Redingote

This is the simplest style.

The panels are undraped -

There is little extra fabric, which hangs straight down

Slightly severe, but a popular style in the late 1880’s

Depression in late 1880’s led to less opulent styles, more fabric conservation

As more women were joining the workplace, tailored styles started to become fashionable, esp. for businesswomen

The basic polonaise is based on the redingote, but has more fabric, which has been draped up.

Attach to Tapes

       Safety pin one end of the tape to the waistband. 

              Pull up the fabric and pin to the other end of the tape.

       For many drapes, pin in more places – or use more tapes across the waistband.

              Try moving the top of the tape for different draping effects.

       When you like it, stitch the fabric onto the tape,

              Or attach buttons to the tape and buttonholes or loops in the fabric

                  (solid front to pleated side).

       Keep in mind that the front of a bustle dress was also draped. 

             This front shaping was often called the apron draperies.

These apron draperies, "which remain in fashion year after year", changed in length and placement with fashion's whim, but often it was a long breadth of cloth, sometimes shaped and hemmed, sometimes straight and showing the selvages.  It was draped across the front and sides of the foundation skirt and fastened in back, having been shaped by many little pleats or a few deep folds.

There were many styles of apron draperies: a point in front caused by a corner of fabric; round all the way around; laying completely at the front of the dress; partially or wholly on one side; very short; or falling to the hem of the foundation skirt.  The trailing ends of many fell in loose folds down the back of the skirt, but draping could be used there, as well, to create a bustle effect.

            Pleat the long panel onto the short panel.

            This can be done with soft pleats or pressed pleats – tack pressed pleats in place.

Pleat to the waistband for an overskirt made from a single long unshaped piece:

"The apron draperies that prove to be most popular as the season advances are those pleated to the belt, and thus having their fulness falling in lengthwise folds rather than in the crosswise wrinkles made by many pleats on each side.  To illustrate this, take a breadth of cashmere, and letting one corner form the foot, pleat the top to the belt in six pleats (three each side, meeting in the middle), then catch up slightly the middle pleat on each side to break up its stiffness.  A hem or facing three or four inches wide edges the apron, and may be either stitched by machine or done in blind stitches, no matter how fine the wool fabric may be; indeed, it is quite a feature this season to put row after row of machine stitching on summer camel's-hair and cashmere dresses in the way formerly confined to tailor gowns of heavy cloth."   Harper's Bazar, May 7, 1887, page 327

Ribbons

       Attach grosgrain ribbons on the seam allowances

           and tie them together at the center back.

                      Unless you want an asymmetrical effect, make sure the ends are even.

                      A single ribbon will give a different effect than a series of ties.

Shape Top of Panel

       Crescent shaping gives a different draping effect than a straight panel.

             It creates softer, curved drapes, like a window valance.

       Needed over a large bustle, or the back of panel may pull up shorter than the sides.

       Very effective on the front panel.

Shirring

Shirred garments were fashionable amongst adult women for a brief period in the late 1870's through the early 1880's.  Fashions plates and photographs show a wide variety of shirred styles, with the gauging run horizontally or vertically.  The gathering lines might be placed very close together, several inches apart, or perhaps even with a single line straight down the front.

Use several parallel lines of stitches

Odd numbers generally look best, more finished. 

     Five to seven look good, the more the fancier, less look plain.

Heavy fabric can be shirred by hand using ¼” stitches. 

     Use upholstery thread, push (always!) – do NOT pull

Gather up each side of the panel. 

     Tack it to the foundation skirt every ¼” to ½” to keep it from sagging.

Or gather up the center of the panel

Works better for the front panel than the back, but if done carefully could be dramatic down the back

Or gather up the panel in several places

Single lines work well when spaced 2” to 5” apart.

Asymmetrical

        Many outfits were created by combining these techniques,

             one on the left side, and an unrelated method on the right.

        This tended to be high fashion more than everyday wear.

Bibliography:

American Dress Pattern Catalogs, 1873-1909, Nancy Villa Bryk, Dover, 1988

American Victorian Costume in Early Photographs, Priscilla Harris Dalrymple, Dover, 1991

Arthur's Magazine, Jan 1879 - Dec 1880

Bloomingdale's Illustrated 1886 Catalog, Bloomingdale Brothers, Dover, 1988

Butterick's 1892 Metropolitan Fashions, The Butterick Publishing Co., Dover, 1994

Costume, The Western Reserve Historical Society, Chisholm Halle Costume Wing, 1986

Costume in Detail, Nancy Bradfield, Plays Inc., 1993

The Cut of Women's Clothes: 1600-1930, Norah Waugh, Theatre Arts Books, 1968

Dictionary of Needlework, S.F.A. Caulfeild & B.C. Saward, Blaketon Hall Ltd., 1885 / 1989

Dress and Cloak Cutter: Women's Costume 1877-1882, Charles Hecklinger, R. L. Shep, 1987

Englishwomen's Clothing in the Nineteenth Century, C. Cunnington, Dover, 1990

The Fine Art of Fashion, J Robinson, Bartley & Jenson, 1986

Four Hundred Years of Fashion, ed. Natalie Rothstein, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1984/1996

Garment Patterns 1889, Jules & Kaethe Kliot, Lacis, 1996

Harper's Bazar Magazine, issues 7, 19, 28, 30, 36, 44, 48, 51 from 1887

History of Costume, Blanche Payne, Harper, 1965

History of Fashion, J. Anderson Black & Madge Garland, Black Cat, 1990

In Style: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Costume Institute, Jean L. Druesedow, Metropolitan  Museum of Art, 1987

Metropolitan Fashions of the 1880s: From the 1885 Butterick Catalog, Butterick Publishing Company, Dover, 1997

Kellogg French Tailor System, Mme. Kellogg, 1888

Patterns of Fashion 2, 1860-1940, Janet Arnold, Drama Books, 1990

Victorian and Edwardian Fashion, Alison Gernsheim, Dover, 1981

Victorian Fashions, Vol. 1, 1880-1980, H. Ulseth & H. Shannon, Hobby House Press, 1988

Victorian Fashions & Costumes from Harper's Bazaar: 1867-1898, Stella Blum, Dover, 1974

Victorian Women, Carl Mautz, Folk Image Publishing, 1979

20,000 Years of Fashion, François Boucher, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1965 / 1983

1870's & 1880's photographs from my collection.

Personal viewing of draped outfits.

Photographs of the inside of an overskirt in the Western Reserve Historical Society Museum - see the garnet velvet dress pictured in Costume