Regency Shift

Sooo...back in February I was looking for something to work on and while going through my fabrics, found some yardage of combed cotton lawn I had ordered during the fall. I had ordered it from Dharma Trading Co. with the intent of using it for some Edwardian underpinnings. Then I put together my Regency drop front dress.

While I do have a Regency shift already, I was the first one I made from cotton/poly broadcloth and the entire thing is machine sewn. As a result, it is very bulky, not breathable, and very stiff. The neckline is also cut very high and sometimes peeks out from my dresses. 

Originally I had used Sense & Sensibility's Regency Underthings Pattern, but I opted for the Laughing Moon Ladies' Regency and Romantic Era Corset, which includes pattern pieces for a shift.

LM #115

As I cut out pattern and fabric pieces, everything is pretty much the same in that there is a large front and back piece, shoulder piece, sleeve piece, and underarm gusset. I did some research into the LM pattern though and one of the things I noticed were a lot of people had issues with the back running a little high. To see how the shift would work out, I made a "half" mock-up of just the upper portion to check for for fit and any additional alterations that might be needed.

Just like the reviews, the back did run high. To help adjust this, I added 2" to the back of the shoulder strap pieces, and lowered the top edge the same amount to accommodate the change.

Regency Shawl Hack Project

So I finished a project that was probably my quickest project to date. Two hours total!

Since my Regency dress is coming along so well, I'm now going on a Regency project binge. On the list of things I'm starting to brainstorm and put together to go with the dress are:

• a shawl
• chemisette
• bonnet
• petticoat
• stays (on-going WIP)

The shawl came first because I remembered a shawl hack that Jen from Festive Attyre had put together a while ago. Following her tutorial, I first started on ebay and selected a dark navy shawl that would go well with the red and matched a bonnet I started eons ago. Per the instructions, I purchased two of the shawls. I couldn't find the actual fiber content but at $7 a piece, I'm guessing it's a synthetic blend of some type.

ebay.com

These were just basic pashmina scarves and nothing too fancy. True Regency scarves, from what I can tell, are the same color on both sides of the shawl, excluding the paisley design areas. These are navy blue on one side, gold and red on the reverse due to the weave pattern of the threads.

The Regency Dress that Almost Wasn't

My latest project, the drop front Regency dress, is going along at a remarkable pace. At this point, I'm just doing finishing touches like binding the seam allowance in the arms, placing buttons, and hemming the bottom. I love the fabric choice and the style I opted for, but first I have to tell you about how this dress almost didn't come to be.

Back in 2014, I found my fabric and knew it would make a great Regency dress. I grabbed 5 yards at the time, figuring it would be enough. I had recently completed another Regency dress and was going to use the same pattern from Sense and Sensibility. Then Laughing Moon came out with their drop front dress pattern and I fell in love with it. 

Laughing Moon #126

I loved this view with the ruffles on the arms and it looked like the design would work well with the print of my fabric. The other reason is because View B is based off an original held by the Kent State University Museum, the same museum where I interned at while doing my graduate coursework. When I saw a picture of the original, I'm pretty certain I saw this dress while going through storage for class materials. The original is from 1810 and made of printed cotton.

1983.1.28 KSU Museum

Additional photos of the original dress are on my Pinterest board. 

Regency Drop Front Day Dress

In between finishing up the last little bits of my swim costume and the new boater hat, I finally got around to starting my new Regency dress. Hoorah, since I've only been wanting to do this project since last year.

My last Regency dress buttoned up the back and the difference with this one is it has an apron or drop front. While it might not seem like a huge difference, it is for me because this will make it easier for adjustment in Lack of Cleavage department.

Unfamiliar with how the pattern even went together, I did a mockup of the bodice area to see how it would fit. Lucky me, everything fit well the first time around and the only thing I will have to actually adjust is the muslin lining that ties across the front of the bust area.

Regency Stays - Trial and Error Round One

Well I got my Regency stays finished to the point that I could try them on. So I did. And this is what I ended up with.

Regency Stay Cording

Waaay back in February, I began my foray into making some Regency corded stays. Then I was distracted by other projects. Now I'm back to working on the stays.

I got all my channels sewed finally and then started on the cording. Reading from the directions and recommendations within the sewing community, I got some cooking twine to use for the cording in the channels. Well the first time I went to thread a channel, I immediately discovered it was too big.

I double checked my directions, but didn't see any options outside of the cooking twine. Hmm. Then I remembered this thick cotton thread I had once used as a kid to try and crochet a head scarf. Possibility?

I found a 4 oz. package of Sugar'n Cream worsted cotton yarn at the local fabric store that matched what I remembered using. Took everything home and it ended up being just the right size!

Corded Regency Stays

So I've finally started my first sewing project of the year. Long ago I bought some fabric to make a new Regency dress. In order to get started on it though, I first had to make myself a new pair of stays. This is an endeavor I set out to do last spring, but never got around to starting at that time.

Future dress plans

As a reminder, I did make some half-stays, but wasn't wholly satisfied with the fit and design. I finally pulled out my Laughing Moon Regency and Romantic Era Corset pattern (#115) and started reading through the directions (there's a lot of material).

Ophelia Bonnet Homestretch

In case you missed the squeals of delight on Facebook, my silks are finally here! Ordered in the middle of March, I endured shipping delays, wrong items being sent, secondary packages which were also delayed...

My beautiful silk from India! Color is actually dark navy.

Yeah, patience has certainly become a virtue where this project is concerned (it was started in early February). Along with my silk issues, I had supplies run out on multiple occasions, which resulted in more delays and frustrations that nearly made me throw in the towel for the whole project.

Before getting started on the covering and trimmings, I'll give a quick progress report on how the actual bonnet construction went.

This was my first venture into hat making where I constructed the base myself. Once I had all my supplies together, it went together very easily, much to my surprise (aside from running out of a few things - AGAIN - during the construction process).

Millinery wire taped and ready to be sewn to the buckram.

Finished crown, pipe, and brim. These are the pieces that make up the full bonnet.

The crown piece and brim are attached to each other using just a whipstitch around the wire and crinoline tape.

Finished form ready for covering.

Like most hand sewing projects though, very slow going but the outcome is certainly rewarding. Although the the buckram form has been sitting around for a bit now, I still look at it and go, "I made that?" Now looking forward to finishing it.

These are all my trimmings which I have been slowly accumulating during the project.

The plan is to cover it with blue silk and line the brim with cream dupioni (not completely period accurate, but this will be on the inside and not as noticeable). Still have to play with the ribbons, but the wide cream will be used for the ties, and the thinner cream and pale green for pipe trims. The flowers, bing cherries, and leaves will go at the very top of the crown, similar to the ones in my research plates.

Keep your fingers crossed that the next time I post about the bonnet, it will be finished!

And just for fun, a late night selfie from when I had actually finished the bonnet.

Ophelia Regency Bonnet Mayhem

When sewing projects decide to revolt, they apparently like to stage a very large protest. After the difficulties I had with my late bustle bodice, I decided to jump ahead and start on my next HSF challenge project, only to be waylaid by more delays.

We've now reached challenge #7 - Tops and Toes. This time it's creating an accessory to decorate either the head or the feet. I've been wanting to do a Regency period bonnet for a while so I took the jump back in time and started pulling things together.

The last time I made a bonnet, I purchased the pre-made buckram form and all I had to do was cover it with fabric and trimmings. This time I opted to build it from the - ahem - neck up. Not entirely sure of everything I would need, I purchased a bonnet kit from Timely Tresses which came with everything I needed to complete the bonnet for the pattern I had picked out.

Bonnet in a box!

Unfortunately, the kit arrived and was missing the wire connectors and the pre-cut buckram was not large enough for the pattern pieces. Although I did contact the company about the pieces being replaced, they still had not come after two weeks and finally opted to order these supplies on my own. For the record, Judith M Millinery has fast shipping and great prices on millinery supplies.

*Update 4/7/14 - The materials were received in the mail today. Slow mail truck apparently. 

With all the base supplies now in place, I pulled out the buckram last night and started tracing out the pieces and cutting them apart. Then I found that I would need some masking tape. Well, back to the craft store today.

Yes, that's a costume drama being used as a weight

In the meantime, more about the bonnet. The pattern selected was Ophelia, best for use during the years 1810-1820 approximately, and has a shaped brim with a stovepipe headpiece.

Ophelia Pattern from Timely Tresses

I started looking through online museum collections for references of originals, but was finding very little. Instead, I started pulled from fashion plates and there are so many examples! I'm glad I'm being paced by my materials because as of right now, I still have no idea how I want to decorate it. Something with flowers possibly...

New Challenges and Projects

As I wrap up my latest HSF project challenge, I already have to start looking forward to the next few projects. Although I'm only doing half of the challenges, challenge #4 - Under it All, aka any type of underwear/unmentionables, gave me some inspiration. I may not actually complete a piece for the challenge, but I'm going to use it as a jump point to start working on a pair of Regency stays.

Last spring, I made made a pair of half-stays to go under my first Regency dress. I had to do a lot of modification for my lack of cleavage as well as I didn't have a complete understanding of how Regency stays were supposed to fit (I'm used to my corsets). So the end result was a half-stay that worked/didn't work. 

Ignore the quality. Bad cell phone selfie.

The one thing I couldn't get used to when wearing the half-stays was not having my mid-section covered as well by the stay/corset. Naturally I'm not a very svelte individual to begin with, so the silhouette of the Regency dress I wore did not work out as well either.

Again, no time to actually finish a new Regency stay before the March 1 deadline. However I have started to pull together some images of originals on Pinterest for inspiration and I purchased Laughing Moon's Regency and Romantic Era Corset pattern.

Regency Corset via Pinterest

Early 19th Century Stays via Pinterest

Laughing Moon's Regency and Romantic Era Corset pattern

Challenge #5 - Bodice I already have something in mind for. My late bustle Alexandra Polka Dot dress was made a few years ago and it's probably one of my favorites.

The original bodice that I made is for daytime/dinner type of functions. To allow for more functionality, I've always wanted to make an evening bodice to go with the skirts (Also making it more period correct by having more than one bodice). I made an attempt at this about two years ago, but wasn't happy with how it turned out and scrapped it. I still have extra fashion fabrics and the pattern, so it's just a matter of sitting down to redraft some changes, then put everything together. We'll see how it goes!

Shopping Finds

I've been finding all sorts of fun costume goodies lately and I just had to share.

The first find is something I've had for a little while now, but I just had to show them off. In anticipation of my new Victorian style Tavistock shoes coming from American Duchess toward the end of the month (hoping and praying they also fit), I purchased some button hooks off of ebay. And for such a great deal too! Three Bakelite hooks for $12, and then when they were shipped I found a fourth in the package as well! Hopefully these will work for my shoes, if not, they'll be great for my teaching collection.

My next shopping find also came off of ebay. While perusing for some trim for my next set of underfrillies, I found some lovely lace. After stalk bidding until the final second, I won much to my excitement. Not only is the lace beautiful, but there's a ton of it! A whopping 7 yards of the Greek key/floral pattern and 3.5 yards of the grape leaf pattern and for only $25 altogether. My original plan had been for underthings, but it's too pretty to hide so the lace has been relegated to the Future Project stash for now.

Greek key/floral lace

Grape leaf lace

And last but not least. Thanks to a tip-off from Jen Thompson at Festive Attyre about some Regency look alike shoes from Rocket Dog, I went in search of my own pair. I found a pair of the Water Chamay Silk shoes at my local DSW for a little bit more ($40), but when you need a size 11 shoe, you can't argue. I sometimes have issues with the fit of ballet style flats, but these fit well and are very comfy. I haven't delved too far, but I'm going to see about attaching laces to the inside, similar to the Highbury Regency shoes also from American Duchess (which I also have on order but there's been a delay).

Next week is payday so I'm looking forward to getting some cotton lawn fabric and getting started on my Edwardian and 1910s undergarments.