What does one do with just over a yard of grey boiled wool? One hopes that there is JUST enough fabric for an 18th Century Short Cloak, that’s what!
One of my favorite 18th Century costume references is this portrait of Olive Craster 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! When I found this embroidered silk fabric I reckoned it was MEANT. Let’s see if i can make the blonde silk gauze mantelet from the portrait!
Last spring at a workshop, I came across a silk sultana hanging on a peg. I tried it on – and I wanted it. I didn’t NEED one, so of course I immediately went fabric shopping and found a piece of suitable-enough silk shantung – just enough of it for a midnight purple silk sultana.
Here’s a well-dressed woman in her 18th Century bedgown, hanging out at the top of a mangrove tree. As you do.
When I was gifted a length of striped linen from Burnley and Trowbridge,I knew just what I wanted to do with it – Burnley & Trowbridge had just released a new pattern, and I would turn my summer fabric into a summery 18th Century linen bedgown!
