A fair & exhibit for all!

In January of 2016, the ORS is hosting a celebration of costume, from historical to fantasy.  The fair and exhibit will include costumes of all kinds; from reenactment wear, to cosplay and steampunk. It's over two days, there will be costume vendors and a costume exhibit and contest. All are welcome! So join us as a visitor or a participant. Application forms for vendors and exhibit submission forms will be posted soon on the ORS website. Visit www.orregency.org for details and keep checking in for updates. And don't forget to join the ORS Facebook group to join our lively discussions.

The Fabulous Fichu

Miss Jane Porter apparently wore a Fichu.

The Fichu, the chemisette—false sleeves... these are little fripperies that can change the look of a gown dramatically.  When you are into costuming, you can spend a lot of time sewing gowns and amassing a massive wardrobe of gowns simply because you want a variety of options. Sometimes having the right accessories can really change up looks that you already have.

The fichu comes in a variety of forms. Its purpose, as was the chemisette, was to fill in the neckline and to add a little je-ne-sais-quoi to your clothes.

Some pretty chemisettes.

A chemisette is a small 'dickie' of sorts; a sleeveless, or sometimes sleeved light-fabric blouselet that was put on before the gown as a neckline filler. Some were simple, some quite elaborate. A fichu serves a similar purpose, but is not an actual shirt. It's a piece of fabric wrapped around the neck and shoulders to cover and also highlight the decolletage of the wearer.

It is my experience, looking at the images of extant garments over the years, that items of Regency clothing, although similar in silhouette and style, were often constructed quite differently by different people. As people are today, they were also back in those days, imaginative, inventive and thrifty. They would use and reuse fabrics, and they would find ways to make their items particularly special.  Since the only thing that was mass produced were the fabrics, there’s no end to the variations in construction.

The Fichu is a perfect example of how the simple act of filling a neckline became a sort of competition of creativity, starting with the thickly ruched necklines of the early Regency to the froo-froo ruffled collars of the late Regency.  They are really indispensable necessities for any regency wardrobe, and lend a touch of authenticity that wearing just wearing a gown cannot achieve.

This is a different application of a fichu (left).
Tied 'round the neck, in front of the arms
and then around the waist. It is also a coloured fichu.

All you really need is your imagination, some very nice sheer fabrics and laces, and a couple of hours if your good in order to make some little accessories that will change your gown’s appearance completely.

Fichus were worn underneath the bodice and over the bodice. They varied in shape from a rectangle to a triangle.  Some covered the exposed neckline, while others only served to dress the existing neckline. Some were long, others were just slips of laced netting. In portraits, you see a variety of opacities in fabric, from the sheerest of the sheer, as delicate as dragonfly wings, to only slightly transparent, densely woven laces and embroidered nets.

A lovely post about fichus with some lovely extant examples.

The trick is to decide what looks you want for yourself, and then using the very basic shapes to construct those desired items.

For chemisettes;  there are a few patterns available where you can construct the basic garment, and then build upon it in lace and ruffles and such.  

• Sense & Sensibility (Regency Underthings Pattern includes 2 styles of chemisette)
• Rocking Horse Farm Early 19th Century Gown (includes a chemisette)

Regency Neck Ruffs were often added on over chemisettes. Here are some tips on how to make a neck ruff:

 Historical Reproductions' Neck Ruff Tutorial

Elizabethans were not the only ones who thought lace-ruffs
were the pinnacle of fashion.

Neck ruffs got more elaborate
as the late Regency wore on.
fashions were getting frillier and frillier.

As for the Fichu, it does not necessarily require a pattern to make one.  You can build them right on your dress-form or you can just use general measurements and cut them from there. Depending on how much you want full you want your ruching around your neckline, you can adjust the width of the fabric accordingly.  Your key measurement points are your shoulder width, and the distance between the back of your regency waistline and the front.  If you’re going to wear it on the outside of your gown, then you can make the ‘lapettes’ as long as you want them to be.  I’ve seen lots of images of older women with fichus on their shoulders with panels that hang down the front the full length of their dress. It’s very pretty.

I'm slightly crazy about the hat,
I must say.

Here are a few styles of Fichu I’ve seen in either fashion plates, costume mining in adaptations or portraits.  These drawings are open for interpretation, because again, these were made individually and to a person’s tastes. You can add and subtract from the basic shape to your heart’s delight.  Each image has a number. Below all the examples is a key with the very basic shaping of the chemisette drawn out on it. Keep in mind, I measured these based on my body--there is NO substitute for your OWN measurements. If you don't have a dress-form, then measure it on yourself.  And measure twice, cut ONCE. If you make something too short, you can always add lace edging, or ruffles--it's not a science, it's all about creativity.  If you use the foundation shapes and measurements, they sky is the limit in what you can do from there.

The simplest form of fichu. A rectangle,
ruched and then tucked.

Another rectangle, with a cut for the neck.

The tuckable triangle.

The triangle worn on the top of the gown.

With long 'lapettes' in front. I've seen these
made to the length of the dress.

This can be made, and set with drawstrings
to set the shape and gathering.

Recommended fabrics for Fichu 

(as a strong recommendation I suggest you try to stick to silk and cotton products) :

• Cotton or silk netting.
• Voile.
• Batiste
• Organdy (although it can be crunchy and stiff but it works wonders for ruffled collars)
• Silk or cotton gauze
• Cotton Lawn

(please pardon my hasty, and quite awful drawings!)

Achieving a proper fit with Regency stays.

There’s been a spate of discussion flying about the ORS for a little while now. Mostly it’s a discussion on how a set of Regency stays ought to fit, and how does one compensate for special issues, like more endowed ladies, or wide hips, etc.

The first misconception by anyone who’s accustomed to making corsets from other periods is that Regency stays should be shaped and fitted like a corset.  Of course they should fit you, and of course they should rest along your curves, but a Regency corset has really nothing at all to do at all with shaping a woman’s body. It’s one of the only style of corset in the long line of historical undergarments that is not at all designed to change the shape of a woman’s body. A woman’s ‘natural form’ was the aim (except with a little levitation). It is designed to hug the natural shape of her chest and torso. The Regency corset should wrap tightly around the torso, it should be stiffened with some boning or cording to keep it from crinkling up on you, and have good shoulder straps.

I say this often in posts about corsetry.  The boning in your corset has absolutely zilch to do with shaping or lifting. The only purpose of any type of boning or cording is to keep the fabric of your stays or corset taught.  Otherwise, without the boning, your fabric would fold and crinkle up on itself when you move around.  What gives you shape, and what creates support is the *cut* of your corset. So it’s important to make that distinction and not rely too much on boning to get you the results you want. It’s a supporting role, not the star. The pattern and cut is the star.

Hopefully my drawings don't look too terrible. :)

In all truth, the Regency corset is designed purely for lift.  That’s why there are so many styles of Regency corset (see an overview of the styles of Regency stays and underpinnings here)—because shape from the empire-waistline down, is largely irrelevant. Some women prefer long stays because they have a bit of a belly they want to control, and granted, if you have rather large breasts, you’re better off with a longer set of stays and a busk to divide and keep the center top of your stays against your chest.  Stays range from being no more than seven or eight inches long (almost to the traditional bra-dimensions with shorter straps) to hip-length. As long as your stays are doing what they were designed to do, it doesn't matter how much length is added, how much boning you stuff into the channels , how much cording or whatever else.

The NUMBER ONE thing you have to know and remind yourself when making your stays is that the empire waistline is KEY. You mess with that, you will have problems.  Your garments are designed to fit around this elevated waistline which runs directly under the base of your bust, and if you are not getting the proper lift, or your gussets are too low, your gown’s cut and placing will suffer.

There are three key points on a Regency set of stays that you must always address when constructing from a pattern or drafting your own;  1) a clear waistline, with the breasts securely held aloft above it. 2) Well measured shoulder straps. The length of your straps will determine where your waistline falls, remember that. If your straps are too long, your stays will drop down below the chest-line and mess with the fit of your gown. 3) The gussets—which are pretty important and should be designed to cup and hold the lower hemisphere of your breasts.

Gussets are key.  Some people believe that with larger breasts, you should lengthen your gussets, which means, deepen the cups, and place your breasts closer to where they naturally rest, right in the middle of your waistline.  Gussets can be somewhat lengthened if you do it intelligently, and you cut an arc in the cup before you cut the slits in for the gussets.  The trick really is to WIDEN your cups if you want to accommodate larger cup sizes. You should be building sideways, not up or down.  You are broadening the platter in which your bust should lay, instead of deepening it.

There are a couple of ways of giving that top binding of your cups the strength to cup the bosom. You can install a drawstring along the front of your stays to bring the edges of your ‘platter’ in, or you can bind it tightly so that it pulls the fabric in by itself. I’ve also seen some designs where the creator made cutouts for each breast rather than gusset slits, and then make gathered/ruched half-cups to fit into them wherein their bosom can nestle.

Now many women are concerned about ‘spillage’.  The rule of thumb is this, your gusset cups should not cover much more than the lower half/hemisphere of your breasts. The nipple should be just barely covered by the edge of your binding, or even half-covered.  The top half of your breasts should be pillowed in the cups.  What keeps them from falling out is the neckline of your shift.  The shift is an essential partner in the team that is your Regency underpinnings, and it acts like the top half of your bra.  You really should not wear one without the other.

However you make your stays, if you keep in mind the above key points.

1. Cut your gussets or cups to cup the lower half of your breasts, beginning above the empire waistline. 
2. Your straps should be short and should hold your stays in place Protect the high-regency waistline 
3. Use the shift’s drawstring neckline to retain the upper half of your breasts. 
4. Use a busked corset if your breasts require dividing, or they are large enough to push the whole construct forward with just boning.

Costume for a Regency child.

How can you not love the family chaos going on in this portrait?

One of my favourite things is to see period family portraits. And not just formal sitting portraits, but ones where there are people unposed, doing ordinary things, the room in disarray or chaotic, children are running about. It’s so intimate to see a glimpse of Regency family life, and even better, to see the things children wore.

The Regency child on the most part (at least from toddlerhood on) was generally dressed in a miniature version of the adult. They were expected to behave like adults in many ways, so it’s not much of a stretch that they would be outfitted like one. In babyhood boys and girls were dressed similarly in little regency frocks. Girls would graduate into their little high-waisted gowns and the boys got their skeleton suits sometime during toddlerhood.

A few garments have survived the tests of time, and are now on display in a variety of museums around the world. Using those garments as examples, a number of people have been able to draft patterns from them or create new ones based on the extant garments.

One of my favourite sets of children’s extant garments (with a pattern made from the garment itself) are the girl’s and boy’s outfits at the Danish Museum collection ‘Tidens Tøj'.

‘Tidens Tøj' girl's gown.

‘Tidens Tøj' boy's skeleton suit.

Some wonderful, enterprising person drafted patterns from a number of the pieces and posted them on the website. One of the RSA Forum’s Danish members was kind enough to translate them. The translated patterns can be found here:

http://regencysa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=kids&action=display&thread=473

View the original museum’s pages for:

The skeleton suit:

http://tidenstoej.natmus.dk/periode1/dragt.asp?ID=74

The adorable tiny gown:

http://tidenstoej.natmus.dk/periode1/dragt.asp?ID=83

With the little regency gowns, there are lots of options, just as many as there are with adult gowns, style wise, and now there are several patterns to choose from.

Some of the most popularly available patterns for girls are through Sense & Sensibility:

• http://sensibility.com/patterns/girls-pinafore-pantaloons-pattern
• http://sensibility.com/patterns/girls-regency-spencerpelisse-pattern/
• http://sensibility.com/patterns/girls-regency-dress-pattern/

This website sells a wonderful array of period goods, and their regency selection is absolutely wonderful because it includes patterns that are not readily sold in the US. There are several children’s options on this site (the adult options also offer patterns I’ve never seen sold in the US). They include more than one little girl’s dresses but also includes patterns for boys’ wear (skeleton suits & such).

http://www.neheleniapatterns.com/english/englishsite.html

(click on the Regency button on the left and scroll down on the right).

The Skeleton suit was the mainstay for many years during Georgian, Regency and even into the Victorian era for the little boys. I guess boys need romper wear no matter what age they grow up in. I personally think skeleton suits are ADORABLE. They were appropriate until about 10 or 12 (this is my estimation looking at portraits) and then the boys were put into littler versions of their father’s clothing. The trousers were either long to the ankle, or breech-length, just at the knees or slightly below them.

Here is a picture of an RSA member’s child in his little skeleton suit made by his father. The proud dad’s photo essay on making this item can be viewed here:

http://regencysa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=kids&action=display&thread=473

This is an interesting link of other children’s garments, including caps and bonnets.

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/collections/online/Results.cfm?ParentID=376555

This is a wonderful sample of a young man’s clothing in the early regency that I found on DeviantArt.

Here are lots of images for inspiration:

(photo link provided by: http://kleidungum1800.blogspot.com/)

One of the most famous period images of a young regency girl is 'Pinkie'.

Another portrait has been paired with it--the portrait of Blue Boy.

If you'll notice, the boy’s clothing fashions are more antiquated than the girl’s and there’s a good reason for that. Here’s an interesting history written about these portraits. The girl in the portrait was only 11 years old.

• http://insidepublications.org/blogs/writinglife/2010/03/03/pinkie-and-blue/

Miss Charlotte's Shoe Tutorial

Greetings readers! Today we are going to follow a lovely tutorial created by ORS member and ORS leader Charlotte. She made her own regency slippers recently, and did a bang-up-job of it, so I've decided to unapologetically plaigiarize her work over here on the ORS blog so we can share this wonderful, and entirely manageable project.

Finding appropriate flats for regency costume is always a challenge. I've been prone to using soft dance shoes, khussa shoes and flats I find commercially. Regency dance-slippers should be flat and comfortable, with some measure of softness, and it's hard to find that at a store--except perhaps a pair of ballet flats, however they take it a step further by reducing the sole to nothing, and being ultra flexible. But starting with a basic pattern, and using some really minor modifications, Charlotte shows us that it's easy to make your own customized pair of regency shoes where you can go as simple or as elaborate as you like.

She begins with a pattern:

"This is a good basic pattern to start with." Charlotte writes.

"My second alteration involved removing the tongue and squaring off the toe, to match the length of the sole."

"My first alteration involved squaring off the toe and widening it a bit. I also lenghtened the tab for the ribbon casing."

Charlotte chose to use a soft, synthetic leather; however your options are unlimited when it comes to this project. You can use extant shoes as inspiration.  Here are some links gathered by some RSA members:

Purple late regency - http://tinyurl.com/28udb7

Pink Kid Leather - http://tinyurl.com/2zx5ex

Leather - http://tinyurl.com/2gxgv6

1870-1810 Satin - http://tinyurl.com/3bsetz

Chartreuse Green Satin Half Boot 1818 - http://tinyurl.com/35rm95

Leather 1830s http://tinyurl.com/2ou3ue

Here is another collection.

On with the tutorial. ..

"Cut 2 lining and 2 facing for the sole and the top. Cut 4 lining of the tab. Use a 1/4 inch seam for all stitches."

"Right side together, sew the ends of the top of the shoe together, for each lining and facing piece."

"Right sides together, sew both tabs. Leave a space open for casing, as shown. Turn right side out."

"This particular lining was fraying pretty badly so I hand stitched the edges of the casing to keep this in check."

"Stitch a line above and below the casing to allow for a clear channel."

"On right side of lining, stitch the tab to the bottom at the back seam. Make sure the tab does not extend above the top of the lining, or it will show outside of the finished shoe."

"Right sides together, and matching the back seam, stitch around the upper edge"

"Clip the curve at throat of shoe."

"Turn lining to inside. Pin carefully so that the lining is secured to the inside and then edge stitch the upper opening to secure the lining."

"Another view of the edge stitching."

"Stitch the outer edge of the lining and facing of the upper part of the shoe."

"Add another stitch on the outside around the heel. I extended mine from about the middle of the shoe back around to the other side."

"Clip the curve of the toe."

"Trim purchased inserts to fit with a comfortable seam allowance."

"Stitch lining to facing, sandwiching the cushion between."

"Finished view of the soles stitched together."

"Right sides together, stitch sole to upper. Take care to match the toes and heels together and ease the sides to match. The heel is the tightest part to stitch, and I recommend a second seam there. I also recommend following the seam of the upper part of the shoe, to avoid showing that seam when turned right side out."

"Just a view of this as I stitch."

"Trim the toe."

"Turn right side out, check the seams and you're done!"

"A view of the ribbon in the casing."

The creator models her handiwork. Very nice!

They were so fun to make, she made two. :)

Thank you Miss Charlotte for this wonderful tutorial! Imagine what you can do? You can change your toe shape, add embellishments, long flowing ribbons, the options are limitless!  I hope this tutorial will inspire you to try for yourself.