The Midnight Chemise a la Reine in Colonial Williamsburg

I have gobs and gobs of photos to show you, and stories to tell, from my recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg. Where do I start? How shall I structure these posts!? Eeek! How about one dress at a time? Although I made the Chemise gown last, I wore it first, so let’s start there!

One of my favorite things about “living” in costume for a week is discovering the how and why of clothing through first-hand experience. Williamsburg is located in tidewater Virginia, which is basically Hell. It’s hot and raining, or cold and raining, or just hot, or freezing cold, humid all the time, then raining. UGH! But boy does all that shape the choices women made about their attire.

We were really happy to be there, and really happy it wasn’t 100 degrees!

That being said, I am 1000% glad I made the Chemise a la Reine. Of all the gowns I took with me, this one performed the best in the rain, heat, and various combinations thereof. Lauren M, The Lady of Portland House, and I both wore cotton voile Chemise gowns, about 10 years apart, and both experienced comfort (yay!)

People kept commenting on Lauren M’s dirty hem, but of all the materials to make gowns out of, this one is one of the easiest to clean. Plus, “patina” is what makes an item of clothing look lived in – I guarantee the ladies of Williamsburg experienced this very thing!

So so so happy with this gown. I made mine short enough that it didn’t suffer from mud-creep, but I still ended up with splatters on the back, just from walking and sitting.

The cotton voile was unaffected by the misty rain on our first day, and the filth I collected from walking the muddy paths of history easily washed out. This dress also dried out quickly, and when the sun reappeared, I was kept cool and protected from sunburn by the long sleeves and kerchief (also cotton voile). No wonder ladies all over the Western world took to wearing this style of gown in the 1780s and 90s!

I paired the Chemise with a black sash, black corsage, black Dunmore shoes, and my *huge* black silk market hat, along with Thomas Jefferson around my neck. The black accents against the white gown looked sharp, but I love that I can pair this gown with any other color or mix of accessories for a totally different look.

To say I was really excited about this hat is an understatement. You’ll be sick of it by the end of all my CW posts, because I wore it every day!

A couple of drawbacks with how I constructed this dress – the first is that it has no pocket slits, so to get to my pockets I had to pull the front edge of the gown away from the under petticoat, which was annoying. The second is that front edges of the gown fly open when you walk. I was wearing an ivory cotton petticoat beneath, which was never meant to be seen. For those making this type of dress, I recommend either a petticoat in the same fabric (or a contrasting, pretty fabric if you want it to be seen), or pinning the edges in some way.

Hooray for the Chemise, then! I wore it two days and fussed neither of those days, which I cannot say about the other outfits. As far as recommendations go for what kind of dress to take to a place like Williamsburg in the Spring and Summer, I wholeheartedly say the Chemise a la Reine. It’s easy to make, easy to wear, looks great, and is fantastic in warm and wet weather.

• For all of my posts on this gown, start to finish, click here
• For the Market Hat pattern, click here
• For black wool “Dunmore” 1770s-1790s shoes, click here.