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The Girl in the FireplaceHistorical Masquerade Entry

Aurora Celeste


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"The Girl in the Fireplace" is the fourthepisode of the second series of theBritish science fiction television seriesDoctor Who. It was first broadcast onMay 6, 2006. Sophia Myles guest-

starred as the historical figure Madamede Pompadour. The episode takes placein multiple time periods as the TenthDoctor and his companions land on aspace ship in the fifty-first century andfind time windows leading to eighteenthcentury France. Curious, theyinvestigate and find that a group ofclockwork androids, tasked withrepairing the ship, built the windows to

help their repairs and are using them tostalk Madame de Pompadour (ReinettePoisson) throughout her life. Theepisode was nominated for a NebulaAward and won the 2007 Hugo Awardfor Best Dramatic Presentation, ShortForm.1 This costume is the dress fromthe pivotal scene where the androidshave come to kill Reinette and theDoctor comes to rescue her. The dress is

a rental, and was also used in the movieThe Madness of King George and in theTV mini-series Aristocrats.2 Accordingto the narrative the dress is worn in1958, when Reinette is 37. I started withmy historical garment research in thattime period. Although you never see theundergarments under the dress, I decidedthat in order to start the recreation theundergarments would have to be first.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_in_the_Fireplace and http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=2006-042 http://www.costumersguide.com/reused_18.shtml


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The Stays


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1750-60s stays. Picture from http://www.nwta.com/patterns/pics/ebaystays/ebaystays.html

I started with the corset. Because of the good reviews on TheGreat Pattern Review3 and the basic shape I decided to use JPRyans stays pattern.4 I cut each piece from 2 layers of cottoncanvas. Linen would have been a more period choice, however,I went with cotton for expense and availability. Then I seamedchannels in each piece using the width of my presser foot as aguide. For boning I chose plastic zip ties because: whalebone iswhat was commonly used, however, it is now illegal, reeds areprone to breakage and I wanted a corset that would last and notsuffer poke-through, and I got a sample of commerciallyavailable plastic whalebone and other than thickness it wascomparable to zip ties but more expensive per foot. I cut the zipties to length, rounded the ends, and heated them slightly to takeoff any sharp edges or burrs. I did bone each seam with steels, as well as the 6 bones in the busk area and the bonesaround the grommets for strength and stability. After each piecewas boned (which made them shrink in width by -1) I cut outan over layer of silk brocade (a period choice) and a flatlining ofcotton flannel for padding to prevent the boning lines fromshowing to the front. I basted the cover to each piece, thensewed the corset together along the seam lines, and then hand-caught down the seam allowances to either side. This method enablesme to take the corset apart into pieces in the future to add or take in the seams. This also matches pictures I have seen of stays from

the period, so I believe it is a period construction method. I grommeted the lacing area with metal grommets because my hand-binding is not strong enough to withstand prolongued lacings and the short cut wouldnt show when the final dress was worn. Igrommeted the stays with a straight-across style instead of a spiral set-up because I knew I would often be asking other people to laceme into the stays and a criss-cross lacing is less confusing to modern sensibilities, and it also stays tighter for a long wear time withless friction and destruction to the silk brocade. Finally, I bound the corset edges with white cotton bias tape. I attempted to paint thetape to make it better match the ivory of the brocade, but I have yet to find a paint that matches well.

3 http://www.gbacg.org/great-pattern-review/jpryan.html4 http://www.jpryan.com/ladiespatterns.html


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The Pannier

Next I worked on the Pannier. I started with the pattern fromCorsets and Crinolines. Analysis of the dress showed that therewas not much spring from the waist as the 1740s pattern had,so I eliminated the top partial-hoop. After boning the pannier Ipinned in stay tapes and played with the shape. According toCorsets and Crinolines The most elegant French panniers werekidney-shaped and wider round the base,5 and from the pictureabove I saw a dent in the front of the dress, so I wanted to makea more kidney shape. I also wanted to keep the side fullnessabout as same as the dress above, so I moved all the fullness to

5 Waugh, Nora. Corsets and Crinolines p. 47


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the back of the pannier. The result is more of a triangle than a kidney, but since the pleats on the back of the sacque dress pull thefullness of the dress to the back while in motion I felt that it was the most graceful place to put it. In the future I may try to reduce thepannier size instead to take out some of the fullness in the back. In order to disguise the hoops I draped a petticoat attachment forthem. I cut polyester quilt batting in the size of the hoops, then cut a cotton muslin cover. I hand-quilted a brief pattern on them tokeep the batting from slipping or bearding and sewed the cover together at the sides, leaving a gap for pockets, and then stitched the

cover to the same tape as the pannier for ease of dresing. Although the pannier only reaches around knee level, I draped the petticoatto be floor length to reduce kick-back under the hoop as I walked. I then hand-hemmed the remaining length. At first I left a train tocatch the dust and keep it off from the pleated train of the dress, but later on I learned that this left a ridge on the dress, so it was laterhemmed up as well.

The UnderskirtThe underskirt was draped much as the

pannier cover was. I added pleats to the backof the skirt for extra fullness and ease over thecurve of the hoops in the back. Periodpatterns show the skirt as more of a full lengthwith pleats as the only shaping6, but I did notwant to add that much fullness around the topof the skirt so I kept the side seams shapedand the front piece a large, triangular shape toreduce bulk at the waist and maintain the flatfront. I also used a thin muslin for the back

fabric to help reduce bulk, and used very tinypleats instead of large, stacked pleats for the same reason. For the frontpiece fabricI found an embroidered silk taffeta. It looked similar to period embroiderypatterns7, although in a monotone color like the dress inspiration, and was in alinear enough style that it mimics the inspiration fabric.

6 Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion 1. p. 23.7 Hart, Avril and Susan North. Historical Fashion in Detail. pp. 63, 157.


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The DressI started the dress pattern by draping a bodice block over my corset andpanniers. Once the block was done I examined patterns from Janet ArnoldsPatterns of Fashion 1 to decide where to cut the seams. I decided on a singlefront piece that wrapped around to the back with an open stomacher area and alaced back piece to keep the bodice tight to the body. I cut the pattern out ofsturdy cotton muslin for breathability and minimal bulk. I cut one of the frontpieces and sleeves and two of the back lacing area, and then sewed the lacingarea together, boning it along the laces and grommeting with grommets with ashoe-lace style for ease of dressing.

The fashion fabric I chose was a polyester embroidered taffeta from JoAnnFabrics. I chose polyester over a more period fabric because it was patterned in

a design that was similar to the original dress, was very resistant to wrinklesand would travel to cons well with minimal ironing, and it was on sale for $3 a

yard. I bought 11 yards for the dress, and usedalmost 10.

After sewing the cotton bodice base I used thefashion fabric to drape the front of the skirt. Idraped it to fit around the bodice bottom with littlepleats to take in the fullness, and to meet thesacque draping in the back where the bodice met

the draping. When the pattern was right I cut twopieces.


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Wwth the fabric I had left I determined I could make my sacque-draping two widths of fabric. I found that in period they used fourwidths of narrower fabric, so two widths of my fashion fabric was a little wide for the draping pattern, but I wanted the extra fullnessto cover the extra fullness of the pannier. I draped the sacque by attaching a tape to my dress dummy and then pleating the sacque

pleats onto it, pinning until they had the right fullness and width showing. My research showed8 that these back pleats were oftenvariable in width underneath the two wide pleats that showed, so my goal in this pleating was only to make the pleats symmetrical onboth sides.

8 Although I cant remember where . . .


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Once the pleating was finished I sewed the pleats down to the tapeto keep them pleated, and pinned them in place temporarily. I thensewed the two skirt pieces together, and then the fashion fabric ofthe bodice together. I put the fashion fabric bodice together withthe cotton lining. I decided to bone the entire opening edge from

the pleatingin the back,around theshoulders,and down thefront of thedress in orderto keep thedressopening

straight andlaying flatwhen thedress wasworn. I usedpolyesterdress boningbecause itbent easilyand I could

iron a curveinto it,allowing meto heat-shapeit over theshoulder area

so the boning would lay correctly. Then I attached the skirts and the pleating tothe bodice. Hanging on my dress form I realized that the square area above thepleating was not hanging correctly, and the pleating did not have enough weightto keep the wrinkles out, so I sewed a small piece of feather boning into the

center back to keep the area flat.


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I then started with the sleeves. Using examples from Patterns of Fashion 1and a JP Ryan sacque dress pattern as well as advice from the head draper atthe costume shop at the University of Kansas I drafted a pattern for the sleevesthat would have small pleats along the head and a corner that would fit into thejoin of the front shoulder strap to the sacque pleating on the shoulder. Then I

sewed the sleeves. I sewed them into a tube, then pleated them into thearmhole and sewedthem in. I found thecorner a mostdifficult place to sewcorrectly, and Ifinally ended upsewing the cornerarea by hand to get itto lay flat. Then I

sewed the lining intothe sacque area,turning all raw edgesinto the inside.


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To finish the edges of the dress I gathered large lengths of tulle and couched them down with a pearl and rayon braid trim in ameandering pattern to the hem. I hemmed the dress by hand. Finally, I turned up the edges of the sleeves at the elbow and hand-stitched on the engegantes. They were made of a length of of polyester sparkle organza covered by a length of cream lace, bothgathered to width.


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The Stomacher

I patterned the stomacher from the bodice drape, adding extra to the edges for an area to pin the dress onto. Isewed the stomacherfrom two layers of cotton twill and a layer of polyester brocade in a gold pattern that matched well with both the fashion fabric and theoriginal inspiration. I boned the back with 1/4 and 1/2 steels by couching on boning tape by hand and hand-finishing the top andbottom edges. Then I sewed hooks and eyes onto the stomacher and the dress. In period this was more often pinned, however, I didnot want to mar the fabric of the dress or the corset with pins, so I decided to use hooks and eyes and rely on the lacing in the back ofthe bodice to make the dress size-variable. For the center decorations I found some jeweled flower pins in the bridal section ofJoAnns and bought three matching pins.

The JewelryI commissioned the necklace and earrings to be made for my by a friend. They are made from gold-plated filigree pieces, glass pearls,and swarovski and plastic gems sewed and glued onto felt.

The WigI decided that the elaborate curls on the hair would be easiest to style with a half-wig. I bought a synthetic string fall that matched myhair color and removed the string, making a half-wig. I then curled the hair with rollers and dipped it into 170 degree water to set thecurls. Then I styled the wig using bobby pins to hold the curls in place. Because the heating process causes some color loss and frizzI bought a can of white hair spray to color both the wiglet and my own hair to make them a more close match. The hair of theinspiration costume is blonde, however, in period it would most likely be at least lightly powdered, so I went with white to mimic

powdered hair without the mess of powder.


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The ShoesAlthough youcannot see theshoes in thecostume above, Iwanted matchingshoes. I bought apair of pointed-toe mules fromNewport News.

The heel is nothistoricallycorrect, however,it is as close as Icould get for $10or less. To makethem match thedress I cut piecesof my fashionfabric to shape tothe shoes andglued it on withE6000, shovingthe excess fabricbetween the shoeand the heel witha screwdriver.


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