An Embroiderd Drop-Front Dress

A copy of a dress in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The dress is made of Swiss muslin from Farmhouse Fabrics. The bodice and sleeves are lined with medium weight linen and the rest of the dress is unlined.

The dress is embroidered with a combination of tambour, stem stitches, satin stitches and French knots. I used DMC floche which while it was very good for the regular embroidery, was a little soft for the tambour which made my stitches a little heavier than I'd like them to be.

I'm wearing the dress over a shift and a high waisted petticoat with straps to keep it up. I wanted to make a Regency dress that fit without a corset, and while this dress does fit, I've found that I like it much better with my 1790s stays, as can be seen in one of the pictures below.

The side and back views of the dress. The skirt is made of two rectangles of fabric. It's cartridge pleated in the center back and the only shaping in the rest of the skirt is the overlap on either side. There's a drawstring channel through the front panel which wraps around the waist and ties in front. Then the bib is pinned into place to finish holding everything together.

On the left, with the red capote I made for the dress, on the right, the dress with a corset.