It’s just a photograph of a well-dressed woman in her 18th Century bedgown, hanging out at the top of a mangrove tree. As you do.
Well, wouldn’t you?!
This 18th Century bedgown was made from the Burnley & Trowbridge bedgown pattern during a stay-at-home order in Minnesota. It was finished in a quarantine hotel in Perth. By the time I got to Brisbane, I was VERY ready to be out of doors for a while! But a bedgown alone does not an out-of-doors excursion make. (Not in the 18th Century, anyway.) To take my 18th Century bedgown out for a spin, I was going to have to sew MORE.
There’s a fabric store in Fortitude Valley (It’s even called The Fabric Store, which is an SEO search engine optimization win if I ever heard one) that has lots of lovely linen fabrics for sale.
I made a petticoat out of a very pretty sky-blue linen, and I made an apron out of a cotton/linen blend so crisp AND so drape-able that it sort of immediately became my favorite fabric for aprons, shifts and caps forever. (If you think this is hyperbole, order a yard or two and try it out for yourself. Then we’ll talk.)
The apron was particularly enjoyable to make, as I got to do lots of stroked gathering on the waistband. I like stroked gathers. They are pleasingly precise without being obstreperously finicky, and the process of making them feels a little bit alchemy and a little bit like magic.
Construction Note: this is not a sleeve – this is an apron, with its stroked gathers all tightly pulled up and waiting for a jet of steam to set them!
Also a construction note: Working stroked gathers on a fabric this crisp and pleat-able makes me feel VERy warm and satisfied inside. I highly recommend you give it a go and see if it works for you too.
I didn’t have to sew a new cap – I’d stitched up the Kannik’s Korner Round Eared Cap while I was in Minnesota. Digging it out of my suitcase, I pressed it and trimmed it with a scrap of blue silk ribbon, and reckoned I was sorted from the neck up, anyway!
A few later I asked the incomparably colorful EarandThere to come over and take a few outdoor shots of my new bedgown.
At first she was uncertain – she didn’t reckon she’d taken very many photos of people in 18th century costumes before.
“Honestly,” I said, “for five and a half months, I’ve been alone in a shelter-at-home situation, twisting myself into a pretzel to take selfies in a hotel bathroom mirror with a cell phone camera. That’s the bar we’re trying to clear here.”
“Oh!” She said. “I think I can do THAT.”
And she did – with elegance, style, and the sort of verve that finds you half-way up a mangrove tree shouting back at her – “so is THIS the good light?!”
What do you guys reckon?