A Time in History

Ah, veils. The sunglasses of the 19th century. I'm a huge fan of veils-particularly with the bright Texas sun so of course I needed some for the 1830s and 1840s. Fortunately, "The Workwoman's Guide" includes directions for making veils.

"Veils for ordinary wear may be of a kind of soft tulle, made on purpose, of net, gauze, or crape. The size for a grown-up person is from thirteen nails to a yard long, and about twenty nails wide ; for a child, eleven nails long, and the width is determined by that of the material. Demi-voiles are about four nails deep, and the width is regulated by that of the bonnet to which they are attached.
A pretty way of making a net or tulle veil is by hemming a satin ribbon half a nail deep all round it, either the same colour, or, if the veil is white, of some pale shade to suit the bonnet or the dress. This, by strengthening the edges, makes the veil wear better than it would otherwise do.
A crape or gauze veil is simply hemmed all round, the hem being deeper at the bottom to give it a little weight. A ribbon is run in at the top.
Mourning veils are of black crape. They should be made of what is termed the best, or jet black crape, as the blue-black soon wears whitish, and looks shabby. The other, though the most expensive at first, is the best economy in the end. They are made quite plainly, with a broad hem all round — say three-quarters of a nail deep.
Demi-voiles, when not of blonde, Chantilly, or worked lace, are of tulle, with ribbon run in. They should be set on the bonnet slightly, fulled all round the brim, but much more so at the ears, to make them hang well. A demi-voile should also be a little taken up at the ears, so as not to be the full depth, which is apt to give a slovenly appearance.
Riding veils are much shorter than any other kind except demi-voiles, and sufficiently wide to draw nearly all round the hat. They are made either of black lace, worked on purpose, or of brown or green crape. It is a good plan to run a string through a riding-veil, both at the top and bottom, taking care that the ribbon at the bottom is only just as long as the veil is wide, so that it is not seen when not in use. The advantage of this second string is, that in hot weather, and under a glaring sun, the wearer may tie both ribbons round her hat, thus forming a double veil for the protection of her eyes, whilst the lower part of the face has all the benefit of the cool air."

No illustrations, just the text. But I suppose since we're just working with rectangles and half circles, why would plates be needed? Before I set off to make my own, I went through the 1830s issues of Godey's Lady's Book to find mentions of veils to round out my understanding of how 1830s veils were used. I have only included the ones here that mention color and/or size of the veils. As far as wearing, let's just say there were more than a few references to women entering carriages with their veils down. At least I will know proper veil etiquette for entering carriages if I ever come across such a situation.

"a hat of tissu straw, with a half-veil of black blonde, and black ornaments." Godey's Lady's Book, October 1833. "The Guide to Dress", pg. 169.

"Hitherto she had not spoken, and a thick green veil, with which she was covered, entirely prevented our hero from ascertaining whether she was one he had previously known or not." Godey's Lady's Book, December 1833. "Women's Rights", pg. 267.

"the edge of which is attached a short veil, somewhat longer than they are usually made, of tulle ilusion, embroidered at the bottom in a Grecian border, in rose-colored silk, and terminated by a deep hem." Godey's Lady's Book, October 1834. "Fashions for October", pg. 192.

"in a pelisse the color of the interior of a damson pie; a bonnet of the same, with a regular conservatory of artificial flowers; a white veil, and a green parasol, with a cobweb border." Godey's Lady's Book, November 1834. "The Boarding House-No. II", pg. 256.

"The little girl was about six years old... dressed in a white frock with a pink sash, with a dog-eared looking little spencer, a straw bonnet, and a green veil, six inches by three and a half..." Godey's Lady's Book, March 1835. "The Steam Excursion", pg. 89.

The next step was to look for originals. Not too many have survived from what I could tell, but there are a few here and there.

MET, 1835

MET, 1830

Centraal Museum, 1845

Uncredited, ca. 1840

MET, 1844

And of course, fashion plates can often show veils being worn. I find it interesting how in the 1820s and early 1830s, many are shown with the veil tossed to one side and the wearer using a hand to lift the veil. Quite inconvenient with a tendency to pull the bonnet to one side with the weight of the veil, but pretty. I suppose one has to make due with the loss of one arm's usefulness for vanity every once in a while. However, mid to late 1830s shows them thrown over the back of the bonnet brim, spilling out on either side. And 1840s fashion plates tend to have veils thrown to one side again. Just an interesting trend I noticed.

I was quite surprised to see how many white veils there are in fashion plates. I find white veils to be considerably UNhelpful in warding off the sunlight-in fact, I personally find that they make the effect WORSE. Regardless, please enjoy some fashion plate veils.

La Couturière Parisienne, unknown date

Ladies Pocket Magazine, August 1835

Modes de Paris, 1835

Ladies Cabinet, ca. 1830s

La Mode, 1839

La Mode, 1841

The final step in my (all too brief) veil research was paintings. Again, quite a few white ones showed up. Perhaps, like the rest of the 1830s wardrobe, practicality was sacrificed for aesthetic?

Unknown artist, 1835

Portrait of Anna Paulina, unknown artist

Clara Alexander, 1836

Gillot Saint-Evre, portrait of the Princess de Bragance, 1832

Portrait of Princess Alexandra von Dietrichstein, 1830s

Charles Van Beveren, portrait of Carolina Frederica Kerst, 1830.
One of my favorite 1830s paintings.

For my own veils, I made several. I made four out of some rather slinky silk gauze from Dharma Trading. I used some in black for a black veil (following the measurements given in "The Workwoman's Guide") and dyed some white brown and attempted to dye more of the white green but failed miserably and resorted to overdying it. It ended up some sort of dark army brownish-green. Whatever. It's fine. I ended up redoing the green so now I have a nice pretty green veil as well. In addition to the silk gauze veils, I also made two demi-voiles out of Dharma's cotton net. One I meant to be black but I could never get anything more than a medium gray out of the net so I have a gray demi-voile with black silk facing. The second ended up being a very bright teal color, which is fine since I have found an original of a very similar shade. So yes, I now have 6 (yes, SIX) 1830s and 1840s veils. Which in hindsight may be a bit much, but hey, I now have a veil that will match any possible color of dress.

And without further ado, pictures of all six veils on my three different bonnets (two 1830s ones and an 1840s bonnet).

Enjoy!

This is a dress started over a year ago. I had meant to have it done for Corsets and Cravats but never finished it and decided to wear my semi-sheer wool instead. So into the closet went the floral wreath dress.

I purchased the fabric from puresilks.us-they have several colorways. The actual fabric is an exact reproduction of an original gown in Glenna Jo Christen (there is actually a Past Patterns pattern of the original). The original gown was in the brown colorway, but it is reproduced not only in brown but also in white, pink, and blue. I choose white. I liked the idea of being able to change up the look quite a bit by just using accessories.

For the skirt, I made a skirt pocket and a watch pocket and gauged the waist. The bodice has a boned, darted lining with a gathered fashion fabric. It closes with hooks and eyes and features a lace-edged collar. I used the same lace on the (short) undersleeves as well as the handkerchief that goes with the ensemble.

Inspiration sleeves for my dress. The short sleeved bit is most likely an underbodice (corset cover type garment) over which the long sleeved, v-neck bodice would have been worn.

The Swedish Singer Jenny Lind, C.1852 by Louis Lang

After the dress was done, it was on to accessories. This painting caught my eye for colors:

Portrait of Mademoiselle Mathilde de Nédonchel by Alexis Joseph Pérignon, 1869

The blue against the white was just so stunning! So I purchased several yards of morning glory blue silk satin ribbon from Timely Tresses and got to work.

I opted not to do the rosette belt as I can't find evidence of rosette belts pre 1864 so I instead used a belt buckle with my blue belt.

The hairnet was trickier. I liked the two layers of ribbon but also knew I'd have to document it to earlier if I wanted it to work with a ca. 1860 dress. I started with fashion magazines and photographs but couldn't quite find what I wanted.

Frank Leslie's Magazine, 1864

Unknown image

So I went back to paintings. One can often see better views of the sides and backs of a subject in paintings than in photographs. After all, it is not often that someone takes a side or back image of their hair. I did find a few paintings of double hair-thingies but they often seemed resigned to evening wear.

Young Woman Reading, 1856 by Alfred Stevens

So, back at the drawing board, I went looking just for 1860s hairnets to see some variation. At last, I found a few CDVs that struck my fancy. Instead of having a full ribbon 'headband' bit, there were just bows at the side of an invisible hairnet.

Bow just on one side-plus a cute baby!

Bows on both sides. You can just see the other bow poking out from the side of her face.

One sided. Look at the pretty bows on her bodice, too!

I opted for bows on each side and went with a four-looped bow instead of the traditional two-looped bow. The only thing I didn't copy from the center portrait was that it looks like her bows may have a sort of button in the center but I left that out.

I think the result is cute! And certainly a variation that doesn't get seen in living history so much. Ribbon hairnets, I will admit, are somewhat overdone in living history but I'm happy to provide a different style that was seen back then but not so much now. Of course, not wearing a hairnet is perfectly correct as well!

I also made a ribbon neck tie I could wear with a brooch. I think neck ties are vastly under represented in the hobby right now. I can't imagine why-there is so much variation and they are so cute!