Gallery:

January 2004
Feeling very much like a "heroine" at my Jane Austen tea.

Dress Diary :

Summer 2003
I love the Empire era - especially the early part, circa 1800-1805. My sister and are hosting a Twelfth Night Jane Austen Tea again this year so it's the perfect time to make a new frock!

Gown Inspiration

This gown is not to be a copy of anything, per say. It is basically my dream dress - the embellishment from here, the train from there, the sleeve length "like Elinor's" etc...

I love the clothes from the film Sense & Sensibility so I'm going for the same lines and overall look of Marianne and Elinor's wardrobe.

I have also been very inspired by a lovely gown in the Colonial Williamsburg collection. I've been fortunate enough to see this gown in person multiple times and I fell in love with it's use of color, embroidery and it's simplicity.

Details,Details

I was able to find a lovely light olive green 100% cotton for $1.50 a yard. It is very thin (almost sheer) and soft to the touch. I love this fabric!

I know the color is a slightly odd choice for the very white Empire / Regency period but colored gowns were worn and this fabric just jumped out and said "buy me!".

I'll be using patterns from Jean Hunnistt's Period Costume for Stage & Screen: 1800-1909. I'll be using the 1800 bodice, the straight sleeve and skirt with a train. Rather than line my thin fabric I am going to wear an (un-boned) bodiced petticoat underneath.

I plan to embroider the sleeve hem, as well as the skirt hem with designs from Embroidery Designs 1780-1820. This book was a true find - a must if you want to have period designs for your costumes! Unfortunately the book is now out of print but is easy to find used online. (Try Alibris or Barnes & Noble Used)

Oct 12

I have been extremely lazy this week about sewing. Haven't done a thing! I've been in the mood to sit and cross-stitch so that is what I have been doing. At some point I will be kicking myself because I want to wear this gown and it's not finished but there you are. I was feeling guilty so I did some embroidery testing, while I had the "stitching bug".

Both designs are taken directly from Embroidery Designs 1780-1820. Both are worked in running stitch, chain stitch and French knots. I used embroidery floss - one strand of white rayon and one strand of white cotton. I love the way the rayon "sparkles" (especially in candlelight) but have found that adding some cotton, makes it a bit easier to work with. The hem design is 3" tall while the sleeve design is 1" tall.

I'm excited - I can't wait to see the embroidery on a whole frock!

Nov 4

I made the mistake yesterday of looking at a calendar and counting the days until my party, (the party I need this outfit for). Ahhhh! Where is my straight jacket!

In my panic I began to feel guilty that so far I haven't done anything but test embroidery for the actual dress. So I sat down and scaled up the patterns.

For the bodice I am using Hunnisett's 1800 bodice and 1805 straight sleeve. I was having a hard time deciphering the JH 1800 skirt (it's probably very simple but my brain is refusing to comprehend it) so I will be using the skirt of the 1799-1805 Morning Dress from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion instead.

Cheater Scaling
I decided to give the "scanner and graphic program" method a try. I'm just too lazy to try the draw by hand method. I'm a crappy connect the dots person and I don't have any large paper anyhoo. I know if I go to Kinko's it will be a $10-2-hour-adventure and I'm not feeling up to it.

The scanner method turned out to be super easy. I simply scanned the page in (using a black & white, low dpi resolution). I then popped the picture into a graphics program with rulers (MS Publisher in this case) and enlarged it until the squares matched the 1" ruler. I then printed it out. All told about 10 minutes worth of work. I took the print outs, laid them on the table (not even bothering to tape the pages together) and traced the pattern into tissue paper. Pretty cool!

I'm now ready to cut out and sew up my first toile. Of course there is no point in doing that until the corset is finished so I guess I better work on that first. I hate these "horse before the cart" projects. At least my guilt and panic have been relived a bit. *wink*

Nov 19
Now that the corset is finished I can finally turn my attention to the dress. I have cut out the toile of the bodice, sleeves and their linings.

My original intent had been to make a dress out of the green cotton gauze and then make a under-dress/petticoat to go underneath. I've changed my mind and am going to line it instead. There are lots of reasons but one of the main ones is time. I simply don't have time to wrestle with and finish every seam on that cotton gauze. Lining it is much simpler and just as accurate so (for once in my life!) I'm going with the simple way.

Nov 21

I finished fitting the toiles tonight. The actual bodice was easy - just one toile. It is pretty much gathered to death so fitting wasn't a huge challenge. A little big, well just pull the gathering threads in!

The real challenge turned out to be the lining. I knew I didn't want two layers all gathered so the lining needed to be fitted. I couldn't find a pattern for exactly what I wanted so I took the original pattern, slashed it to death, sewed up the slashes and fitted it on Narcissa. This took some time and a couple of toiles but I managed to pull it off. The lining isn't a perfect thing but it's an under layer so I'm the only one who will see it anyway.

I sewed the lining and bodice toiles together and then tried on the sleeve toile. It was pretty much perfect - yay! It is a little fuller towards the bottom than I want but that is easy to fix. I'm ready to cut my fabric!

Nov 22
I spent today cutting my dress out. My brain must still be getting over my cold because it has taken me all day! I am puzzling the skirts out as I go, so that has slowed me down. Sometimes I long for the simplicity of actually using a pattern! :>

I way over bought on my fabric. I bought something like 10 or 11 yards and that turned out to be much to much! I was going by the OWE pattern, which calls for 9 yd. I figured, I'm tall so add a yard for length and an extra yard just in case (it was only $1.50 a yd). Well I now have a rather full skirt, a 15" train and almost 6 yards left! That pattern must be laid out funky, or I've done something wrong. Oh well! Maybe if I take the color out, I'll have fabric for a new Empire dress next year... *wink*

Tomorrow I'll start sewing the dress. I decided to sew the whole thing up, mark the hem and then start embroidering. Trying the make sure the embroidery goes on straight and the skirt isn't too short and such on paper was making my head hurt. So I'm going the "organic-touchy-feely" way. That means the dress needs to be pretty much together before I can embroider and I need to start that!

Nov 23

It is very late at night but I had to tell someone -my dress is finally looking like a dress!

I really could not be more pleased with it so far; it's actually what I wanted. The fabric is so soft and drapes surprisingly well. I possibly made the skirt it a little too full though. I was just guessing how much fabric to include so I went on the "more" side. I didn't really intend the back to be that tightly gathered but it is pretty. It will just have to do I guess because there is no way I'm redoing that skirt - I've had enough French seaming and long gathering stitches for a while!

Now I need to mark the hem so I can get cracking on that embroidery. I will embroider the sleeves before I attach them. Oh I'm so excited!

Dec 31
I finally got back to this project this week. I ran out of time to do the embroidery at the hem. I'm bummed about it but I filled up my plate too much this holiday and something had to give. I'd like to do it someday though - perhaps for the next Jane Austen Tea. I wouldn't hold my breath or anything though.

Yesterday I finished up the hems (skirt and lining) and inserted the sleeves, only to discover I'd put one in crooked. Yeah. You know it's time to go to bed when you start making dumb mistakes.

Today I took out the sleeve and put it back in. I roped Bridget into doing the sleeve hems (by hand and everything). She did a very creditable job (the disgusting little wench is good at everything!), so I just have some hooks and eyes to sew on and it's done! Well, for now anyway.

Jan 1
I just finished sewing in the last hook and eye - it's done!!

Jan 2
It isn't often that a costume turns out exactly the way I wanted it to but this gown did. It was exactly the look and feel I was going for. I felt very much like a "heroine" at my Jane Austen tea. :>

Of course, there is always something that bugs me about my costumes (something to do differently next time). I made the waist a little long and that really annoys me. Also, I didn't embroider the dress as much as I wanted to. But really it's hard to be terribly nitpicky when I felt that pretty in it!