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ColeV — Chocolate Worsted
Published: 2011-02-08 14:06:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 7421; Favourites: 69; Downloads: 80
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Description
Hand-sewn 18th century Quartered-back gown. It is made from brown worsted wool, lined with linen. The back shape attaches to two box pleats in the skirt to create a false English back. The front closes with pins.Related content
Comments: 10
I'm back, with a question about quartered-back gowns. I heard somewhere that it was a later style, coming into fashion after the en fourreau/English back. Is that true? Or what are the approximate dates for each style? I can't even remember where I read it, so I figured I should ask an authority on the matter!
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Correct! The quarter-back comes in in the later 1770s. It seems to coincide with the larger bum shape so popular at that time. English backs don't seem to work with that shape as easily. Though, you do see them well into the 1780s, but they seem to try out new pleating styles (more or inverted) or a strange seamed style.
Broad pleats until 1770:
[link]
Narrowing pleats of the 1770s:
[link]
Quarter-back 1785 (almost like the pleats narrowed to the point of disappearing):
[link]
The English back survives by extending the quarter-back into the skirt (seamed often):
[link]
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Thanks! You always give such detailed information! That explains the inverted pleats I've sometimes seen. Also I've seen some examples where thin panels of the back bodice extend into the skirt, but they're not pleated. It all makes sense now
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I agree with IndifferentCentury, you make chocolate brown look positively lovely!!
I love this look...
Where do you get your hats from?
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This one is from Colonial Williamsburg, they have wool hats on and off. Silly Sisters has wonderful straw ones.
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*Sigh*, I want to make a round gown now...
So is the entire proper left side of the skirt open? That makes this the first round gown I've seen without a drop-front type skirt.
By the way, you make plain chocolate brown look so elegant
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It's actually still a separate petticoat, although I noticed how much that picture makes it look like a round gown as well! I'm too addicted to switching petticoats around to make a round gown.
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Oh! Sorry... I almost asked if I was missing something, but I really couldn't find the edge of the gown skirt as separate from the petticoat on the right of the gown!
Well in any case it's a lovely gown, and has now made me consider making my next gown chocolate instead of dark blue..
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