After my silk gauze mantelet, I reckoned I’d show the first mantelet i sewed for myself! A sewing friend in Chile had gifted me a pair of sheer voile curtains from Casas y Ideas, a local homeware store. She’d intended to use them for a robe chemise but there wasn’t enough fabric in the set, so she thought she’d see what I could make with them instead. One of the curtains became a ruffled 1780s apron and the other became this white muslin summer mantelet.
This was intended to be a very quick project. My Sweet-summer-child Past-self had just learned to properly roll a hem, and was all wide-and-starry-eyed about how long it would take to roll and entire ruffle.
For the base pattern, I used the net mantelet on page 50 of the Costume Close-up book. I’m taller with broader shoulders than the wearer of the original garment, so i adjusted it both front and back so that it would hang as i wanted it to.
Mantelet construction is fairly simple. I hemmed both the hood and the body, then I gathered the neckline of each part, and stitched each gathered neckline to the neckband. Then I whipped down a facing to cover the raw edges. Voila.
Garment constructed, I could really start having *fun*. I wanted a ruffle from the same sheer fabric as the body of the mantelet – and that is a LOT of ruffle. It took a fair bit of time, especially given that i was still building the muscle memory to do it fast, and there was a period of time there where my room looked like i was rolling bandages for a very neat, prim Halloween mummy.
Hemming completed, I had to practice one more skill I wasn’t yet very good at. I had to whip gather my ruffle and stitch it down. Having one wrist in a brace after a fall did not help my speed or my efficiency, either.
Bibbity-bobbity-BOO!!
The cross-barred nature of the fabric meant that I could break down a 2:1 ruffle ratio with great ease – 4 squares of trim to 2 squares of body. By the time I hit the curves on the mantelet body where the grid broke down, I had both pretty good muscle memory for whip-gathering and I could eyeball the volume of a 2:1 cotton ruffle without needing a ruler.
Of course, it would have been even nicer if I had stitched the ruffle to the correct side of the fabric. I unpicked, and started again.
And then, of course, I ran out of ruffle, so I hemmed more ruffle and whipped that on too.
I fastened the mantelet at the neck with a wide mint-colored silk ribbon and then it was done. My definitely-very-quick, absolutely-only-one-week white muslin summer mantelet project was complete at last.
This net mantelet in Costume Close-up has proved a good base for many costumers. The construction is very simple, and then you can absolutely go to town on the trimming. You can spend a LOT of time happily hand-stitching trims or you can run a gathered ribbon for a quick effect.
The Lady of the Wilderness made a lavender silk version with a pinked trim.
A Fashionable Frolick made a warm winter version in black wool.
Festive Attyre made a long-fronted mantle in red wool,
And Lauren from American Duchess made yet another wool mantle – this time in blue!
