This year I’ve had a bit of a thing for white costumes. I love the clean lines it lends to your look and how versatile it is, the look can be completely changed with accessories! Well thinking of white gowns probably one of the most obvious eras is regency. I found this gorgeous secondhand silk that was exremely lightweight but had a nice crispness to it and so my this years first new project got started.
My pattern is drafted to my size based on the American duchess books 1790s round gown and Janet Arnold’s patterns of fashion 1 early 1800s gown and this painting.
With this one I was feeling a bit lazy since the silk tends to fray if you even just look at it so every seam needed to be finished, I machine sewed the long seams and hand finished everything. The bodice is lined with a light weight linen.
I finished and wore this to a regency dance in February but never got around to taking proper pictures of it so that’s why this post is only coming now. I’m very happy with how this came out. I might still fiddle with the front a bit at some point because the sleek and slightly higher back caused me to need to put the bib front ties under instead of over the gown but my skirts overlap slightly too much causing the front to sometimes pull wierdly as I move. For my bodytype I think the bib front isn’t the easiest gown to fit so I think my next regency gown might be a back closure one.
the fresh water pearl earings are also made by methe center front of the gown pins down creating a gravity defying neckline
Well there you have it for now. I have a few accesssories planned already for this gown but with no regency events in my near future I’ve been focusing on other eras and still will for while…
After making 2 regency gowns from the 1800s (the other one’s blog post is coming up soonish) I really wanted to make something from the early directoire or french revolutionary years. I’ve come to love regency empire waist siluetttes and really lose that voluptuous look of the late 90s were the waist is really high and the front is full aswell as the back.
A Little after christmas a local fabric store had a sale were there were grab bags for 5 euros and among the fabric there was this softest stripe flannel that actually didn’t seem horrible quality like most modern flannels and some gorgeous wool twill so ofcourse I filled my bag with those. This flannel just screamed lunge clothes to me so I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and make a late 1790s gown out of it that would work for costuming and loungewear. Since this is a piece I’m going to be using mostly at home and I’m not exactly sure if flannel in any other form than wool and that for underthings even existed at the time I was not going to bother with hand sewing this one. Visible details are hand sewn though. I used the American duchess quide to 18th century sewing for the basic pattern shapes drafting it straight to my size. The bodice is lined with a sturdy medium weight linen to give the soft flannel a good anchor point. The thickness of the fabric did give me some trouble when figuring out how to make the v shaped front and to reduce bulk I left the shoulder straps a separate non pleated piece. I also made a little oopsie cutting the train and had to piece the side backs a bit longer but luckily piecing is period.
here you can see the piceing at the hem
I’m not going to go into much construction as it’s not really accurate and the accurate bit are in the book. i sewed the lining pieces up and made sure everything fit and added bust darts and the sewed the fashion fabric on, cut the skirts, attached them to each other and attached the skirt back to the bodice with cartridge pleats, attached the sleeves and last attached the bodice to the front making sure not to catch the waist ties as I went. The front bodise bit is just a rectangle and the upper bit is pleated into the width of the shoulder strap then the pleats are sewn down for about 2 inches and then it is attached to the shoulder strap and the bodice at the side. The front only closes with pins at the lining ang the drawstring under the bust. If like here I’m not wearing it with any sort of kerchief around my neck or a chemisette I can pin the v to control the amount of cleavage that is being shown.
This really is the most comfortable dress ever and due to the adjustability work also without stays for lounging around the house.
I’ll leave off for now with thses pictures. Till next time!
xxx
The mandatory regency weggie pose 😉 I’ve been waiting to be able to do this one!
We had a historical dinner this past weekend and I finally got to take some good pictures of my regency dress so that I can finally share it with you guys. I made my dress last August for a small regency dance. The fabric was again a lovely secondhand find, an emboidered silk. It’s slightly more slubby than I’d like it to be and the embroidery isn’t really accurate but since it was cheap I figured it was a good trial piece. I’ve always been a little worried that the regency siluette wouldn’t be the most flattering on me since I’m fairly short, very short backed and though I’m slim I’m very curvy. My dread comes from those modern empire waist gowns in which I always look pregnant. But as I’ve come to find that really doesn’t happen with regency at all!
My inspiration was this dress from 1809
I used the laughing moon bib front dress pattern and I have to say I’m really impressed with their way of patterning. As someone who’s measurents are far from standard the way you can mix and match sizes with their instructions make using patterns easy for me and for once I think I actually saved time using a pattern and not drafting my own. The only change I made was making the back slightly more full and pleating it the entire width of the back not just partially and changing it so that the front ties under not over the back piece giving it a cleaner look in the back. I made the slightly gathered bib front and it is pinned on at the top. Here is the finished result. The only thing I’d do differently is I’d make the bib fitted and still might at some point as my silk has a little bit too much body to it for the gathering. Then again that does lessen the boobs in your face effect so I might leave it as it is. All in all I’m very pleased with how this came out and I feel like an absolute princess wearing it! There will most definitely be more regency gowns in my future!
For this dinner I wanted to have a regency style tiara and desided to try my hand at making one. There are some tutorials in other blogs for making them out of lamp binding and that was my initial plan but ofcourse I left the buying too late for online shopping and apparently it isn’t sold in any stores anywere near were I live. My plan b was to make it out of brass wire and some plastic pearls but after several failer attempts I had already kind of given up. My instruction book told me to get a 0.8mm wire but all I could find was either a 1mm or a 6mm so I bought the thicker and with my lack of skills and slightly bent round pliers it just wouldn’t bend with any kind of consistency and everything looked very uneven. Then on the morning of the dinner I managed to find some thinner wire I had bought earlyer and my newer non bent round pliers. Now don’t ask me why I had previously bought so many supplies and yet have never actually worked with metal wire before, I have no idea but apparently I’ve had some plans at some point. Anyways now things worked fairly well and took shape quickly and in a few hours I had a wearable tiara. It’s not perfect and it’s slightly crooked but it looks pretty good on and I’m happy with it as my first piece. I’ll have to practice a bit and then maybe try making one out of natural pearls and a precious metal.
I also made my daughter a regency dress for this dinner but since it will still get an open robe to go with it later I’ll write up the details on that one later. For now I’ll leave you with these lovely pictures my husband took…
Sew through time 