1770s Indienne Gown Part 2: Draping a Francaise

First of all I prepared my lining, as Katherine instructed. This was draped by myself using Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 1 as a guideline. I stitched the bodice lining together by machine and pressed all of the seams outwards, with the right side on the mannequin. It fits me pretty well considering I had just eyeballed it and hoped for the best!

Next, I cut my francaise back to 54 inches, which is a period width, and cut the shoulders out, as Katherine recommended. I pinned these shoulders to the lining armholes, and then found the middle of the panel by folding it in half and pinning it to the center back. Then, pleat, pleat, and pleat again! I did a couple of quite deep pleats first, and then some smaller ones over the top of that, with an inch or so of the original two pleats showing beneath. After smoothing down the sides, I pleated two more times on each side. This is the end result, which I'm pretty happy with considering it is my first francaise gown I've attempted!

I really love the colours and delicacy of this print.