Dreams of being a queen

I think I might have to make a chemise a la reine for myself.

You see, it all began back in November of 2009, when I was designing a flotilla of colonial gowns for my university's Lighting of the Green. I watched one of my favorite Georgian films, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, for inspiration.

Most colonial gowns are depicted as either simple work frocks with a rounded or squared collar, or elaborate gowns with a triangular piece in the bodice front called a stomacher. A lot of them- particularly in Marie Antoinette- looked like this.


But I got a little tired and a little overwhelmed at the idea of making a dozen dresses like that. Not only are they elaborately decorated, but it meant that I would have create an overdress with a stomacher that snapped in and out (authentic dresses were tied or pinned), plus a petticoat. Daunting to draft, and daunting to fit.

However, when these dresses came onscreen, I rejoiced.

Following the birth of her children, Marie Antoinette's husband gave her a manor called Petit Trianon. The young queen spent a great deal of time there playing country maiden, and she introduced a whole new style of dressing.

Court dresses were usually silk, velvet, or satin; they required stays (the precursor to corsets), hoops and panniers, and layers of petticoats. The new fashions were simple loose dresses with long full skirts and stays were optional. This style was called "la chemise a la reine" (the queen's dress) and paved the way for the empire dresses of Jane Austen fame.

I sewed a chemise a la reine for one of the Lighting of the Green girls. It was just a simple white muslin dress with ruffles on the collar and sleeves, but I absolutely loved it. In fact, I was terribly jealous.

I based the style off of the dress pictured above, but took a hint from this costume used in the movie as well:

I love the barest hint of pastel blue in the gown. For the gown I sewed, I used a pink cotton to line the skirt and add some volume, and tied a double-faced satin ribbon as a sash. Simple but elegant.

The actress loved the gown. She said it was incredibly comfortable, and she was able to layer underneath it (Lighting of the Green is an outdoor event that takes place in December). It was very flattering on her, and while I was sad to see it go, I'm glad that it has entered the university costume shop.

My friend Rose is a tremendous fan of Jane Austen, particularly of the BBC adaptations of her books. We've been planning some sort of Jane Austen event, where we dress up in regency-era gowns, have a picnic, and watch several of the movies during a sleepover. I have a plain white muslin dress that I made to play Jane Austen for a project, but I think a new gown may very well be in order.

My only question: should I use pink again? I like blue, but I have far too many blue costumes already. Apple green? Pale yellow or cream?

Maybe I'll just use the pink again.

A Colonial Deluge

Every Christmas my university would host Lighting of the Green, a holiday event for Nashville locals. Amy Grant sings, there are lots of snacks and pictures with Santa, and it generally kicks off the season.

For the past two years, members of the theater department provided walkaround actors who helped direct guests and answer questions. Since I was one of only two members of the department who could sew (the other being my sister), I was in charge of casting and costuming.

In 2008, we had a combination of Disney and Dickens characters. I sewed a few new pieces, but most costumes were cobbled together from the costume shop and my personal costuming closet.

However, in 2009, I was informed that theme would be colonial America. Wonderful! I grew up with visits to Williamsburg and I love the time period.

Bad news? Our costume shop contained only four possible dresses (one with a 36" bust, one with a 34", and two with 32") and a few pairs of knee britches. I would have to make everything else. And so I did.

Here's how I spent my Thanksgiving vacation in 2009:


I sewed four pairs of knee britches, two short gowns, ten dresses, eight petticoats, two aprons, and half a dozen pinner caps. Due to my lack of time and lack of accurate patterns, almost everything was self drafted. But all in all, they turned out nicely.

Blue and gold shortgown with gold pinner. The actress also wore a gold petticoat.

Purple stomacher gown with purple pansy stomacher. The petticoat was the same fabric as the stomacher. The print was anachronistic, but I just loved it, and it was perfect for the actress who wore it.


Floral stomacher gown with striped stomacher and petticoat. I worked with my friend Lindsey to sew this, so she did most of the work herself! And it was her first project, too.

Four pairs of knee britches. Yikes! I hate sewing pants...


White muslin gown (the only one sewn directly from a pattern). The cloak was from the shop.

Mint green floral frock gown. And she was totally wearing a bum roll too.

Blue frock gown and pinner. It was inspired by the American Girl Felicity doll's birthday dress.

I made the knee britches; the rest was from the shop.

Blue silky polycotton dress with white cotton petticoat. Totally inspired by Felicity's Christmas dress. (Doesn't she look like the Felicity doll?)

I didn't make any of these pieces, but I did put it together.

I didn't make their outfits either, but I did reconstructive surgery on that frock coat suit. It was ripped twelve ways from Tuesday!

Blue satin frock gown. This one is my favorite...it was inspired by a dress from the Marie Antoinette movie and has 17 1/2" yards of ruffles!

Pink cotton and white muslin chemise a la reine, also inspired by the Marie Antoinette movie. I'm probably going to make one for myself.

The pink monster! Sewn from a terribly awful polyester satin from my stash that did nothing but fray and bunch. It broke five machine needles and is now languishing in my scraps box, thinking about what it's done.


Plaid shortgown and petticoat, inspired by Felicity Merriman's school outfit.

Red and white flannel gown with red cotton petticoat. My absolute favorite! It fit her like a dream.

I made a dress for myself as well, but I don't have any pictures of it.

It was a lot of time, energy, and stress, but I think the end was well worth it!

What's a Kafka?

Back in the fall of 2008, I took my first directing class. I had been an assistant director for a couple of shows (Into the Woods, He Grips the Heel, some random church sketches) but now I got to do it all on my lonesome. And then I realized I loved it. Awesome sauce. Too bad it's so hard to make a living as a theater director...

In any case, for my final I had to direct a one-act play for Shorts!, which was actually going to be a mainstage production for December rather than a class workshop. Out of the handful of approved scripts, I chose Words, Words, Words by David Ives. You know the theory that if you leave a monkey alone with a typewriter, odds of probability dictate that they'll eventually type out Hamlet? That's the basis for the play. Three monkeys- Milton, Swift, and Kafka- have been sitting in a laboratory with typewriters for years, trying to figure out whether or not they're typing Hamlet. Hilarity ensues.

I've assisted with casting plenty of times, and was really particular when I cast my production. I knew going into it that I wanted Caleb to play Swift, the angry monkey. (Although, unlike other directors who blatantly play favorites, I kept this to myself and listened to auditions with an open mind. It just turned out that Caleb had the best reading after all.) Caroline played Kafka, the adorably confused girl monkey, and Bliss played Milton. Originally he played the character very sarcastic, very biting, but it was too close to Swift's personality. We talked it over and decided to try playing Milton as a fanboy and huge suckup to the scientists, particularly Dr. David Rosenbaum, and it was perfect. And we also had a Dr. Rosenbaum (played by Nick) even though he is only mentioned in the script and never seen. It was an absolutely fabulous cast and I was lucky to have them.

Also, the set had a real tire swing.

In any case, I had a microscopic budget for costumes. So when I designed them, I knew they had to be cheap. I also didn't want to put them in monkey suits. That would be creepy.

So my costume plot began with what performing monkeys in old-timey circuses would wear. I decided on knickers, bow ties, and suspenders for the boys, and a little-girl dress for Kafka. We had about fifteen minutes to shop before we had to be back for run-through rehearsal, so with no further ado we all loaded into Caleb's car, drove to Goodwill, and ran.

I told the boys to find corduroy pants in a muted color, while Caroline and I searched through dresses. We grabbed what we could get, paid for it, and got back on campus in time for rehearsal. We had a quick fitting afterwards, and then I had to take them home and work some magic.

Converting the boys' pants to knickers were easy. I marked them off with pins at their knees, cut, and hemmed them. Simple enough. Later, I had each of them pick out a shirt and bow tie from the department. I added red suspenders (the angry color) for Caleb and an embroidered vest for Bliss, and that was that.

Caroline's costume was a little harder. We ended up finding the perfect pieces for her, though. We found an orange and gold salwar kameez- a loose dress with long bloused sleeves and long loose pants, typically worn by Indian women. The dress was the right length, but far too loose on her. I sewed long darts on the front and back- two on each side- in order to fit the dress without taking it in on the sides. I also cut the sleeves to a shorter length and added elastic, turning them into puffs. I also removed the shoulder pads, because really, are those necessary?

For the pants, I cut them off at her knees and made elasticized cuffs, effectively turning them into bloomers. I used the remains of a pants leg to make a hairbow that I slid onto a narrow headband.

The final result?



Dr. David Rosenbaum is only mentioned in the script, but we had a real one. He was actually the assistant stage manager, so he just threw a white labcoat on over his black clothes and put on a pair of goggles. He stood in the balcony with a spot on him, observing the monkeys throughout the play, and tossed the reward of a cigarette to Milton at one point.

Nick got into character really well. Words, Words, Words was the first one-act after intermission, so he spent intermission in costume with a notebook in hand, wandering through the audience and taking notes. I think I still have the book somewhere...

Gettin' some love from my cast (minus Rosenbaum, who was probably up in the flies taking down lights at the time.)

(Also, I used to be blonde.)

(No, I don't know how we managed to color coordinate.)

And just to show what I had to work with in the beginning:

That was a good show.