Regency Taffeta | A Completed Costume

This was a fun project that came to be through the mighty powers of procrastination. During Summer last year I had the fun task of making several costumes for Endgame (LCC 2018), and while I should have been working on mockups, I was instead starting an entirely new project. A Regency era dress.

I had all the materials on hand, and I needed to work with something prettier than bleached muslin. So creating an entire dress is exactly what you should do when you have pressing deadlines, right? Right.

The dress itself came together in about two days, and that includes hand stitched details on the seams to make it look as if it were sewn by hand when it was, in fact, not. Well, except for the hand stitched details.

The beading, however, took much longer.

I don't have an exact, or even an approximate, number for just how long the beading took since I didn't work on it consistently over the several months of making this dress.

Anyhow, once the dress was finished I pulled together a photoshoot with some very talented friends and this is the result. I'm quite happy with both the dress and the lovely photos.

Photos by Morgan Elise Photography

Model - Lizzy Poling

Dress by Tiana Blanchard

The Green Regency Dress

This year I completed my first Regency dress, hooray! I say completed because one of the first dresses I ever tried to sew was a Regency dress made from a nasty pink floral cotton and a Simplicity pattern. It didn't end well. In fact, it never actually ended because I never quite finished it. But that was a long time ago.

Near the beginning of this year I finally watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, and because of that movie I actually fell in love with the Regency era (fashion wise) as well as the story. I know, I know, it's practically illegal to like the 2005 film, but I do and it's the only film adaptation of any Jane Austen novel that I actually liked.

Well, after watching it I decided to make make a Regency dress. After doing some research I decided on making an apron front (or drop front) dress, because I liked the simplicity of it and it's easy to get into without any help. The pattern I ended up with is Laughing Moon #126, which I'm actually working on writing a review for.

The mock up went beautifully and the pattern didn't need any alterations. None. It was awesome.

Starting off, here's what I wore underneath (minus the chemise, because I need to re-make it). I wore my half stays (made with a modified version of the Regency stay pattern from Jean Hunnisett's book, Period Costume for the Stage and Screen) and a petticoat. I used the same skirt pattern as for the actual dress and pleated it in the same way, attaching it to a waistband with criss-cross straps. It closes with a hook and eye on the side where I left one of the seams open about 8 inches.

Petticoats during this era wore worn more for modesty than for adding fullness to the skirt. Because the skirts were so slim compared to the styles beforehand, when a lady was walking or if there was a breeze the skirts would hug to the legs which wasn't modest for the time.

On to the actual dress. Here's the dress before the apron front is pulled up. As you can see it ties in the front underneath to hold it in place. The apron piece that comes over top is gathered with ribbons along the top and is pinned at the corners onto the dress to hold it up.

I ended up with a green stretch cotton sateen for this dress, which was a little bit heavy but because of the weight it drapes rather nicely. It's just too heavy to hang when I'm storing it which means I have to store it folded. The only problem I have with that is when I do want to bring it out I have to iron the entire thing.

You can kind of see the pin holding the apron up here

Regency is such an easy era to sew and wear; I love it! Everything is so loose, you don't have any hoops or bustles, and with a pair of half stays it's basically like the historical equivalent of yoga pants. I really want to make more dresses from this era and I really need to make a Spencer jacket to go with it.

Never Before Photographed Projects

Over the last year and a half I've had a lot of projects that I never got around to photographing. Until now. If you follow me on Instagram that you know that I just got a new, processional sewing form (!!!). Today I was taking photo's/video for a review I'll be doing of the form and ended up getting pictures of some of my projects that I haven't gotten photo's of yet. I still have more to photograph, but they needed to be ironed so I'll be doing those on another day.

I'll talk more about the sewing form in my actual review post, but I just wanna say how awesome it is! Not only is it going to make my actual sewing easier, getting photo's of my projects will be a lot easier!

First off, my Victorian corset. I started this one near the end of 2015 and finished it early this year. The pattern I used was from Period Costume for the Stage and Screen by Jean Hunnisett. I used duck canvas from Joann's for the base fabric and flat lined it with this pretty blue fabric I found at a garage sale (I'm not sure what type of fabric it is).

While I really love this corset, I did make a few fitting mistakes and will have to make a new one. But I'm really hesitant because this one is soooo pretty...

Next are my Regency Half Stays. These came together really quickly, I think over the course of a day or two. I also used a pattern from Period Costume for the Stage and Screen. The pattern I used was the Regency corset pattern but I modified it by basically chopping off the bottom half to make half stays instead.

I also used duck canvas from Joann's for this with hand stitched eyelets and ribbon for the lacing.

And finally, my Sontag shawl! I posted at the end of 2015 that I was working on this and I finished it early this year but never got around to getting pictures. I found the pattern on Ravelry for free and it was a good, easy project. This would be a perfect project for a beginner/intermediate knitter.

That's all I've got for now, but I'll be posting my review and more projects that I hadn't gotten either any or any decent photo's of (such as my green Regency dress!).

The Great Costume College Adventure

As you are aware, I attended Costume College for the first time this year and I wanted to make a quick post about it. I wish I had more pictures, but I was so busy with the classes and looking at everyone's costumes that I wasn't even thinking about taking pictures.

The event was SO fun and it was so awesome to get to meet a bunch of costumers I've been following for a long time, as well as meet a lot of new people. I learned a lot of awesome stuff from the classes but my favorite part were the social events.

Friday night I wore my green Regency dress. Regency isn't necessarily a favorite era of mine, but it's so easy to make and wear! It's just so simple compared to other eras.

Saturday night was the big event of the weekend, the Gala! I finally got to wear my finished 1871 dress that I had been working on for far too long. Michaela wore her 1860's plaid dress, which was so pretty. We took a couple photo's together and are still waiting for the photographer to post them so we can share.

The only part that wasn't fun was that I got sick on the way to California. During the drive down I started getting sick and for most of the weekend I could hardly speak because my throat was swollen. I was still able to have fun, but speaking was difficult.

I really hope to go again next year and already have so many costume idea's.

I don't remember exactly how this came about, but somewhere along the weekend I got it into my head to make a 1840's dress. I've recently become obsessed with Jane Eyre after watching the movie and reading the book. So on Monday at the fabric district I picked up some plaid linen for a dress along with 10 yards of white cotton for petticoats. I'll be posting about that soon.

Regency Underpinnings

After watching Pride & Prejudice (2005) I've fallen in love with all things Jane Austen and Regency, and have decided to make a Regency dress! The first step in creating a historical garment always starts with the underpinnings.

This post is going to be all about what a lady wore underneath a dress.

Like pretty much all era's for the last several hundred years, the bottom layer is a chemise. Pretty simple, basically a long shift with a drawstring neckline made usually of cotton or linen.

Via the Met

Via the Met

During the first decade or so of the 19th century it wasn't common to wear drawers. They didn't become commonly worn until around the 1840's, though they were occasionally worn before then. They were originally seen as immodest due to their being cut so similar to men's pants. I don't quite see why that would really matter since no one was suppose to see them. I guess it took people a few decades to realize that too ;)


Next is the corset, or stays. There were two different styles popular at the time, full and half stays. The silhouette of the era had an empire waistline and a high bust. Since the waistline wasn't seen due to the style of dresses the corsets of the era weren't shaped as much around the waist as they were later in the century.

Half stays don't reduce much in the waist (actually none at all since they cut off just a few inches  under the bust). Instead the main purpose of them was to shift the bust up.

Laughing Moon Mercantile Pattern

The next layer would be a petticoat. Petticoats in this era were worn more for modesty than to add volume to the skirts. Because of the narrow cut of the skirt, when walking the skirts would sometimes cling to the legs, showing more than what was generally acceptable at the time.

There were two main types of petticoats - bodiced petticoats and regular petticoats (which I don't know the exact name of this style, if there even is one). The important thing with petticoat's from this era was that the waistline matched that of the dress. So when making a petticoat it's common to use the same skirt pattern that you use for your dress.

Here's a bodiced petticoat, which has a bodice, hence the name. This style usually had darts or gathers to fit the bust.

And here's an example of a regular petticoat with ties going over the shoulders to hold the petticoat up.

And that complete's our Regency foundation garments!

I've already begun working on my Regency outfit and have completed my stays, which I'll be getting pictures of and posting about soon.