Dutch print madness

Around the beginning of July, I stumbled across a photo of a fabulously kooky mixed-and-matched print outfit from the 1770s.  OMG, I was in love!  It was so different from how you usually see printed garments worn, and I loved the carefree combination of patterns and colors.  It felt wrong, but somehow oh so right!

At first I still had a hard time believing that 18th c. women actually wore different prints together like this, but when I started poking around in period illustrations, I discovered that this example is actually quite tame compared to some of the wackadoodle combinations that show up in period artwork.  I gathered some examples and put them in a Pinterest board, and any time I started getting cold feet about making my own mix-and-match print outfit, I would go back and look through them again to reassure myself that I hadn't completely lost my marbles.

What I discovered is that this style is much more middle class and rural in nature, and you can definitely see the origins of folk dress in this type of look.  Also, while I found examples from a number of countries, it seems to be the most popular in Dutch fashions, which makes sense considering that this was the home for a lot of the manufacturing of printed chintzes.

I never thought I would find appropriate prints that I could afford for this project, but just when I had given up hope, I lucked out and found some $19 Indienne-style printed curtain panels at Lowe's Hardware while I was shopping for a lawn mower.  I took that as a sign from the costume gods that I MUST make this outfit!  One curtain became my petticoat, and then I had another amazing stroke of luck when I discovered that a local quilting store called Happiness is Quilting carries a wide range of Den Haan & Wagenmakers reproduction Dutch chintzes. OMG, fabric *squee!*  The reproduction chintz is crazy expensive, but I realized that I could make the infamous Costume Close-Up swallowtail jacket with just  a yard of fabric, so I decided to go ahead and splurge on it.  I'm really glad I got to look through a lot of the prints in person because some of the colors look quite different in real life, and it really helped to see the scale of the prints together.

The entire outfit is 100% hand sewn using period techniques.  I've been costuming for over a decade now, but hand sewing a whole dress is a first for me, and I'm really proud of myself for pulling it off.  It actually went much faster than expected, and I totally enjoyed the process.  I used the jacket tutorial and petticoat tutorials from the blog Fashionable Frolic to help me figure out the construction techniques, and I am SO grateful to her for sharing those incredibly helpful guides.  The only change that I made was to modify the jacket so it closes in the front with hooks instead of lacing over a stomacher.  This particular jacket pattern is so crazy popular with 18th c. costumers and reenactors that I just wanted mine to be a little bit different.

I know that the mixed print look is a bit bizarre to our modern eyes, so I also made a solid colored wool petticoat to wear with the jacket when I want to be more "normal" looking.  I definitely need a few more petticoats to wear under this one to fluff my skirt out a bit more, but I have plenty of time to go back and do that in the future.  I also thought it might be nice to make a silk petticoat so I could dress it up a little and hopefully have it pass for casual daywear for a more upper class lady.

For the accessories, I'm wearing a simple linen cap made from my own trial-and-error pattern, a windowpane checked linen neckerchief, and a semi-sheer silk apron.  I'm not a huge fan of caps and aprons because they feel so butter-churner-y to me, but it is almost impossible to find an image of a middle-class woman in the 1770's without these accessories, so I finally gave in and embraced my inner churner.  I actually wanted to wear a patterned apron or neckerchief to add yet another layer a print madness to my ensemble, but I ran out of money so I had to settle for solids from my stash.  But that's probably for the best.  I wouldn't want to cause permanent eye-crossing damage to innocent bystanders.

I am a very matchy-matchy person by nature, so I think I was drawn to this project because it really forced me to get out of my modern mindset and push my own boundaries.  I know it's not a look that everyone will love, but I really enjoyed this little foray into Dutch print madness.  It was definitely a fun change of pace.  If you are interested, I have even more pictures of this outfit on flickr.