Making a quilted voile Ogden Cami

A little bit of 18th century Provence

A spinkle of Alabama Chanin style

An echo of Sashiko

A twist of Danish flare……..

That sounds a bit of a concoction doesn’t it?! Hi there, glad you’ve landed here today as I have an interesting dressmaking project to tell you about, which was in short, an experimental idea using a trusted pattern. The inspiration, as you can see, came from all sorts of different sources and spun around in my mind over a few months until it fused together to become this idea. I wasn’t at all sure if it would work, but it is so fun to experiment with stitch and texture and mix old and new techniques and anyhow, I will let you be the judge of it.

The idea was to make a hand quilted camisole that was inspired by both historical and modern influences. Last year I made my first Ogden Cami by True/Bias and was really pleased with the results….you can read about that here if you are interested. It’s very straightforward and considering what I had in mind, another plus point for choosing this pattern is that there are no darts in the front or back pieces which seemed to me to be perfect for a quilted garment.

The fantastic print that hangs above my desk area is of a painting by Antoine Raspal (1738 - 1811) and is called The Couturiers Workshop c.1785. I absolutely love the colours and the costumes and the vibrance of this southern french workshop (it is believed to be in Arles) and it often inspires ideas. I first saw this painting in a book which has long been one of my comfort reads on cold winter evenings. ‘Quilts of Provence’ by Kathryn Berenson is just the most delicious book and I especially this picture of a quilted and embroidered skirt just blows my mind….but seriously how beautiful is it?

Late 18th Century quilted skirt : photograph from ‘Quilts of Provence’ by Kathryn Berenson

What you see in this book is how clothes were made with both functionality and beauty in mind. Hand quilting features alot and this added thickness and warming layers to waistcoats, petticoats and skirts as well as adding texture, design elements and durability to the garments. Wholecloth quilts were fashionable at the time too and some of the surviving examples are just exquisite and a little mind-blowing in terms of the phenomenal amount of hand stitching involved. Today, I suppose, the legacy of these garments could be thought to be the sort of quilted waterproof ‘duvet’ coats that keep us warm in the wintertime. I love the idea of interpreting these sort of ideas into modern day garments in a much prettier way and perhaps that is why I am drawn to the incredible creativity of Alabama Chanin (which I have written about here) and to the well known form of Japanese Sashiko stitching which is both decorative and practical.

I was especially interested when I found the Danish designer Cecilie Bahnsen who has embraced the idea of quilted garments on a whole new modern level with that sort of Scandi narrative that is so easy to love. Her quilted creations are often quite spectacular and certainly catwalk candy and a picture of one of her quilted camisoles that I saw on instagram was the final piece in the plan. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t planning on making something quite like this, but I just loved the idea of it and how it could be adapted to make something both original and suitable for a rather ‘un model like’ person like me. I set to work.

Collecting and selecting what to use for this project was fun. I ordered from the US some plastic templates by Riley Blake with this in mind, but wasn’t sure if they were a good idea or not, however they exceeded my exceptions. Not only will these be so useful for all sorts of sewing projects, but they are absolutely perfect for what I had planned. They took around 3 weeks to reach England, so in the meantime, I gathered the rest of the supplies.

My 2021 resolution of only using fabric from my stash was no problem as I had a piece of fine cotton voile from an earlier scarf project. Voile or cotton lawn would be the obvious choice for something like this where you run the risk of it being too bulky if you use thicker fabrics, and while it is lightweight it is densely woven so fairly durable and comfortable too. I used ‘Simply Bamboo’ for the wadding, which is always my choice - it is lightweight and easy to work with. I had some contrasting peachy voile for the binding too, so along with some perle cotton threads I was all set to get started.

I layered up two pieces of voile and the wadding in a rectangle large enough to cut out the front of the camisole. I ironed these carefully before together before laying on the paper piece and cutting. I stitched around the neck and armholes with an eighth of an inch seam to fix them all together and I trimmed away roughly a quarter of an inch of wadding down each side to avoid bulk in the french seams.

Then I had the best time basically designing my fabric. Using an erasable marker I drew around the shapes on the front of my camisole to make random patterns in a really quite modern look. I used 5 different shades of perle cotton #8 to outline these shapes.

I was actually surprised how therapeutic I found this. Yes it takes some time, but really it is very relaxing and light to sew. I was wondering if it would feel too bulky, but it really doesn’t, although at this stage I did have some concerns about whether it would be stiff to wear. The camisole pattern is meant to be a bit more ‘draped’ and this is certainly not going to be that, but as I am not planning to wear it on it’s own, with a sweet cardigan to layer loosely around it’s edges, I hoped it would be fine.

Once the front was done, I turned to the back and prepared it in the same way. I decided to just do straight lines on this, partly because will large be covered by a cardigan or jacket and partly just to see how it looked. I liked the mix of both sides when it was done.

To construct the camisole I had to move away from the instructions which have a single layer front and back and an interfacing. I joined the side seams with a neat french seam and then put a bias binding around the bottom and all around the top edge as I planned to put the shoulder straps on last. It was a little fiddly binding the short edges where the straps go, but the fabric was so soft and light it was easily manipulated. It was in effect just like binding a quilt and I was a little worried that the finished look might seem might a bit like a bed quilt cut up. I think the softness of the voile helped to balance this out and actually was surprised how pretty it looked when it was completed. The binding is stitched down by hand on the inside and it made me feel rather like one of the ladies in my picture.

For the straps I used the main colour voile with iron on interfacing for extra firmness and just affixed them on the inside of the camisole. I added a couple of little pearl buttons to cover up the machine stitching and add an extra pretty little detail. My decision to just quilt the back with straight lines makes it look more sort of ‘corset’ like which is very vintage and intact the whole piece is a fusion of old and new ideas and was exactly what I wanted to achieve.

I am actually astonished at how much I love this piece. I had no expectations whatsoever that this would be a wearable garment, but it really is. It matches perfectly with my embroidered clutch from Anna Maria Horner’s Needleworks notebook and will be a charming piece for summery days….if they every arrive!

Not only will this be a fun talking point with family and friends, it is also wholly unique and just so much fun. I will definitely be making another one again….especially as I have some lovely aqua voile in my stash. I think as well it has confirmed to me how much dressmaking can be uplifting and confidence boosting and in these weary days of lockdown, that is a valuable thing.

See you next time….Ruby x

Links that might be interesting:

Alabama Chanin : Natalie Chanin is so inspirational and has a wonderful website here

Cecile Bahnsen is a Danish fashion designer with extraordinary flare and you can see more of her designs here

For other journal postings about my adventures in dressmaking just click the link at the top of the journal page ‘the novice dressmaker’