I recreated an 1815 Wedding Gown from an ORIGNAL pattern | Regency sewing

I have lately been enamored with turn-of-the-19th-century Regency-era silk gowns. They don't often appear in fashion plates, but there are several surviving examples. Many of them have long, cozy sleeves, gathered front closures, and are often in rich colors, sometimes figured or patterned silks. I found this bronzy dress dating to 1815 in the collection of a Norwegian museum, and I fell in love with this ruffled back detail. Silk dresses of this time period tend to be very clean and plain, so it was cool to see something that made this dress unique. And then when I translated the webpage into English, I discovered, aww, it's a wedding dress! How sweet. And then, I kept scrolling and discovered, it has a pattern! Yes, the rarest of gems, a museum piece that not only has large, high-quality images with no copyright restrictions, but it has a pattern! Well, it's a pattern of the bodice, but skirts during this period were basically rectangles. And I was lucky enough to find a silk fabric that exactly matched the two-tone colors in the original dress. But more on that in a bit. If I wanted to recreate this dress, I first had to convert a random picture on the internet into an actual, usable pattern. I brought the image into Adobe Illustrator and copied all of the pieces as a starting point. This pattern has sleeves, a center back piece, two side backs, and two front pieces with a center front closure. So what I've already done is trace the original pattern and rearrange it, and I started to notice a few things that makes me think that this is not an exact replica of the dress. The center back piece isn't symmetrical. So when I traced it, I went ahead and made it symmetrical. Another thing that's interesting is the front bodice area. It looks like there's a lining underneath, which kind of makes sense. That's pretty common. So that does tell me that this part is about the center front, whereas this is actually probably extended further and just not included in this pattern. The other thing that I have a problem with is I don't know what the original size of the pattern was. This image says it's at 1 quarter scale, but there's no scale marking. There's nothing I can use to match it up to inches or centimeters, so I just have to guess. And I'm just going to scale it up roughly to my own body size. I measured my underbust and I took out all of the lines that should make up the underbust measurement and then doubled them. So now I have to scale the entire pattern pieces until this number matches probably like 32 inches. Should roughly give me my underbust measurement plus a little bit of wiggle room. I'm just going to assume that there's not seam allowances included, and if there are, they're probably small enough that it doesn't make much of a difference in the sizing. The next measurement I have to match is the sleeve, and since I don't know how long the sleeve cap is supposed to extend way in the back, I'm going to measure from the underarm to my wrist. And in the early Regency, very long sleeves were popular, so you can tell by how the end of the sleeve flares that it's actually supposed to extend past your wrist. I need this measurement to be somewhere between like 19 and 23 inches, I think. And it is 17, so I actually need to make it longer. Alright, and now I'm going to check the bicep. So it should be at least like 14 across. Oh yeah, that's not bad. I might make that a little bit wider. And then the last thing I want to measure, and this won't be perfectly exact, I just need a ballpark range, is the over the bust, over the shoulder, through the back. So from... Nope! This was the hardest measurement to get right, and I kept trying to lengthen the bodice pieces to match, but I just wasn't getting there, and soon I would realize why. Once I figured everything was good enough, I converted my pieces to a printable layout, and made sure to remind myself that I didn't add seam allowances by writing NO SEAM ALLOWANCES in big letters on every single piece. Let's see how well that works out for me. And when I first pinned the pieces to my new dress form, I realized why my shoulder measurements weren't matching up. Obviously, this pattern is completely missing either a shoulder piece or a shoulder extension, so I have a big gap here I have to fill. Luckily, I have plenty of scrap paper that I can borrow from the baby. Now I felt safe enough trying out the pieces in fabric. For the bodice, I'm cutting up the old muslin lining that I took out of my first ever historical costume. If you haven't yet seen that video, I will link it in the description. So I put on the mock-up of just the bodice, and I'm noticing a few things off the bat. So when I originally lengthened the whole bodice, I think I lengthened it too much, so I'm probably going to lop off about a half inch. I may let out the side seams just a smidge, one, that'll give me more overlap in front and it'll also help widen the armhole, and then I think I am still going to pull in the front armhole a little bit, just to give me a little bit more room. The back is looking pretty good, but I'm getting this weird, like, middle dip, and I may even just widen the straps by like a half inch. So I think I'm going to do a little bit more tweaks to the bodice pattern, try it on again, and then try the sleeve. Like usual, I'm hoping to reuse these mock-up pieces as a lining, assuming the fit changes don't require me to cut out entirely new pieces. I pinned the first sleeve mock-up to the form, and while it did fit the armhole, it seemed really tight over the shoulder. So I took some measurements and widened the upper portion of the sleeve. What I hadn't realized is that I had put the sleeve on backwards. This is because, while there is a notch on the pattern for the shoulder and underarm points, there's no indication as to which is the front or the back. This probably caused the main problem I faced when I tried on sleeve version two. The elbow dart was too far to the front. Not only that, but I forgot to add seam allowances to the sleeve. Even though I wrote in giant letters, no seam allowances. I forgot. So then I readjusted the sleeve again, and I was probably somehow blessed by the sewing gods because in the end, even though I made all of these unnecessary changes to the sleeve, it worked out okay in the end. I was sadly cursed by the weather gods instead. Well, I am back after taking an unanticipated break on this project. We experienced a extreme weather event, damage to our house, and then I got sick. But I am finally back and working on this project, and I had forgotten where I left off. And then I remembered, oh yeah, the sleeves. So at this point, I have done probably like five mockups of this sleeve, but now I have a new problem in that my iron is broken. It keeps randomly turning off as I'm using it, and then when I turn it back on, it turns off again. And I don't know what's wrong, and I've only had this thing for like a year and a half, and I'm a little upset that it's not functioning. So I'm wondering, should I just go buy a new iron? I did in fact order a new iron, but while I waited for it to arrive, I figured I'd start cutting out my silk fabric now and just press all the pieces later. I was really lucky in finding this taffeta. If you look very closely at the back of the original gown, you can see the two colors of thread used to make this shot silk. It's a bright blue and orange, which together make this bronze color. I think these threads were probably exposed from the way the dress was stored, and maybe that spot just rubbed a bunch until the thread started wearing away. I managed to find this tiger's eye taffeta from puresilks.us, which is actually not in the US, it's in India. And their website can kind of look sketchy and disorganized, but they are legit. I'm just cutting the bodice for now, as I still need to measure for the skirt. I'm also cutting some bias strips to experiment with the frill on the back. I have a new iron! It is a gravity feed style. So you have to hang this tank way up high, and then it comes around. And then I have to mount everything on the wall because I have a toddler. So it's a bit of a learning curve for me. This is a little bit different than my old, just standard domestic iron. It's very heavy. It is extremely steamy. While I was pressing my sleeves, I noticed a problem. I didn't notice that one side of the fabric had, like, a run in the taffeta. I mean, it's not terrible, but I definitely do not have enough length to cut another sleeve. It's fine. It'll be fine. Before I could assemble the bodice, I needed to work out these back ruffles. At first I thought they were just strips of fabric gathered across the width in increments, but once I tried that out, they didn't resemble the rounded loops that are on the original dress at all. So after reexamining the pictures, I realized what this was. It's a type of trim commonly seen in the 18th century, where you sew a zigzag along the fabric or ribbon, and gather it up, creating a scallop ruffle shape. I just didn't recognize it because one half of the trim is hidden under the seam. I don't know what the name of this style of trim is, so if you do, please leave a comment. Here is my back piece, and this is my second attempt at the ruffle. This is not the same number of loops as in the original dress. That one has more, but I'm trying to compromise between number of loops and thickness of this trim, so that when I add the sleeves and the back, this will be kind of proportional to the original. So I think I'm just going to do it one more time on my other strip, and baste this in place. Then I could sew the whole outer bodice together. And I also sewed the sleeves. I was about to start work on the sleeves, so I needed to put the lining inside the silk, when I realized I forgot that the sleeve seam is supposed to have a slit in it, up until about the wrist. So now I have to take some stitches out. But I'm putting off that chore for now, because I want to cut out the skirt. Since I don't have any actual measurements of the original dress, I'm just going to have to wing it. I did reference this pattern, which I have used before, it's by Laughing Moon. And this one's a little bit different because the front does not have gathering, so my skirt needs to be wider than this one. I think it's like 49 inches across, so I figure if I add a little bit extra in the width to cover the gathering in front, that's basically 54 inches, and this fabric is 54 inches wide. So I think I'm just going to cut two lengths of the fabric, according to how long I need it to be, and sew those together. But when I went to go press these two skirt panels, something terrible happened. Yeah. So, my iron exploded hot water all over my silk, which is not a good thing. For historical projects, you generally don't want to get silk wet. It changes the texture of the fabric and can also stain it. Ironing helped dry it out pretty quickly, but I was still left with a lightly visible ridge around the wet spots. So I tried using my steamer to clean it up more, but that only added more water spots, and I was pretty frustrated at this point. I thought I should take a break from the skirt, and I headed back to the sleeves, thinking that would be easier. It wasn't. I took out that stitching at the wrist and inserted the lining, but once I tried a sleeve on for a test fit, I realized I didn't want the lining. I can't tell if the original sleeves are lined. If they are, it's with a dark colored fabric, obviously not white, but I didn't think the lining would show until I remembered that wrist slit. So instead, I hand hemmed the silk at the wrist, but this also caused some problems because I had already clipped the curved parts of the sleeve seam allowances, thinking the allowances would be hidden inside a lining. Doing small hems by hand isn't really hard, except this time the sewing gods were against me. I kept getting knots in my thread, my thimble kept falling off, but I persevered. Okay, I have hemmed the wrist openings for the sleeves, and I think they actually look really nice. Now I have to figure out what to do with the raw edges on the inside of the sleeves, and on this one, I just did a little test run of whipping the edges, and I don't love it. It just looks a little messy. I think what I'm going to do is zigzag the raw edge. Is it historically accurate? No. No, it is not. Will it prevent the edges from unraveling? Yes. And will it look nice and clean? Yes. By now I felt better about sewing up the skirt. Any staining from the water is barely visible, so I'm just going to pretend that it isn't there. In the past, skirts were often hemmed first, then leveled when attached to the bodice, so that's what I'm doing now. You might think that because these dresses are so slim in this era that the hem circumference would be small, but they're still quite large. I've made the mistake in the past of making a Regency skirt too narrow. I thought now might be a good time to pause and talk about an issue that's been bugging me about this dress. See, the museum labeled this dress as from 1815, but based on all of the details on this gown, I'd guess it to be about 10 years older, maybe even a little bit more. Now I am no expert on how fashionable Norwegian ladies were in 1815 compared to French ladies, but considering that this is a wedding dress, and probably made specifically for that event, and made with expensive silk, you would probably want the cut to be as up-to-date as possible. What about this dress makes me think that it's older? Let's take a closer look. By the 18-teens, front closures had lost favor to back closures, and even before that in the 18-aughts, smooth front skirts started replacing gathered-style skirts. Very long sleeves were popular in the late 1890s into the early 1800s, and sleeves were fitted closer to the arm at the shoulder, while as the era moved on, puffier sleeves became fashionable. This narrow back combined with the deep-set sleeve caps was an early Regency phenomenon, and this slightly upward dip at the back waist peaked, literally, in the late 1790s. The one aspect that definitely puts this dress as post-1800 is the even floor-length hem. Trains were popular in the 90s, but the French pretty much abandoned them quickly into the new century. First in daywear, and later in evening dresses. However, the English clung on to their trains for a few years into the 1800s. It's possible that this dress had a train at one time, and it was rehemmed later, but I don't know. So what do you think? Is 1815 a correct date for this gown, or do you think it was made earlier? Or later? Let me know in the comments. Now comes the hard part, actually getting the skirt onto the bodice. I started by layering the bodice lining, which I had to cut out a new one. I put that over the stays, and a shift, and on my new dress form. I used the width of my front bodice to figure out where to split the skirt fabric between the front and the back. Most of the volume is going in the back. I've never actually done this leveling technique before successfully, because my old dress form wouldn't stay upright, so this is new for me. I fiddled for a long time with matching these side pleats. I'm just guessing as to how much fabric is supposed to be contained in these pleats, because again, I have no actual measurements from the original dress. As for the center back, this is how much fabric I need to squeeze into a couple inches of space. I'm guessing the center back area is a combo of deep pleats on either side, with very fine gathers in the center. So after a lot more fiddling, I ended up with something that looked like this. The gathers are just basted, and they need to be much tighter, but it's starting to look like the original. And at this point, I started prepping the bodice for real. I sewed the skirt to the bodice, but only in the front, then trimmed off the excess skirt fabric, which was a lot. I really overestimated the length of this dress. However, look how close I came to having this big, giant slub right in the center front of my dress. Luckily, it is hidden in the seam allowances. You gotta count your little victories. Then I basted and sewed the drawstring casing at the front waist. And by now, I've sewn enough Regency-era drawstring casings to know that the key to doing them right is, one, make them really narrow. This is like three-eighths of an inch wide, and is probably wider than I prefer, but the casing's on the original look about that size. And two, you have to use a backstitch. I used to use a felling stitch from the inside, trying to make my stitches invisible from the outside, but that stitch just isn't strong enough and it buckles when the fabric is gathered up by the string. For the drawstrings, I'm using this one-eighth inch twill tape, which you've probably seen me use many times by now. I like tying it into a knot at the end and sewing through that knot to keep it secure at the end of the casing. Next, I skipped over to the lining to finish the raw edges and attach the tie strings that will hold it together in front. At this point, I had gone beyond any of my previous construction experience. I've made drawstring casings, I've made separate linings, I've done intricate gathers, but never all of that together in this exact configuration. So trying to work out the best way to construct this bodice, and in what order, was tricky. Well, I have attached the back of the skirt to the back of the bodice, finally, and it was much more challenging than I thought it would be. I probably reworked the back pleats like three times, I re-sewed the center gathering twice, I tried attaching it by machine at first and I just was not getting the kind of control that I needed over those thick gathers, so I ended up sewing most of it by hand. And I didn't film most of it, because I figured I could either sew this dress, film it, or take care of the baby, but I could not do all three at once, so I chose to forego filming. But I think the hardest part is now behind me, and I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that light looks like sew-in the lining. The tricky part about attaching the bodice lining is figuring out when the lining starts splitting off from the silk layer, because from there on, the lining edges have to be finished separately. I cut bias strips to add to the neckline casing, because my half-inch seam allowance wouldn't be wide enough to fold under. Now I can't be sure how the neckline on the original dress is finished, just from looking at the outside, but I can tell by these stitches up here that the drawstring reaches up past the shoulder point and toward the back of the bodice, so mine will be similar. I then hand-sewed the lining to the bodice, leaving the front area free to tie under the bust. Lastly came attaching the sleeves, and these sleeves weren't too hard to insert. We sewists usually complain about the complexity of setting in a sleeve, but I think the key to remember is that the stitching lines have to match, not the raw edges. And on more modern sleeves, the sleeve cap, or the part that attaches to the armhole, is usually a little bit bigger than the armhole itself to allow for movement. But this style of sleeve cap is almost exactly the same length as the armhole, it just comes with extra width over the back shoulder to give you some wiggle room. I think this dress turned out really well, and looks a lot like the original. Even with the bodice pattern, I still had to guess a lot for some things like the width of the front and the construction of the skirt. I'm wearing this over a shift, stays, and a cotton petticoat, and a little crescent roll bustle pillow is attached in the back. I love the color and swish of the silk, I love the super long sleeves, and how the bustle gives the back some extra poof for that quintessential early Regency look. And of course, those back ruffles really make the dress. I spent about two and a half months from start to finish to make this gown, and I'm glad I took the time to get the details and finishes just right. As always, links and credits are in the description. Thank you so much for watching. If you'd like to support me, you can subscribe and watch some more videos. Until next time, happy sewing!