SHANNON'Sdresses

GEORGIANdress

April 2010

Finally, after months and months of construction and procrastination and wounded fingers, my latest Georgian dress is finally complete.

This time, however, I have taken a different approach to the construction, which is why it took so long. I embroidered a separate stomacher, to be attached to the open-front maroon dress. I used embroidery cotton in chain stitch on a piece of fabric that already had a printed design on it, so it was basically just a matter of filling in the colours. But man, did it take so much longer than I thought it would. There is actually an open wound on top of a callous on top of an existing scar on my right middle finger from pushing the needle through the fabric so many times. I was never proactive enough to buy a thimble. I will for next time though. If there is a next time.

As you can tell from the photos, the stomacher is actually pinned straight on top of the corset to keep it in place. I then whip-stitched the sides of the open front of the dress onto the sides of the stomacher, as was actually common practise in the 18th century, at least for the elite who could afford maids to do this for them. To see this practise portrayed in film, see the DVDThe Duchess, scene 2.

The rest of the dress is much the same as my others, except for the overskirt, which has been gathered up on both sides about half way down the skirt and attached underneath near the waistline, resulting in the large pouffy overskirt, giving the illusion of panniers underneath.