Regency Dress progress

So far this quarter, I've been trying to juggle taking a mere 12 credit hours (I normally take about 17), piano lessons and life. But here's the progress on the Regency dress!

Certainly not the most beautiful pic
of me, but there's the dress.

The pics have the dress pinned together (sans sleeves) in what I hope it will look like. I decided to gather them Corded style, so wonderfully explained by The Dreamstress...though, I did mine by hand instead of machine.

pretttttyyyyyy!

 I really like the cording method rather than a running stitch. It's way more secure and delivers the most gorgeous gathers! I do believe I will use this method of gathering from now on.

Notice the cream yarn? I'm using it for my cord instead of real cord. Why? It doesn't have a tendency to bulge, requires a very thin channel and I have a ton of it. Yay thriftiness!!!

Le View de Side

You can kinda see the cording on the skirt portion in the side view ANNNND you can also see the Apron-front line. I decided to do something a little different than the typical apron front bodices I've seen. I got the idea from the dress Marianne twists her ankle in.

I understand this is not Marianne, but
it is the same dress, just from Persuasion (2007)

Now, I realize that these pics are not of Marianne, but for viewing purposes, the stills from Persuasion (2007) are a lot more illustrative. The bodice piece is a gathered trapezoid creating a more seamless effect, so in theory, you won't be able to tell if it's an apron front or not... but we'll see how sneaky I actually am later on, when it's closer to finished.*crosses fingers*

See how the lines are angled?

I'm still not positive on the style of the sleeves yet. I'm torn between elbow length or cap. Sometimes I wish I could do both, but it would look rather silly.

Early Regency Dress, start-up

For my first Regency Dress, I have chosen to do a really simple style to be as a "basic" dress for my wardrobe.

It's a simple cotton print and I believe it might be mattress ticking, but it's awful thin. The fabric is pretty sheer and wrinkles easy, as you can tell. I've got 14 yards of it, so if I mess up, there's more to use! My only fear with the fabric is how stiff it gets when you iron it. I washed it twice to get the sizing out and break it down a bit. It turned to a lovely drape, but the ironing is kind of worrisome. Darn stuff.


For the style, I turned to one of my favorite movies. I really love the dresses in the 1995 Sense and Sensibility. Most have the slightly lower waistline and very drapey fabrics that make my heart go a flutter.

I love the drawsting neckline and sheer fabric

It will be more full like this gown,
and will also have 3/4th sleeves

The entire dress will be handstitched; like the short stays and petticoat I made to go under it.

Bodiced Petticoat: Finished.

Finally, I'm getting around to posting this! I finished my hand-stitched petticoat right before Christmas and took pictures on Christmas day. I'm set with the undergarments and am ready for the real dressmaking now!

side view

me being goofy

ick, I look very ticked off. but here is the front.

Back view

The entire garment is stitched by hand and made of a white cotton bedsheet from a hospital which was bought from a thrift shop.

In Progress: Late 1790's Bodiced Petticoat

Well, I'm not entirely sure that it's 1790's but the overall outfit will be. I started this project on Monday and have spent many many many hours in my sewing room trying to finish it so far. It is made out of a bedsheet from a hospital:

kinda spooky...

The sheet cost me $1.50 from a thrift store and had more than enough fabric to do the job. The bodice is a modified stays pattern, lined with the same bed sheet and is entirely hand-sewn. The skirt is attached only with pins at the moment...

Front Bodice

The best pic of the side I could get

It will have a waistband, to bring the bulk of the gathers down a bit, for a smaller waistline. I also didn't notice that the bodice of my petticoat is smaller than my stays until looking at the pictures for this post. :-/ Oh well I guess. Anywho, that's my progress!

Regency Short Stays, finished.

I recently finished my short stays and I am pretty pleased! This is the first time I've only done an entire hand sewn garment. GO ME!

Pattern: It is a self drafted pattern based off of the Sense and Sensibility "Regency Underthings"
Fabrics: I have no clue what the outside fabric is, but it is like canvas. The binding is the same "canvas-y" fabric. They are lined with muslin.
Other Materials: 14 Zip-ties for boning, hand quilting thread
Time: Patterning, 20 min. Fitting the gussets, 2 1/2 hours. Sewing, MANY MANY HOURS. Binding, 6 hours.
Stitches: Mainly saddle stitches, except the binding.
Cost: $2 mystery fabric + $1 muslin + $1.50 thread + $2 zip ties= $6.50 total.

Here's some more pics and then I'll talk more about it.

Sorry again.

What I like:
It is amazingly comfortable. It is quite effective. It was a relatively fast project (if done by sewing machine). It was relatively easy, being my first run with gussets. It has a pretty back. Some of my stitches turned out fabulous, after I got the hang of it.
What I'm okay with:
It's an odd color of creme. There's some puckeryness around/on the gussets. Ironing took a while to navigate the zip-ties/bones.

What I would do different:
I would have used 3 layers of fabric, to prevent the puckery. Used a fabric that I could identify. I would have made it a little smaller. Make sure that the front was even (it goes slightly downhill on the right side).

What I'm going to do: 
I plan to do some flossing on the stays in a light blue or just a white, but I'm still not sure how accurate that would be?

Some pretty stitches

Thanks for reading!

Regency Short Stays, in progress

A few of my friends and I have decided to have a Regency era Tea Party where we will all make our own outfits and wear them during the tea. On Monday I started on my ensemble, and this is how far I've gotten:

Sorry for the explicit nature of this picture.

I based them off of this picture on Flickr. They are completely hand-stitched, with muslin lining and zip-ties for boning. Pretty good for 3 days of work. I've yet to sew the straps, button holes and binding but I do plan on getting that done this weekend. I was also thinking about adding light blue flossing to make it a little prettier, but not sure how accurate that would be.

My initial goal was to get by with little-to-no boning, and thought that maybe cording would be better, but I found that without the boning it was far to flimsy. The diagonal bones under the bust really make a difference in the shape and support.

This was also my first run when it comes to gussets. They're actually not that hard! I was so surprised after finishing them. The hardest and longest part was the fitting to get the right shape.

I also decided to add some stability to the back of the stays to make it feel better and I think it adds a little more visual interest as well.

So about the flossing/embroidery, does anyone know when it start appearing on corsets/stays?