1809 regency dress

Photographer: Agnes Noppen

As promised, here is the post about my new regency dress, I'm very happy with the result, but I have cheated with patterns and co. 

The plan was to do with two other friends a regency day on castlefest. We choosed friday, because then we would be fresh in everything we did. 
 If you see the post about my Balkan dress, the second day of castlfest, you can already see that my look is a little bit tired.  

So I was very exalted when we launch the idea for a groups costume, and more when our eyes fell on the regency period. I was such in a hurry that I made more for the costume than I really could weare in one day. So I had to choose when the time came from the pieces I made. 

The picture above is the final look where I chose for. A simple dress, spencer look. 

 So these are my beautiful friends :D 

What began as a joke turned out like a overwide tradition. 

That day we had fun, all jokes around. Searching for Mr. Darcy, showing our ankle's, laugh at each other. 

For next year we already have plans for a new groups day. 

Photographer: Erwin van den Eijkhof

That ankle! 


You can't just see my underdress, but the underdress is there :p 







 

Photographer: Agnes Noppen

The gossip girls of that day. 
So each of us made there own costumes. From underwear till the bonnet on our heads. 

Photographer: Agnes Noppen

Photographer: Agnes Noppen

 Maartje has her white with blue ribbon dress and her self made bonnet. She also wore her new made short stays, chemise, bloomers and the chemisette. The last named she borrowed from me. 

Charlotte wore her evening gown, a white undergown and a light blue overgown what I love. I want such overgown. 

All our dresses are made of natural fabrics, mostly cottons. 


So I think I gonna weare this dress more often, I like this fashion, it is pretty and also comfortable. I want to make more of these sort of dresses, I have a crossover evening gown on the work table, and a pretty white cotton with fabric dots, perhaps a day dress or a short crossover overdress. I will see. 

Photographer: Geert Spoor

 Oeh I like this view on my sleeve :) I love the petal form of the sleeve. 




For the making part I have some photo's and some information. 


So I used ready made patterns, because we had to do this on short time and we where with three. 

So I used these three patterns, and I have for all these three something to say. 

 sense and sensibility: a regency underthings pattern

I used this pattern earlier in 2014 for my fairy BonBon outfit. So I didn't need quickly a new pair of stays, but after this weekend they where outworn. Next time, I made long stays. But with this pattern comes not only short stays and a chemise, but also two patterns for chemisettes. These to patterns I made for that weekend, and both where worn. 

 sense and sensibility: the elegant lady's closet
 
This is a tricky pattern, if you know the difficult sides of this pattern than you have a good pattern to start with. 

Most of the time I don't make mock-ups, because i'm a little bit lazy.... my fault. But this time, I did make a mock-up, because I read some reviews from people who had problems with the patterns, and yes it is true. The first time I sewed my sleeves in the dress and it was horrible to weare, I searched the problem, sleeves out, and again in, other armhole. Nope.... But if you tilt the sleeve like you strech you arm forward you have a nice fitting. sleeves that day where otherwise disposed. So don't give up with this pattern, when you figure it out, this is an amazing pattern. 

 laughing moon #129

 This pattern is heavens, I like the three versions, but for know I made view A. The pieces goes without any problem in each other. 

I made for mine spencer a adjusment, I wanted petals with my sleeves, So with some extra sketches I had a extra pattern for the adjusment. Every inch of fabric what I had is in the spencer. I wanted to make of the leftovers a reticule, but there was no leftovers left.... 

This pattern is very well recommended. 






 

So for my part of the sewing, I start with the mock-up dress. The plan was, is the dress good enough to weare, i'm happy, is it not, nothing horrible. the fabric was one euro the meter. 

 These were the fabrics I bought for the regency dresses. The right one is the mock-up fabric, very regency alike, but 100% polyester. 
The left one is going to be a cross over evening gown, but that is for later ;)

So here do you see the mock up without the ballgown sleeves. I had already problems with the size of the bust. I cutted C, I did that for extra room for adjustments, but it turned so big that I had with my size B enough with a size A from the pattern. In my gown for castlefest I took account of that and there was no problem after that. 

my mock up is the drawstring dress, but the dress I made after this dress is with a flat front. I didn't want to look pregnant, that is something you have note when you are a little bit wider that  a usual small size.

So here I started with the spencer. The lining of the bodice is already done, the collar is not lined with horsehair, but I did a theater way for cheap put up the collar. 
I used compaktuna thins a little bit with water, what is a product you can find it in de hardware store by the stuff for tile ground. Yes, the collar is tempered with a material you use for between youre tiles.... But it works fantastic! 

You can iron it, and that go's good, so if youre fabric is wrinkled, you can iron it. 

 

 First before I putting the sleeve together, I first modelt the pedals on the bodice before I placed the sleeves in. This also the back of the spencer. The diamond shape is very typical for that time. 

So when the mock up was ready, there where some points I wanted to change for the "real" dress. I wanted the skirt a bit longer, other sleeves, a flat front skirt and a back closure. I knew what I had to change. 

These underthings where already made in 2014, but where fuctional for that day. I want  pair of long stays because it would be better with my posture. 

















 

Do you recognize the green dress? Yes it is the fairy BonBon dress. It has a new purpose as underdress, I'm happy that the dress could be worn again. After all, it is a pitty that the costume had to be faded in the washingmachine. So I have a real wild silk for a underdress.... But I made a white cotton one to, it is the same pattern as de overdress, but without the sleeves and another bodice front, it is actually the bodice front from the lining of the pattern. So later on, I will maybe want to make a red one as well. 

I give you a closer look from one of the chemisettes. I did some improvements for the pattern. I wanted more fullnes in the ruffle collar, so I added not one but three layers of collars for a more flower like style, made the edges more round and the neck binding is not up the collar, but under so that the collar is more pulled up the neck. The other one I made is like the pattern describe. 

 

So this is the combination I wore friday at castlefest, I only added a ribbon at the skirt.


This is the real dress I made with elbow long sleeves, flat front skirt, back closure, and pockets! pockets!

I even made a apron with bib front. I used the pattern piece of the skirt front and shorten a little bit, the bib front I drafted at the size of my buste. I dind't wore the apron that weekend, but I'm sure that it would be handy one day.
















So for my hat, I searched the internet for good tutorials and after a good time I knew wat I wanted. I used a article of this blog as a hand guide for my one bonnet. http://regencyclothing.livejournal.com/45888.html


This is my result 

I'm very happy with the result of my hat, I wanted white because it could match with more dresses in the future, but I'm going to make this version more and with colour ofcourse. But for know I have my white bonnet. 

I hope that you enjoyed this post, until the next time. 

Photographer: Geert Spoor

Greets Jessie.