Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2012 - 52

silhouette. Chiment picked a robe à l'anglaise style of dress,
which has an open front revealing an underskirt or petticoat
(fig. 9). The gown was cut in a style called en fourreau, in
which the center back of the bodice is cut in one piece with
the skirt (fig. 7). This style provides a vertical line running the
length of the gown.
Chiment chose a deep red-maroon fabric for Deborah's
gown based on her research of period portraits and fabrics. She
also studied historical costumes from the eighteenth century in
the Costume Institute's collection at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art. While shopping at Mood Fabrics in New York, she found
a fabric with a large floral diaper pattern similar to a damask
pattern popular in the eighteenth century. This piece of fabric
also had an iridescent weave that gave it a rich luster.

THe PLANNING
First Lady of Philadelphia was not part of the theatre department's main stage season. As a result, construction of Deborah's
costume was scheduled sporadically over the course of eight
months between several large student productions. Although
most would consider having an eight-month build period a
luxury, the interrupted work schedule was problematic.
Work began in August before students returned to school for
the fall semester. Although school had not yet started, the three staff
members of the theatre department's costume shop had already
begun working on the fall semester's musical, Sweet Charity. As
the costume shop supervisor, I felt that the cutter/draper's main
focus needed to be the fall musical. I decided to pattern the corset
myself and organized the materials needed for the first hand, Laura
Seeley, to begin the project. Seeley worked on the corset and petticoat while the cutter/draper, Julie Watson, and I prepared for the
coming semester and mainstage productions.
The first pieces, the petticoat and corset, were scheduled
to be constructed and finished before the rehearsals began.
This allowed the actress to use both pieces while rehearsing
during the fall semester. Usually it is preferred to have the actress wear a rehearsal corset and petticoat to save on the wear
and cleaning of the actual built undergarments. In this case we
did not have a rehearsal corset of the correct period, so the
actual corset and petticoat were made available. When not used
in rehearsals, the corset and petticoat were put on a dress form
(fig. 3) that had been altered to Sloan's measurements. Having
the actual undergarments on a properly sized dress form was
invaluable in draping and patterning the gown.

THe uNDerGArMeNTS
In an effort to make the corset, or stays, look accurate for the
period, the designer bought a heavy linen fabric for the outside layer. On her trip to New York's fabric district, Chiment
found a tan, heavy linen fabric most likely used as upholstery
material. The fabric had a fleur-de-lis printed pattern on the
right, or fashion, side of the fabric, while the wrong side of the
fabric was a solid tan color. She chose to use the wrong side of
the fabric for the outer layer of the corset. The linen would be

theatre design

& technology

spring

2012

interlined with a white herringbone coutil, a fabric used primarily for corset making. The shop had a supply of coutil and
metal corset bones available, so the direct cost of the corset
was minimal.
Research for the corset pattern was from Nora Waugh's
Corsets and Crinolines, Robert Doyle's Waisted Efforts (available from the publisher at www.sartorialpresspublications.
com), and Jean Hunnisett's Period Costumes for Stage and
Screen: Patterns for Women's Dress 1500−1800. The actual
pattern used for the corset was the 1740s corset block pattern
in Waisted Effort. The choice was based on the final shape
desired and the fact that although this pattern had one front
and two back pieces, it could be divided into three front pieces
and six back pieces. The increased number of pattern pieces
helped in adjusting the pattern and later when fitting the corset
to the actress. The pattern also included attached tabs, which
created a smoother, longer line.
Although the pattern in the book is made from a block
pattern, ours was enlarged using the grid in the book and dotted pattern paper. When enlarging the pattern, I used the actress's measurements to ensure the best fit. The side seam was
also enlarged and an additional tab was added to the extended
piece. The tabs at the side seams did not meet, leaving room
to take in the side seams without having to delete one of the
attached tabs.
The corset was first cut from the coutil, adding ample seam
allowance so that it could be adjusted in the first fitting. Bones
were taped into place for the fitting, and a separate center back
panel with grommets was machine basted onto the coutil. After
the fitting the grommet panel would be removed. Once alterations were made to the pattern and corset, the actual grommets
would be permanently inserted. This separate grommeted back
panel helps lace in the corset tightly for a more secure fit without actually grommeting the final corset fabric. This enabled
me to use the coutil interlining in the first fitting and transfer
any adjustments made during the fitting to the pattern. Then I
could re-mark the already cut coutil interlining for final use
in the actual corset. It would be necessary to re-cut a piece of
coutil only if the alterations to a pattern piece were extremely
different from the original pattern and could no longer fit back
onto the first piece of coutil.
Typically, an eighteenth-century woman wore a long chemise or shift-usually made of cotton or linen-under her

http://www.sartorialpresspublications

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2012