This year, 2012, was my first time going to the Jane Austen Festival in Louisville and my first Regency event ever. So, naturally, I needed to sew an entire wardrobe for myself. Here are some pictures of the items I sewed (with some things still needing tweaking). I will post actual pictures of the event as soon as they're made available to me.
A chemise. In hindsight, I probably should have made this sleeveless. Oh well!
The evil stays. They flattened my bustline. I hate them. They are going to be torn apart and fixed as soon as I can look at them without growling.
A bodiced petticoat made from the Sense and Sensibility drawstring dress pattern. In favor of spending as little time sewing as possible, I simply chose not to cut out the front piece on the fold and made a placket down the front, running one drawstring from the waist and one from the neckline (I also lowered the neckline considerably). Other than the drawstrings, no fasteners were needed. Yay!
A chemisette and a fichu from the most soft, lovely cotton voile that was given to me by a very lovely lady. The chemisette ended up being so cute on. I highly recommend it.
Finally, my dress! This was made from the Sense and Sensibility drawstring pattern in the Elegant Lady's Closet mega-pattern. The dress was lovely, however I would have liked to modify the neckline. That is modification number two on the list.
My waistbands and reticules made from matching silk. The blue I wore for the day and the purple for the ball. I also trimmed my new Pemberley shoes from American Duchess with purple bows at the toes. Those shoes warrant themselves an entire separate post.
Finally, the straw bonnet form I decorated from Austentation Regency Accessories. I ended up only wearing this for part of the day on Sunday. It doesn't fit very well over period hairstyles.
Have a lovely day, everyone!
Very ambitious, all at once! I'm sorry your stays flattened you. We've had great luck with the Sense and Sensibility short stays pattern (http://sensibility.com/blog/patterns/regency-underthings-pattern/)--it gives incredible push-up when you tighten the center front!!! There's a nice post about making them here http://wearinghistoryblog.com/2012/01/finished-project-regency-short-stays-pattern-review/ and a great post about getting stays to fit properly on the blog of the group that I'm with, the Oregon Regency Society! http://oregonregency.blogspot.com/2011/10/achieving-proper-fit-with-regency-stays.html.
ReplyDeleteAren't those bodiced petticoats great?? So important to have a full slip covering the legs. Oh, and I looooove your chemisette--gotta make one of those sometime.
I actually have the S&S pattern! I was going to make it but was having a lot of trouble with the gussets, so my friend and I made her self-drafted stays pattern into short stays and made that. I messed up on the gussets of mine--not enough curvature!--and so they flattened my bustline. But, no worries, I ripped them apart and am fixing the gussets! :)
DeleteI love the bodiced petti! It only took me a day and it was a breeze. The chemisette is great and looks even better on! I barely even noticed it on my skin in the hot Louisville weather, so that definitely is saying something! That is from the S&S Underthings pattern.