Regency Pelerine - August HSM Challenge 'Heirlooms & Heritage'

For August's  Heirlooms & Heritage challenge, 

First, the finished challenge, a Regency Pelerine!

Regency Pelerine by TheLadyDetalle

I've long been intrigued by the various outerwear from the late 18th through the late 19th centuries: I've seen them called cloaks, capes, mantles, mantlets, pelerines, fichus or fichus of something, hooded capes, and etc. I've often wondered what is the difference between mantle and mantelet? Is the cloak the same as a cape? what about a pelerine? I have a Pinterest board here, where I gather various extant garments, portraits and inspiring images of examples of all these outer cloakwear, and I have been intrigued with making a few for use in the various time periods. First, I made my late 18th century hooded cape: and now that it was time for a HSM Heirlooms & Heritage challenge, I decided to make a second piece of outerwear that my relatives could have worn.

My family history (like most people's) is intriguing and varied in location and time periods, and whether you are looking at the male line or the female line (of direct descendants) or the side family lines, etc. My family history includes Massachusetts near the water, and would have been cold and even bitter cold at times and warm during summer. Without any specific pictures of relatives prior to turn of the century (1905 or so), I had to go with more what they 'could have worn' versus what they actually wore. Hence, the Regency pelerine, a fashion from the early 19th century meant to keep warm during cold months: a pelerine is outerwear that is waist length in back, and long in front, with my fashion print example going to a point in front. I decided for August's Heirlooms & Heritage challenge, that I would re-create a pelerine from the time that my relatives in MA could have worn about 1805!

Here is my original inspiration fashion plate:

Fashion plate inspiration - pelerine

Pronounced (Pel-er-ine). First I created a muslin for my Regency pelerine, using my draped (hooded) cape as the starting point, and then draping and re-shaping it to mimic the fashion plate shape above. It took two muslins (the first I tried the back part as one piece and the front long pieces seamed in, so three pieces total. the fit was not great. so for the second muslin, I kept it all one piece and it shaped it until it would work as one long piece cut on the fold: bingo!). One piece cut on the fold also seemed to support what you can see in the fashion plate, because there aren't any visible seams.

Here are a few pelerine in-progress pics:

Cutting out the silk taffeta pelerine (on the fold)

Cutting out 2 1/2" pelerine bias silk binding

Pelerine & pelerine lining pinned
and bia binding strips ironed & ready

Pelerine with hand sewn bias binding

Historical Sew Monthly AUGUST challenge:

http://thedreamstress.com/the-historical-sew-monthly-2015/

The Challenge: Heirlooms & Heritage: Re-create a garment one of your ancestors wore or would have worn, or use an heirloom sewing supply to create a new heirloom to pass down to the next generations.

For this challenge, I re-created a garment one of my MA ancestors COULD have worn in the early 19th century, a Regency pelerine! 

Fabric: cream silk taffeta from the stash (silk sale from GoldenSilks.net) and lavender silk from the stash (Jomar).

Pattern: no pattern. I draped/drafted this using my late 18th century hooded cape base as a starting point, then pinning and shaping, making up 2 muslins before I was happy with the shape/fit! I ended up cutting one long piece on the fold.

Year: early 19th century, about 1805

Notions: white marabou feather boa trim from JoAnn's.

How historically accurate is it? It's very historically accurate. I based this directly on a fashion plate example, simply changing the color of fabric and trim a bit. I hand sewed everything (minus a hidden machine sewn tiny seam allowance to hold together the top fabric and the lining until I could hand sew it together with cream silk taffeta bias binding.

Hours to complete: 1.5 hours to drape the pattern, a few hours to cut out fabric/lining and cut out & iron bias binding. An hour to pin on bias binding and a few hours to sew bias binding on. Sewing on the marabou trim is a pain and took a lot of hours, probably 12 hours. Or more.

First worn: not yet! I'm planning on wearing this some time this fall/winter, but not 100% sure which outing yet - a few upcoming Regency costume events in this fall, so likely one of those!

Total cost: all fabric and trim/notions came from the stash! Cream silk taffeta was on sale for $7 a yard (plus $1.50/yd s&h) and lavender lining was $5 a yard. I used about 3 1/2 yards of silk taffeta (and I pieced the lining a bit; you need 3 1/2-4 yards to cut the silk taffeta in one piece on the fold, and to cut bias cut binding - but I had plenty of fabric left over still). Marabou trim was $5.99 each (I used 4) but I bought them using 20-40% off coupons from JoAnn's.

Next up is September - Colour Challenge Brown