Making an Empire Gown

The Project

Source: Janet Arnold, Patterns of Fashion I, Englishwomen Dresses and Their Construction, C 1660-1860

I was inspired to create an Empire gown thanks to Hillary Derby, a wonderful costumer designer during the 1980 season at the grand Theatre at Monmouth, who introduced me to Janet Arnold's books. Creating the gown was challenging, to say the least, especially when the pattern was a line drawing on graph paper, where each square equaled an inch.

The gown took me three tries to make as, for some reason, I didn't pay proper attention to the fact that the gown was circa 1798 - 1805, and I was not.

Needless to say, the first gown did not fit me, and nor did the second. By the third try, I learned the importance of sizing up patterns so the garment actually fits me and not some unknown person...

Various pattern pieces. At the bottom of the picture, the pattern pieces for the center back of the gown increase in size...

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The Pattern

Back Skirt Pattern

Bodice Patterns

Side and Front Skirt Pattern

The Tools

A Sewing Table

A Dress Form Named Rosie Marie by My Girls

The machines: a Singer Sew Handy (left, circa 1950) and an electric Singer 201-2 (right, circa 1945) The Sew Handy is handy again thanks to Cote Brothers in Turner, Maine.

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Fabric Choices

Part of making the gown was experimenting with fabric choices. The first choices I made for the
bodice piece were not successful. I was trying to match the pattern that was pictured in Janet Arnold's book:

The description of the pattern reads: "A detail of the deep purple geometric pattern on the white morning dress." Though the fabrics I had chosen were pretty, my attempt to disguise the off-white of the fabric by edging it with blue backfired. The fact that I misread the pattern and made the edging an inch wide did not help either. I managed to create something that resembled the black bars one sees on COPS when someone has forgotten his or her clothing. Dramatic? Yes. Period? Well...