This project was a fun one! I am on a mission to make all of the Scroop Mantle patterns, and right now I’m making a silk Scroop Charlotte mantle in a red figured silk taffeta.
This particular silk mantle caused a bit of an argument. Most extant silk mantles are lined in silk. Silk, however, is not particularly insulating, and coming to winter from a tropical climate, I wanted this mantle to be lined with wool. An expert on the subject, however, told me that it just wasn’t done. Known extant silk mantles are silk lined, and documentary evidence points to the same conclusion.
I said (stubbornly) that there was no way people would have gone out in winter wearing a mantelet that was nothing but two layers of silk. When the temperature dropped you would have wanted your outer shell to be as warm as possible, and I’d take, I said, that opinion to the barricades, except that I wouldn’t have to, because all of the 18th century silk-lined silk-mantle wearers on the other side of the barricade would have frozen solid before they got there.
Said Expert expressed some opinions about my opinions and won the war (on account of how documentary evidence always beats someone banging the “Oh yeah? Sez YOU” drum) but then very kindly hunted up an extent child’s cape whose hood was lined with silk, but whose body (drum roll please) was lined in glazed worsted wool!
My wool-lined cloak was historically plausible! We called a truce.
For the outer fashion-fabric layer of this Scroop Charlotte mantle, I am using a silk saree. On ebay I found a wonderful second hand saree in burgundy figured silk satin that feels like rich butter and drapes like a waterfall. For the wool lining, I am using a black wool dupatta from the same source.
Constructing the mantle:
Due to the dimensions of the dupatta and the direction of the woven figures on the silk fabric, both the outer fashion fabric and the lining were pieced – cut as two halves with a joined seam at the center back.
When I cut slithery fabrics like the soft wool dupatta, I often find that pinning the pattern to the fabric can result in slippage and shape distortion. If the fabric is dark enough to show a chalk line, I lay the pattern piece on the fabric, weight it down, and then trace the pattern piece by lightly dragging fabric chalk outward across the paper onto the fabric layer. This drag makes a soft chalk halo around the pattern piece with a hard edge on the inside that is a perfectly accurate cutting line.
Once I had my lining and fashion fabric pieces cut, I sewed the halves together and pressed the seam flat.
Then I marked the seam allowances. Chalk wipes easily off both of these fabrics, and this project has a lot of seam allowance, so I used the sewing machine, to trace the seam line around the edge of both pieces with a long basting stitch.
I pressed the seam allowances of both the silk and the wool to the wrong side and basted them down.
I laid the silk fashion fabric and wool lining with wrong sides together. This was the fiddly part: as mentioned above, both the silk and wool were very slippery, so I started by basting down the center seam, stitching in the ditch, and then I pinned the two layers together.
I did the same for the hood. As a concession to my Expert, and also to give the hood some body, I flat-lined the hood with the wool, and laid a black silk taffeta lining over the top of the wool.
There. Now everyone’s happy.
Fiddly preliminaries complete, I assembled the mantle as per the Scroop Instructions.
On my Burnley & Trowbridge blonde lace mantelet and my black net Scroop Marie Mantle, the hood pleats were constructed as stacked pleats caught at the inner edge to form a starburst, and then the starburst reinforced about an inch in from the edge.
On the Scroop Charlotte mantelet, the pleats were done differently, as a double stack of staggered pleats whipped along the whole of the edge.
It’s always fun trying a new technique, and I really enjoyed the finished effect of this one!
My silk Scroop Charlotte Mantle was finished – now it was time for the fluffy, fiddly bits: the trim!
Trimming the mantle:
After constructing the mantle, I had quite a lot of saree left, and I decided to trim this Charlotte Mantle with a row of pinked box pleats. Pinked box pleats seem to be a common mantle trim through the 1770s and 1780s –
With scalloped pinking shears, I cut the remainder of my saree into lots (and lots) of strips 2 inches wide.
To create the scallops, the fabric would need to be cut with the scallops on the outside of the cutting lines. Two strips, therefore, could not share the same cutting line, so I drew double lines 1/2″ apart.
I sewed my strips together, not bothering to encase the raw edges as they’d be hidden on the back of the trim.
Then I played with pleat proportions until I had a size and spacing that I liked, and set to pinning pleats!
I sewed my pleats down with little stitches –
I added a set of ribbons to tie at the neck –
And voila! A burgundy silk Scroop Charlotte Mantle, ready to keep me not just elegant, but warm on cold costuming days!
If you’re interested in some further reading, you’ll find a good database of extant 18th Century mantles here at Larsdatter.com
If you’d like to see a few other examples of the Scroop Charlotte Mantle, Lady Annabelle of Didmarton has made it in blue silk taffeta here
And Thimble Raven has made it here in a gorgeous red wool!
