A Peachy Linen English Gown, 1770-1780
Colonial Williamsburg, May 2012.
Yet another long-delayed project post from a gown finished last summer...
The pattern: Draped by me.
Construction details: The cut of this gown is almost identical to that of the blue and white striped linen gown, so the construction process is exactly the same as well. Because of that, I won't bore you with repeating the details (including identical interior shots!) again, but be sure to check out that earlier post if you're interested in reading more.
The fitted "English" back of the gown, with the en fourreau pleats
that extend from the shoulders to the waist.
South Britain, October 2011.
Colonial Williamsburg, May 2012
The fabic: A super-lucky Denver Fabrics find from a couple of years ago. It's a lovely, summery light-weight linen in a peachy-pinkish color. Very nice to work with, though both its blessing and its curse is that, like all good linen, it holds a crease quite well!
Finishing the look: I finished the gown last July and wore it for the first time during our shoe workshop. With our breathtakingly busy schedule that week, though, picture-taking time was scarce and I'm not surprised, looking back in the picture file now, to find that we never got a picture of it then. The second time I wore it was for our "1776: South Britain Comes Alive" event in October. For that outing, I paired the gown with my newly completed black silk bonnet and a white self-checked linen apron and matching kerchief. As I explained in the bonnet post, this overall look was inspired by the Stubbs painting that served as one of my bonnet inspiration sources:
The "Stubbs"-inspired look.
South Britain, October 2011.
Detail from George Stubbs, The Haymakers (1785).
Image linked from the Tate Gallery.
On our recent visit to Colonial Williamsburg last month, I brought out the gown again, this time adding a simply-trimmed straw hat with forrest green silk taffeta ribbons and a self-striped cotton lawn kerchief to help dress it up just a teensy bit.
Colonial Williamsburg, May 2012.
