Octagon Bodice with Bretelles: Introduction and history

 Octagon Dress with Bretelles

Guys, I'm in  love... in love with a new pattern company! 

Truly Victorian is Great, past patterns is definitely a step into the past, but they seem to do a very certain look of the era and a very similar look. In the years encompassing the civil war era so many new looks and styles were coming out, so many that the big historical pattern companies didn't have. Which to be fair they can't carry every single style for the entire era, they only have so many people to draft so many patterns. But after pp and tv for so long, this girl needed a change,

a Change the Octagon Ladies Repository brought.

A good basquine bodice... she got it

Need outerwear for winter... they have 9, yes 9 outerwear patterns.

A wateau wrapper, Godey's 1863 shows a wateau back dress and been obsessed ever since

 and so much more!

And a link to the website here

So many pretties to make, good thing I have that weird obsession with hoarding silk.

For the first project we're spearheading the Bodice with Bretelles. Yes that one is hard to spell, after all in the 1860s they were all about that French. They just had to be that little bit extra and put that French fou fou word onto recipes and patterns to make it fancy. 

The Joyce Project did a nice job of describing the style. 

"Bretelles, in late 19th century fashion, were decorative straps that passed over the shoulders from a belt at the front of a woman's dress to the belt in back, making two large V shapes. " (Joyce Project, 2021, https://www.joyceproject.com/notes/120016bretelles.htm)

So lets get started!

Materials used: Plaid silk taffeta, cotton lining, synthetic whalebone, and hook and eye tape.

Year of style: 1860 seems to be the main year showing it in different fashion plates. Both June and July of those years show a darted bodice with bretelles, and April shows a low neckline with bretelles.

Ease of use: Intermediate, the pattern itself is pretty easy but the instructions are a page and very minimal. I called the number on the pattern and got ahold of the maker for any questions and she said she's very open to being contacted for questions

Problems you had, or noticed in pattern pieces or instructions, or construction: Instructions are minimal, one little snag I ran into is the images look like they show a straight bodice but it is pointed in the front. Decided to change it to a straight front.

Any tips on construction: Pay close attention to the grain line. Those Bretelles are stinkers and with the shoulder seem it will show badly if the two pieces don't meet correctly.