Regency Shift/Chemise pattern

“ladies used to wear shifts; they now are called chemises: shoes are turned into sandals, stays are corsets, a girdle is a zone, a band for the head is a diadem, a gown is a robe,” quote by Althea Fanshawe  in 1806

 Well I made my pattern and I made a mock up and now it is ready to share with you!
First off this is not a pattern fro the Historical Accuracy snobs. If you want complete historical accuracy, go buy a pattern from one of the well known pattern companies.

This pattern is one that I personally developed based heavily off of Museum of Fine Arts Boston 99.664.51 and by looking at the instructions in The Ladies Economical Assistant (1808) by Kannik's Korner and The Workwoman's Guide (1838-40) and many other shifts and period diagrams for shifts.


This pattern is multi-sized, but has not been tested for all sizes. Read more bellow

Regency Shifts and Chemises

I am developing a pattern for shifts/chesmises for the ladies to wear under their regency gowns. So today I poked around at museums to find some examples.

Museum of Fine Arts Boston 99.664.51
MFA 99.664.26
MFA 49.895
MFA 49.897
MFA 49.900

Met C.I.41.161.7
Met 1999.216.1
Met 2009.300.392

Slippers!

My dear friend Brid has volenteered to embroider me slippers for my birthday gift. I just had to come up with a pattern.
Well today I did just that!
I put on some little brown flats that I wear with costumes, wraped some plastic wrap around my foot and then many layers of masking tape!

But like the idiot I am, I didn't have a shape in mind! so my foot sat there, all wrapped up while I googled regency slippers. I finally decided on a shape. V&A 1150&A-1901. I chose these for their square toes and no heel.
Others I considered were:
V&A T.565 to A-1913
Met 2009.300.1471a–d

Met 2009.300.1468a, b

So I drew my style lines, then cut open the toe of the shoe, since I needed to extend it to be more square. I also have a very prominent big toe, it really sticks up there! so I needed to make sure that the top pattern piece was smooth without the big bubble from the big toe! Unfortunately I  forgot to take photos of a few of these steps! By now my foot was really wanting to breath better so I cut a slit down the front to remove my foot, then removed the shoe and cut it to style. This is what it looked like then.

You can see the flats I taped over have a bit of a heel, I had to remove this in the pattern.

The top piece are shown right side up, the bottom is right side down,

Now I need to make up a mock up to test the pattern. there should be plenty of ease since they wer not taped directly over my foot.

If this works out I would like to try to make some sandals. I have been holding on to those turquoise vintage sandals to use as a sole for some new shoes for sometimes. They came from Hubby's Grandmother.

Here are some Sandals for inspiration

Beta Shoe Museum via the Regency Society of America Forum
LACMA (M.2000.10.2a-c)
Met 2001.576a, b

More Fashion Plates

New York Public Library Digital Gallery can be a great place to browse images.

check out the Women-Clothing & Dress on the W page Remember we are looking at the time period 1700-1820

And for the men, check out the M page

And of course children's fashions would be found on the C page


Also Ebay can be a great place to look for fashion plates. This seller seems to have a nice supply

Regency Dress designer

I was recently reminded of this Regency Era Dress Designer. offered by Bonny Blue.

It would be fun for anyone who likes paper dolls or other paper arts, as well as helping you to come up with something you like, particularly if you don't feel that confident with a pencil.

Back to the Library you shall go

Did you find any of the books I listed in the last book post?

See anything you liked?

Here is a list of more books to find

Napoleon and the Empire of Fashion is a very new book, you would be lucky to find it in your local library. You might be better off looking in book stores. I see that Powell's in Portland carries it in their online catalog. My copy arrived this past weekend (what an Easter gift!) and I do think it is a valuable resource for those with an interest in Regency era costumes. You can see some of the costumes here. I will tell you that there is a topless photo of a modern porn star in the book. I don't think it fits, but the photographer evidently did.

The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789-1815  is another good book on Regency era costume. You are more likely to find this in a well stocked library. As you can see from the Amazon link, it can be rather expencive to purchase.

Jean Hunnisett authored several books on Women's costume with patterns. These are found in many libraries, so you shouldn't have a hard time tracking them down. For those interested in the 18th century, you will want the 1500-1800 book, for those interested in Regency, you want the 1800-1909 book, There are also two books covering outer garments If you have the time, after all it will be November! Cloaks, Capes, Stoles and Wadded Mantles is the first book, the second is Dominos, Dolmans, Coats, Pelisses, Spencers, Calashes, Hoods & Bonnets

Fashion Plates for inspiration

Just like today's Magazine stands are a source of Fashion Inspiration, so were the days of yore.

If you need some inspiration, or just want to kill some time, here are some resources!

You can find an enormous number of the 'Costumes Parisien' prints in the Maciet collection of the Musee Les Arts Decoratifs

• first select "consultation du catalogue". on the left
• the click "recherche simple"
• enter "Mode" under "Terms de recherche"
• Check "Album Maciet"
• Click "Rechercher"!

This will take you to the  list. To select one of the albums, click the blue number  the click "Voir les vignettes Maciet"
Click on the page you want to view, it will open in a new window (at least in Firefox)


Another place to look is the Bunka Gakuen Library
You may want to search by publication date.

Also check out the University of Washington's Fashion Plate Collection