A sewing friend gifted me a pair of sheer voile curtains. She’d intended sew a robe chemise but there wasn’t enough fabric, so she reckoned she’d see what I could make with them instead. One became a ruffled 1780s apron and the other became a white muslin summer mantelet!
One of my favorite 18th Century costume references is a portrait by Sir Nathanial Dance-Tolland. I love the puffy blue stomacher bows. I love the enormous pearls worn high on her neck. I love her pet squirrel. But mostly I love the lace mantelet that she is wearing over the top of all of it. While less heavily textured, this embroidered silk gauze from FabricGuru has such a similar scale and vibe to the fabric in the portrait that I reckoned it was MEANT. I would make the blonde silk gauze mantelet from the portrait!
Northern America is colder and wetter than Northern Chile in January. I needed Pacific Northwestern 1790s style!
The short version: I bought a straw hat blank and I fell in love. The long version: here’s a tutorial for an 18th Century trimmed hat!
They seek it here, they seek it there – those Frenchies seek really good dotted Swiss cotton everywhere! Sheer, spotted, and crisp with body for DAYS – there’s only one reasonable thing to do with a fabric like this – make a tutorial for a really swashbuckling 1780s ruffled fichu!
When I started the Infinitely Ruffled 1780s Apron I had little experience with hand rolling hems, and this apron – this apron had a LOT.
My first Mrs Sandby Cap was far too respectable – so I sewed another one. With lace. Introducing: the Milkmaid’s Nightmare!
