Making an 1840s evening dress

I *also* miraculously managed to film most of the process of making this dress, so there aren’t any photos of the process but I will link the video down below! Here is a brief (ish) overview.

My materials included 5 meters of dusty blue duchess satin, purchased in Goldhawk Road at £8 p/m, a lot of blue embroidered lace purchased ages ago off Etsy, 4 meters of light white chiffon, which was £4 p/m and about half a meter of cotton twill, which I had in my stash and I used to interline the bodice.

For this, I started out with Truly Victorian 442. I was really excited to use this as I’d heard really great things about TV patterns, but I’d only used the petticoat and cage one before (which I recommend!). I followed the instructions (curious way of matching pattern sizes to measurements) and made a mock-up:

I really like this shape, but unfortunately it did not fit the 1840s so I reshaped the neckline and the front point, then cut a second mock-up. The first one had been too small, so I let out the bust darts to compensate (it was recommended that all the fitting was done through the darts). Once I was happy with the fit, I used that pattern to cut out the blue satin and cotton twill interlining.

Now, the next step is flatlining. I’ve never successfully flatlined by machine, the fabric always bubbles up, etc. After complaining on Instagram, I got the recommendation of trying Heat n Bond. I happily purchased the only one available on Amazon Prime which arrived the next day and got to it. Immediately I thought it was very thick. I think I bought the wrong kind, which made the bodice pieces way too thick and impossible to handle. So instead I had to recut the front pieces, but I managed to salvage the side and back by peeling away the Heat n Bond and then hand basting everything.

Then I matched the seams and basted them, then machine sewed.

I clipped and pressed all the seams, then I sewed them down by hand, making boning channels. I cut and filed synthetic whalebone and fit them into each channel.

I turned the CB edges under twice and sewed them down, forming a boning channel. I added a strip of bias tape, leaving about a 3/4” gap from the CB for the eyelets. This is an extra boning channel to support the eyelets. I was also suspicious of the strain the eyelets might put on the satin and so I added an extra strip of the cotton twill to this small section, making sure there were no raw edges. This was all sewn by hand to avoid topstitching.

I then drafted the bertha. I wanted a smaller shape than the pattern, as it was just to support the lace. So I draped it on the bodice on my dressform, and played with the placement of the lace to decide on the width. Then I transfered that to paper and cut it out of the satin and the cotton again. Then I basted the layers together, sewed the shoulder seam, flat felled the seam and hemmed the bottom edge.

I gathered the lace down to the measurement of the bertha, not using any measurements just by eye to how dense I wanted it to be. I placed the first tier so that it was shorter than the second. I pinned it to the bertha and cut away any extra lace. I turned one of the edges under twice and sewed it down, so that the raw edge wasn’t exposed, but for the other side I left it a little long so that it would overlap over the eyelets and the other edge, creating a seamless area.

I turned the raw edge under of the second layer and attached it to the bertha by sewing it down with whipstitches. Then the bertha was basted to the top edge of the neckline.

I made some piping (what Victorian bodice is complete without piping?). I wanted it to be quite discreet, so I actually used the same kind of cotton yarn as on my corded petticoat. (insert link) I cut bias strips of the satin, then sandwiched the cord inbetween and sewed it by machine. Then I basted the cord to the neckline of the bodice, keeping in line with the 1/2” seam allowance of the bertha and bodice, and sewed it down by machine. I also added piping to the bottom edge, in the same way. For the point, I simply made a cut on the piping nearly up to the stitch line, then reinforced that with fray check. This allowed me to pivot the piping as I sewed, making it easier to keep the point shape.

My original plan was to then used the piping edge to turn under and hide all of the seams’ raw edges (after grading), but unfortunately my bias cutting was… uneven (at best), which meant that at some places it was too narrow to turn under. So I graded the seams anyway to remove bulk and then sewed lace tape over the edges (an alternative to bias binding that I find prettier and less bulkier). I bought a 30m bolt of really simple, slightly stretchy lace on etsy that I use for this, works really well. This was done to the top and bottom edge of the bodice.

Last step was to add eyelets! I marked them on the bodice and used my tapered awl to make a perforation, then used a buttonhole stitch to sew the eyelets. I actually find this really relaxing, though very time consuming.

The bodice was the most complicated part. Here are the videos which have all the information!

And here is a link to the playlist with all the videos that make up this 1840s dress.

All in all, I am pretty happy with this dress! I think it feels and moves like a dream and I just wish I had somewhere to wear it to.