Robe à la polonaise – Spanish style I

Finally I’ve begun to work on my DPP project. I’ve spent almost two months deciding what I wanted to do for my BJD, as I didn’t have money to buy fabrics for myself and my stash is composed of 1 meter long pieces, and finally I’ve set for a robe à la polonaise, but with Spanish style decorations.

The Gown:

Photo from CDMT - inventary nº11531

In the last quarter of the 18th century in Spain there was a fashion for the wealthy that consisted in imitate the style of dress of the «majos», gypsies that lived in Madrid. There aren’t any extant polonaises that have that style, but I like the polonaise and the «maja» style (you can see an example in the photo), and I decided I wanted to use the two for my project.

The Pieces:

I have some 18th century undergarments for my doll, but for this project I’m only reusing the shift, so this is the list of garments I have to design and sew:

– Stays
– Underpetticoat
– Bumroll
– Petticoat
– Robe à la polonaise

The Final Note:

I’m currently working on the design of the gown and all is still only in my head, so no drawings yet. I hope to have it done in a week or so, but the stays are giving me trouble. Also, please have in mind that English is not my first lenguage and I still have problems writing complicated phrasing.

Edit 8/05/2010: I found one maja styled polonaise! I think I’ve seen it at the Museo del Traje, but I probably forgot about it. The colors are really hideous, but the decorations are interesting.