1906 #23 Charlotte en Broderie Anglaise -- Charlotte (Mob Cap) in Eyelet Embroidery This pretty hat, so well made to cover the heads of little girls and dolls, is always in fashion. It has this advantage, that it is composed of only washable materials, it can be put back to new in the middle of the season. To dismantle it and put it together again asks only for a little patience and skill. The charlotte, thus named because it resembles the hat adopted by Charlotte Corday, is composed of two parts, the fond or cap, and the passé or double flounce of embroidery. The fond is a large circle requiring first a piece of stiff muslin with 16 centimeters on each side. After having it to size in a circle, you will copy, on the drawing, the tracing very exact with the dotted line which forms a circle around the embroidery, and with all the notches which are found around it and which will not have to be cut, but only folded up: we will see that all in time. This made, you will take a piece of muslin or lawn having also 16 centimeters on each side: you will apply your tracing on top, while observing that the round eyelet of the center must be just in the middle of the fond. To have this middle, you will fold your square first in the direction of its length, then in that of its width. The point where these two lines cross gives you the middle exactly. Fold your tracing the same and make the two middles coincide, maintain the tracing on the muslin with pins or thumbtacks and copy your drawing. There are several ways to copy the drawing. If your muslin is very transparent, here is the best and the most typical: Go over your tracing again with a thick line in ink and leave it to perfectly dry. Place it under the muslin and maintain it in place by basting. Through the muslin, you will see the drawing and will follow it with a needle threaded with white cotton embroidery thread. The drawing thus reproduced, you remove the tracing and will mount your embroidery on oilcloth. If the muslin is not transparent, you will bore all outlines of your tracing in pinpricks very close to each other, you will place afterwards the tracing on the muslin, outstretched quite flat on a table by thumbtacks; the tracing will be fixed similarly. Then, you will scatter blue powder on this tracing and will pass on top this small pad of wool called a pounce, which is made by rolling a strip of wool like one rolls a bandage. The powder, pushed by the pad, goes through the pinholes and marks the drawing in blue on the muslin. You go over this drawing again with a needle filled with embroidery cotton.

The same procedure will be followed for the embroidery of the flounces. There are two of them (see fig.2); the flounce C, the smaller, is put on top; flounce D, the larger, is the one on the bottom. It only has the almond shapes; it is not worth the trouble to make the round eyelets which decorate the first, since they will not be seen. Figure 3 shows you how one makes the broderie anglaise [eyelet embroidery]. It is an overcasting stitch in which the thread is always above the needle. To perforate the eyelet, you take, on the needle in the middle of the circle, a small pinch of fabric and you cut under the needle, making thus a hole that you enlarge by pushing, with the needle, the fabric underneath. For the almond shapes, you cut through the fabric lengthwise without going as far as the two ends, and you fold back underneath the cut edges by pushing them with the needle. The flounces are not equal in length, the one on the bottom has at least one quarter more than the one on top. You will ruche them separately – the passé [flounces] will have thus more support – you will then fix them the one on the other with an overcasting stitch on their joined together upper edges. This ruche is made in organ pipes [Editor: I believe this means box pleats]. By looking at sketch #4, you will understand. To assemble the charlotte, you will place the fond of embroidered muslin on the stiff round muslin, and will pass a basting on the dotted line which makes the circle and indicates the top of the cap. You will cut the embroidered muslin, if you have not already done so, in order to not exceed the stiff muslin, and make all around the folds marked by the notches. See the fold A B which is indicated in black: the side B is folded up onto the side A, the straight line in the middle is then hidden at the bottom of the fold. You lay it down to the wrong side so that it does not make a thickness. At the edge of the cap thus prepared, you place your ruched passé by sewing it to the right side on the garter [the notched circle around the top] of the cap; do not return [flat fell] the fabric [seam allowance]; the ribbon which runs around the charlotte will hide the seam. A large ribbon bow will be placed on the left. Translation copyright 2010 Deirdre Gawne. Not for sale. www.dressingbleuette.com