A wondrous Christmas gift, the 'Twelfth-Night Ball', 18THc. 'STAYS', and our costumed historical programs~

I am presently in awe. I have received the most unexpected and wonderful Christmas gift, and am a bit fuddled and teary at the moment.

I have long dreamed of a one day having a very high-style 18th century gown, but really did not know if it would ever be possible.

It is true that the most incredible, serendipitous things happen when you least expect it.

I have just learned that I  am getting an elegant confection of an 18th century gown, just made from a soft sea green and gold 100 percent silk, period-correct brocade, serpentine embellishment, and in the sacque back style. It is a gown I could only have imagined, and is amazing. It was made slightly large, and is now being taken in and altered to fit me to perfection by the lovely and talented seamstress who made it.

It has all the 'bells and whistles' of an enviable period gown, including lace, and matching brocade trim, bows, etc., with scalloped 'pinked' edges. I am posting photos of it here, and will post pictures of me wearing the gown shortly.

We will be attending a Colonial Ball at an historic inn in Massachusetts---the 'Twelfth Night Ball' in January. As you know from an earlier post, I was planning on wearing another gown I have, and 'dressing it up' for the occasion. Honestly, right now I feel just like Felicity, in the Felicity American Girl Christmas movie. I cannot believe this has happened to me. I shall be at this years' ball in a few weeks, in this most elegant attire. This gown will also be so nice for some of the other fancy events, and presentations that we do.

I am now revising my hair and shoe accessories, and will blog about that in a future post.  I am thinking some silk, see-through, shimmery ribbon that I already have, in my cream pearl 18thc. shoes, and 'hair jewels' tucked into my Georgian wig. I plan on wearing a pearl choker, as the lady who made this gown gave me teardrop pearl earrings as a gift.

I hope you all have your volume turned up and are listening to the music on this blog, imagining me    dancing to 'Jenny Pluck Pears' in this gown~

My gown is what is known as a 'sacque back'. This refers to the train-like back. The gown is fitted very snugly under this, and then the extra fabric with the pleats flows gracefully from the shoulders, unlike the back of a gown anglais. This style of 18thc. gown was of French origin, and was known primarily as a lingerie back gown, or robe a 'la Francaise. The Americans and English termed it 'sacque back'. From the front, the gown is of the English nightgown style, with the open robe worn with a stomacher.  The 'gown' ( also known as open robe, or mantua) is worn over a petticoat that shows, in this case made from the same fabric, as you can see. As with all 18thc 'gowns', an actual complete gown is always more than one piece, and in this case, three. 18thc. gowns did not have zippers, button, etc.,---they fasten with mostly cotton twill or Dutch linen tapes, cords and laces, as well as hooks and eyes.  

Everything that shows on this gown is sewn by hand.

I cringe when I see so many supposed "colonial gowns" out there (not on most true reenactors), that are simply a one-piece dress, and most often not of a fabric even remotely correct for the 18th century.

A true period style gown will ONLY fit if worn with what was also historically accurate at the time---shift and stays---

---And here now again, and on behalf of myself and my other reenactor lady friends who want to scream if we hear stays referred to as 'corsets' one more time, are a few facts about that most important of period undergarments~ 

18thc. stays are stays, NOT 'corsets'.

18thc. stays do not have straps---those are 'jumps'.

My reproduction stays were made for me, to my body and they are boned with reed (as they were in the 18th century), and not with plastic, or worse yet, zipties.

My stays have hand sewn eyelet holes for the lacing, NOT metal grommets, or grommets covered with stitching---(not authentic, and quite uncomfortable.)

Stays need to 'breathe', as well as be as comfortable as possible, and conform to your shape. The reed boning accomplishes all of this. Sometimes stays can be boned with baleen, or a combination of a few things.

Just because some 'seamstresses' out there will make period clothing, does not mean they know what they are doing, or are qualified to do so.  I learned this the hard way, along with many other reenactors I know. 
One of these insists you must use metal grommets on stays for the eyelets to be sturdy. Needless to say, this was not done in the 18thc., but more importantly, I have a pair of stays with completely hand done eyelets---no metal reinforcing whatsoever. I have had them for about 5 years, and worn them a lot. Not only that, but they were not 'babied' at all, with the lacing and unlacing sometimes being done quickly, with much pulling and tightening. Despite hours and hours over many years of being laced into these stays, the handsewn eyelets are perfectly intact, and show no obvious wear. They also have the advantage of being comfortable, with no 'digging' or pressing into your back. We are reenactors, not costumers. We do not sit or walk around in outfits made for one or two special occasions. Our clothing is 'beat to death' at constant reenactments. We are sleeping in a tent, wearing our kit from morning to night, hauling water and cooking in it, dancing in it, marching and fighting battles in it. I can assure you that my well-made stays, with their hand sewn, non-metal eyelets have held up admirably under punishing conditions.

As true living history reenactors,  we all pretty much have put a lot of time, research, money, and care into making sure we are dressed properly for the events and time periods we portray for the public. We are quite often laced into stays for 10 hours or more at a time, and for days, and thus appreciate those that are well-made, historically correct, and as well-fitting and comfortable as possible.  After trying many types of lacings, what works best for me is 1/4 inch heavy cotton twill tape, or 1/4 inch Dutch linen tape. I personally use the Dutch linen as it never breaks. There is also a correct way to lace stays, and it is not the crisscross lacing as when lacing shoes, but rather a 'spiral' type of lacing, with the tape being tied off at the lower right, and upper left of the back lacing stays. The eyelets are asymetrical. While satin or silk ribbon may look pretty, I know of no one who actually laces their stays with it. It would tend to be slippery, and to stretch and break.

A little trick I have also learned over time is to NOT lace the stays ultra tight right at the very upper edge, as doing so can produce a very unattractive horizontal line or 'wrinkle' across the front of your gown.  

Here are a few photos of actual 18thc. stays, and as you can see mine were patterned after them. If you are a serious reenactor commissioning custom stays,  the JP Ryan pattern is the one most staymakers use.

(If you would like to learn a lot more about stays and all manner of ladies' 18thc. dress, please come to one of our programs~We are next presenting 'DRESSING A COLONIAL LADY' for Olde Berwick Historical Society in Berwick, Maine in February. This is not a dry lecture, but a fun, fascinating, and light-hearted look at ladies' 18thc. fashion. There is much more information about our program, and us on the HOME page of our website~

I am still floating on a cloud! I can't wait to put on my shift and get laced into my stays, and try on this vision of loveliness. In most cases, after a fine linen shift and stays have been put on, you then put on your panniers, (or bum-or hiproll), and then the heavy white linen underpetticoat, and lastly, the pieces of your gown itself.  In this case, I will do something else that is less common, but equally correct; Directly over my shift, I  will be wearing the petite panniers, (or 'pocket hoops' that hold the gown out at the sides), THEN I will be laced into my stays. Because the panniers are tied on with tapes, if they are UNDER the stays, they not only will stay put, and not shift around when sitting or moving, but the bulk of the ties will now be compressed smoothly underneath the stays. (See above photo). I can then put on the gown petticoat. (With this gown there is no need of the usual heavy 'underpetticoat')---I next pin the stomacher to the front of my stays, and then put on the open robe.  You can see that the mantua, or open robe, is as decorated as the stomacher, and even the bottom of the petticoat has a flounce. This decoration is very typical and correct in a high-style gown of the period.

I am deliberately NOT posting any photos showing of all of me in the gown, or any jewelry, wig, hair ornamentation, etc. NO ONE will see the entire 'me' in the gown until the night of the ball. I will post a few photos on my blog after that, but we will have an entire 'TWELFTH NIGHT BALL' GALLERY OF PHOTOS up on our website only, after the ball.

A dear, sweet friend just sent me this photo, and pointed out the similarity of Madame Pompadour's gown to mine. She also sent the photo of the woman in the sleigh, and told me it reminded her of me~ (I even already have a dark fur muff to wear with my gown the night of the ball.)

Adam's 'best'  18thc. outfit is his elegant wedding suit---the black linen coat and breeches, a white ruffled shirt and white silk cravat.  As luck would have it, he already has a gold brocade waistcoat to wear with it, and it will be a nice match with my gown at the Twelfth Night Ball! I have scraps of the gown fabric, and I have made a 'fan' rosette decoration for Adam to wear on the side of his cocked hat the evening of the ball.

UPDATE~2012~I gave my gown a new look by adding beautiful metallic antique gold lace to it, sewing it by hand. I have worn the gown to many 18thc. events, and you can see all of them if you read posts on my blog. Here is one special occasion where I wore my gown just this past Christmas season, Dec. 2012~