I'm currently taking an independent study costuming class and for the final project I have to drape an 18th century gown more specifically a robe à la française! At the beginning of the semester I asked my professor to teach me how to drape since all I knew how to do previously involved working with stretch so it didn't have to fit exactly! haha I started the dress this past Sunday and have to finish it by next Friday, thankfully it's just the muslin though. I hope to make the dress out of nice fabric at some point but I'm not sure since I will have no use for it and it won't even be my size
. Anyway I'm super proud of what I've accomplished so far since this is really the first thing I've draped. I would love some encouragement to help me get this done in time! Enough talk, pictures now! Sorry about the poor quality, they are from my phone.
TL;DR My first draped project! In-progress.
Panniers (the only part I didn't drape, made from a tute instead)! And the initial draping for the bodice.
Completed bodice with a boned stomacher.
Back/side of the bodice. Notice the side seams are moved back to allow the flowy back to be sewn in.
Flowy Watteau back, you can also see the skirt which I draped later.
Detail of the pleats. This thing eats fabric like crazy!
Skirt! Please ignore all the excess fabric pinned to the bodice, that will disappear once I actually sew it all together.
This was the hardest part to my surprise. I had NO idea how difficult it would be to pleat all that fabric so it would lie nicely over the panniers. At one point I actually broke down into tears of frustration after working on only one side for over an hour.
Final picture with the excess fabric down so you can get a better idea of the silhouette so far.
Thanks for looking!
