An American Regency chemise; which seems a little different in style to the English ones.
The third stop on my Regency Journey is to make a chemise to go underneath the corset. The benefit of having a chemise underneath is that is stops the corset pinching, and it protects the corset from perspiration. The chemise is also easier to launder.
Another great thing about the chemise is that it is easy and quick to put together without a pattern!
Steps to Make a Regency Chemise
Step One: Measure! There are several measurements you will need. Firstly, a measurement from the shoulder to the knee, or the length that you want your chemise, allowing a little extra for a hem. (Mine was 105cm in length, but was too long and was trimmed later.) Secondly, you will need a measurement of the length and armhole-height of the sleeve. (My sleeve was a square, 20cm by 45cm, where 20cm is the length of the sleeve and 45cm was the distance around the armhole.) My gussets were 15cm squares. A bust measurement won’t go astray, either. Draw your pattern on your material with taylors chalk and cut them out, making sure you allow extra for seam allowances.
In hindsight, I should have added more to my bust measurement, as the chemise ended up a little snug.
The front and back pieces are cut on the fold. There is also 2 sleeve rectangles and 2 gusset squares.
Traditionally, the body of the Regency chemise was made up of two rectangles (front and back) with triangular gores inserted in the sides. Doing it like this might have solved the problem of the snug fit!
Step Two: Sew the shoulder seams of the front and back. For all my seams, I used felled seams to limit fraying.
The shoulder seams sewn
Step Three: Iron the gusset in half to form a triangle.
The gusset on the left is folded and the one on the right is flat.
Step Four: Sew one side of the gusset to the short side of the sleeve rectangle, making sure the diagonal fold is positioned as pictured, “pointing” to the end of the sewn “strip”.
The sleeve sewn to the gusset, with the diagonal fold.
Step Five: Fold the gusset along the ironed fold, and fold the other side of the sleeve rectangle to meet the gusset edge. Sew these edges together.
You can see where the side of the gusset is pinned to the other side of the sleeve rectangle.
The sleeve should look like this when finished.
Now sew the bottom of the sleeve together, where it is pinned. The larger opening of the sleeve will be attached to the garment in the next step.
Step Six: Sew the sleeves to the garment, leaving the side seams open.
The side seams are not sewn yet.
Step Seven: Sew the side seams.
Step Eight: Sew bias tape (or make a casing) around the neckline of the chemise. Hand sew two eyelets through the casing in the centre front and centre back, so that they are on the inside of the garment and are not visible on the outside. Thread with some ribbon and draw up. I anchored the ribbon at each shoulder so the back and front could be independently drawn.
The front and back eyelets with ribbon threaded through to the inside of the garment.
Step Nine: Hem the bottom of the chemise and the bottom edge of the sleeves to the desired length. I ended up trimming my sleeves back almost to the gusset.
Finished!
I am fairly pleased with it. It is probably a little too tight around the bust, as most chemises from this era appear a bit fuller. I am hoping that is not noticeable once the corset is over the top.
Next item on the Regency Agenda is a bodiced petticoat to wear over the top of the corset.
You can follow all these Regency posts in order at My Regency Journey.
Related Posts
My Regency Journey: In the beginning…
My Regency Journey: How to draft a corset pattern
My Regency Journey: Corset Construction
How to Make a Regency Poke Bonnet in Ten Steps
Relevant Links
Examples and pictures of Regency era underwear – Jessamyn’s Regency Costume Companion
Patterns for Regency underthings – Jessamyn’s Regency Costume Companion (I got some of my ideas for construction from the links on this page)
Jane Austen Festival – website
Tea in a Teacup 
Brilliant. Clear photo’s of construction. Just what I needed.
I am just about to start another one of these, so I will post some pictures here of my second try at it when I am finished!
Fantastic. I really need to make myself a few. As I’ve been making do with modern vest tops.
[…] If you are interested in any of the construction information, see my previous post on making chemises, My Regency Journey: Making a Chemise. […]
Reblogged this on Sew Cro And Quilt and commented:
Though my interests are more relaxed than making my wardrobe exactly as “they” wore Regency I feel this post is informative and may be useful when I make my own chemises.
These would make very nice night gowns too, IMHO.
Thank you, Tea In A Teacup.
[…] My Regency Journey: Making a Chemise […]
Call me stupid, but I just don’t get the gussets 😦
Step 5 threw me completely off balance, and I’m stuck.
The gussets are tricky. It took me a while to figure out what to do from pictures and instructions online.
The second picture at Step 5 is what you want it to look like in the end, with the triangle just being the square gusset, folded diagonally in half.
I found if I laid it down so it looked like it should in the end, then it helped me figure out where exactly to sew the gusset. Maybe there is a youtube tutorial to watch. Sometimes it helps to watch someone do it, instead of looking at pictures, doesn’t it!