Chemise Making

A chemise can com in different shapes and sizes. For our character Mrs Bennet it is likely that she would have worn a chemise that would have reached her knees. 

A chemise is simply an under dress that could have been worn at night, or over corsets and under low collar dresses to help preserve decency.

To help save time and budget we will only be making our chemise to the waist of our actor.

So like all great things in costume, our chemise began with out pattern. Drawn from the original bodice block and edited to fit with the new patterns.

The little gadget above, it my favorite of the costume room. put simply it is a fabric weight, but where there is limited space on the table it is great for weight down you fabric to prevent it from moving, or sliding off of the table where you are pinning down your fabric and drawing around your patterns.

Then to cutting out the fabric, if you have a keen eye and understand how the patterns are supposed to have been placed on the fabric, you would realise that the front piece is laid on the fabric incorrectly. The side seam is on the fold, rather than the centre front. oops.

This mistake i did not realise until after i had cut out the fabric. so using the excess fabric that we had i cut out a new front, but only with 1.5 cm seam allowance as that is all that i could squeeze out of the fabric

Here you can see me along side the industrial iron, pressing out the shoulder and side seams before they are over locked, to neaten off any frayed edges.

To finish off the chemise, the arm holes, bottom edge and neck line were all neatened up with bias binding. The neck line and bottom becoming draw string channels to help the chemise fit to the actor when they put it on.