A Regency Tea Party

Today (yesterday?) I hosted a Regency tea party for my friends and I, and what fun we had!

This is the table set up.  We enjoyed tea, toast, homemade jam (by yours truly), pound cake, cucumber sandwiches, sugar cookies, and, to top it all off, lemon and strawberry ice (sorbetto).  It was quite the spread!

My masterpiece was the pineapple centerpiece.  An article from the Jane Austen Centre in Bath talked about pineapples in the Regency period.  Actually, if you can believe it, merchants would rent out pineapples to the poorer set so that they could use them as centerpieces at their parties, and then finally sell them to the richer customers to be eaten at their parties.  Who knew?

We enjoyed Jane Austen themed teas from Bingley's Teas, Ltd.  The two teas that we had, Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Longbourn Wedding Tea, were both divine.  I can't stress how much I recommend these teas to both the Jane Austen lover and the tea connoisseur.  They are simply lovely!

All of my lovely, beautiful friends looking lovely and beautiful in their Regency dresses.

Some of my friends delighted us by playing the piano--either seriously or as a joke.

And of course, the shoe (or lack of shoe) shot.  AKA I love my Pemberlies and was happy that I had a chance to show them off.

All in all, I had a wonderful time!  If you're looking for something to do, I highly suggest a tea party.  It was quite fun to have an afternoon of elegance!

Love, Melissa

Exciting Regency prospects...

A ball gown!

A Regency Sari ball gown, to be exact.  I picked up a Sari from an Ebay dealer--only $20 for 5 yards of silk!  Yay!  It was exactly what I was looking for.  I'm thinking of making it in the style of the above gown and this gown...

I would post pictures, but apparently my computer decided I didn't need those photos.  You know, along with the Trevi fountain photos from Rome.  Thanks, computer.  I will take pictures and post them very soon.  Thanks!

Regency Things for the Jane Austen Festival!

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!

The list has changed... again...

I promise I'll post very very soon about the Jane Austen festival, but for now, here is my updated sewing list.  I have completely removed anything Georgian from the table because I just don't have the time or money to invest in another time period.  I'm going to try to focus on sewing for the Regency Wardrobe Challenge and using up my stash for Civil War so I can get to Georgian (maybe possibly).  So, here it is!

August

CW Bathing costume

Mom's dirndl

CW Sheer

CW Sarah's dress

Regency Spencer

September

CW Winter hood

CW Paletot and muff

Regency seaside dress

October

Regency beach slippers

Second Regency bonnet

November

CW Ball gown

Regency ball gown

December

Regency day dress #2

CW Asymmetrical bodice

January

Regency spencer

February

Regency day dress #3

CW bonnet

March

Regency cloak

Sneak peek of the next project...

I've been bad!

Sorry for not posting in so long!  EVERYTHING has been happening.  AP tests, Senior week, field day, Graduation stuff, reenactments, and so much more!  I'll be back to posting regularly after Thursday (hopefully).  That's when I'll have some time to breathe!

New fabric... ahhhhh

New fabric shipment!  I received the two wools from Fabric.com and picked up some things at Jo-Ann's.  Oddly enough, though, this shipment of wool came in the mail before a previously placed order of wool arrived (which hasn't arrived yet).  I must call Fabric.com on that issue.  Anyway, on to the goodies!

 The pile!

 First up, 2 yards of black silk to make a Swiss Waist

 2 yards of 100% linen to line my pink silk Georgian stays

 The plaid wool.... this is the most soft, wonderful, gorgeous wool I have ever seen.  I absolutely adore it.  It's purpley!!!!!  When my mom saw this fabric, she exclaimed, "Purple!  That's not period correct!"  (As a clarification, my mother does not know much about historic clothing.  Proof: every time I show her anything that I've made that's period correct, she exclaims, "Miss Scarlett!")  Purple, in fact, is quite period correct.  Just refer to my Pinterest!

This is the teal wool.  I'm not exactly thrilled about it.  It's of a heavier weight than the red and the plaid wools, which makes me hesitate on making it into a dress.  The weave is also kind of funky.  I'll have to ask for help on that one.  If the weave is not period, I'll just send it back.  If it's too heavy but the weave is period, then I'll sell it to someone looking for fabric for a paletot or cape.  Sarah?

 Here is my lovely, now organized fabric stash!  Puny as it is, I love it.

It's organized by fiber.  Here's the wools...

 The cottons...

 The silks...

 And the lonely linen.  Sigh.  Maybe one day I will find a sale and buy you some friends.  Till then, you must stay a loner, because you are $15.99 a yard.

Finally, one of my favorite purchases!  Little baby Ginghers!  I got these because I need scissors to use at reenactments and I found that these are passable.  I love love love the stork.  It's so cute.

Au revoir, dear friends!