching here as well. I used a backstitch across the neckline because it felt more secure. I'm not very well versed in hand stitching, but that's one I know lol.

The sleeves were set in flat with this pattern so you can attach the gussets, and I sewed them in with machine, but I flat felled them by hand lie the rest of the arm area. The hem is machine done because at that point I just wanted it to be done.

The gussets did turn out really nice, honestly. It just feels so fancy to do any projects with them since they are so infrequently used in modern clothes. Using them feels very historical. My hand stitching could be better, for sure, but I'm really pleased with them overall.

And that's my Regency Chemise :) Now I have officially shown myself in my underwear on the internet (gasp!). This is definitely the least clothes I will ever appear online, lol. I'll admit I was very frustrated with this after the whole backwards/forwards mix up, but now that it's done I'm glad I persevered. Now I can continue with my Regency project and know exactly how it will look because I have the appropriate underlayers on first.

Summary:

Fabric: 3 yards of 3.7 oz bleached linen from Fabrics-Store.com - $ 34.14

Pattern: Laughing Moon 115 

Notions: Thread - $0.50, Twill Tape - $1.00

Time: 4 hours

Total Cost: $ 35.64

WIP Wednesday: Regency Planning

I have been in full scale Regency sewing mode the past few weeks and things are progressing but also halting.

This weekend, I sewed up my chemise finally. I made my first ever underarm gussets - which as you can see took a lot of pins - and because of the illustrations in the instructions, I sewed my straps on backward :? So now I have to do some alterations to make it work, which is pretty annoying.

As soon as my chemise was wearable (but not yet hemmed), I decided to try the whole kit on for the first time. Friends - putting on a back lacing corset by your self is HARD. But I got it on, tightened it up ... and realized it was too big. The corset should have a 2 inch gap in the laces at the back, but the whole thing closes up completely. This was a pretty big bummer and I'm still at a bit of a loss as to what exactly to do since I followed all the fitting instructions in the pattern. I kept saying this was my mock up, but it seemed to fit me well so I finished the whole thing like it was the real one thinking I could wear it as well - maybe even use this as my corset instead of a white one for Halloween to take a bit of pressure off me needing to sew it again. Yeah ... Now I have to make it smaller in the body (can't decide if I do just the back pieces narrower or the whole thing) plus make the straps at least 1 inch longer, plus make the hip gussets bigger (which again were chosen by the pattern instructions). Ugh. 

The next piece to make (after I fix my chemise at the very least) is a bodice petticoat. I bought a bolt of white muslin, so this will be made in that. I figured that would make it very versatile. So this was my next officially planned piece until I tried to print it out this morning only to discover this only comes in large format printing. Ugh. See how this project just gets more and more complicated? 

I've been very torn about the dress itself. I went through my stash and at first it seemed like I didn't have any fabric suitable that I had enough of to make the dress. This lead me to looking into white muslin gowns, so I bought a bolt of huge white muslin thinking I would make that as a basic dress that I could jazz up with various accessories. BUT on closer inspection of "muslin" gowns everyone seems to make, none of them are made out of "muslin". They are made from swiss dot or cotton lawn or woven white striped fabric or just something much more sheer than what I now have, which is very frustrating. The whole reason for picking this era was because it would be inexpensive since I should have the things on hand I would need, and now I'm regretting my choices. The muslin was a great price, but still ... would I have bought it if I didn't think it would be immediately used? No. I think I'm still going with the original plan and I will just add some type of embroidery or something to the dress itself so it's not so plain and costumey looking.

But I also have this piece of fabric. It's a light quilting cotton, but it's definitely the best print for the time I have on hand. The only problem is I have 4 yards of 45" wide fabric, which is not enough according to the pattern instructions I'm looking at. So this is still a hard contender, but I will have to play pattern tetris to see if it's even a real possibility.

I'm planning to use Laughing Moon 126 for the dress because these are all front closing (which means I can easily put it on my byself). I'm torn as to what option I want, but it may come down to the fabric in the end. If I use the printed fabric, I will have to choose the option with the least required yardage, but if I choose the white fabric I can do anything shown here.

Next I plan to make a chemisette of some kind in linen gauze so it's nice and sheer. I haven't settled on what type of collar I want since I don't even know the dress I will pick yet, but I bought Laughing Moon 203 for this piece, so it will be one of the ones shown above.

While shopping my fabric stash, I also came across this striped number. This was definitely intended for a couch in the 90s because it's a decorator weight cotton that had been treated with scotch guard to make it shiny and waterproof. I washed the fabric, which removed the shine and made it much softer. I have 4 yards of this and it's 55 inches wide, but I don't think it drapes enough to make a full dress out of it. I DO think it would make a great jacket, so I started contemplating a spencer or a pelisse.

A friend gave me McCall's 7493 when I showed him this fabric and talked about making a spencer. The pattern includes both a spencer and a pelisse, so I should be able to do either one if I wanted. As much as ai like the drama of the pelisse, I think I would have to go with a spencer simply because of living in Florida and we are already talking about so many layers of clothing. This striped fabric would only work if I did the white gown, so it's making me lean a little more that way any. 

So as you can see, I have a lot of sewing to do, but a lot of decisions to make first. Ugh. It's crazy to go from thinking I had no options to suddenly being overwhelmed by too many choices. I need to get my rear in gear though because just typing this all out is making me worried about time. At the same time, I have so many practical everyday items I want to sew as well and with all this indecision for this Regency project, it just makes me want to grab one of those modern projects to sew up.

Do you have any big projects going? Do you tend to get decision fatigue? What do you think I should sew up for this?