new task.

Tidy house - everything has a home! Well nearly, have to get up to the loft with the excess mannequins, and one two other pieces are fighting back but closer to being tidy than usual.

In honour of this sad state of affairs  I have set about being busy and making new mess.


Started this yesterday evening as a quick make.

the back works best as usual!

Stitching again! And yes, it is a dress.  Not a full blown project. Just a dress. The proportions of the purple spencer have bothered me, perhaps what it needs is a context, to be part of an outfit rather than a quite extreme separate. 

Three ideas of Regency dress - I was thinking of the first as classic Jane Austen (been watching Pride and Prejudice again), uber high waist, straight skirt; but time-wise the second is a little late -1830s, the waist line is lower, the shoulders wider. The fashion plate - Ackermann's Repository 1825- is about it - high waist but not extreme, flaring skirtline. They are very similar once you get below the ornament but the differences are quite telling. That's fashion for you.

 

Based on the same pattern pieces as the purple spencer ( summary of the posts on the first of the pages tabs), changes were made to the bodice piece – the 3 darts have been extended to create decorative tucks giving the central focal point, as on the 1825 dress, obviously the opening is now centre back and has to extend into the skirt if I'm to get it onto the body. The skirt is the same pattern for the pink and dotty but scaled up, again without the centre front opening. Sleeves are taken from same pattern for the spencer's sleeve caps but gathered over the head and at the cuff. The skirt is tacked on at present – it needs to be lifted on the left and resewn to the waist. It wouldn't hurt if the bodice was shortened by about a centimetre as it looks more like the 1830s example. It does not look right without a sash or waistband.

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It's worked in calico which again it has its own ideas, the bound edges have come out neat but quite clumsy in scale, redo or decorate and pretend it was a design feature?

Even though it is tighter at the waist than the spencer there isn't the distinctive triangular shape of the 1820s, yet. The idea of a drawstring in the waist to help with this is very nice but would it bunch up the fabric rather than gather it elegantly?

Just put the 2 together – what a difference! Worth the trouble.

 

 Ornament for the dress? - should be rows of something at the hem - hate the idea of flounces or lace but might have to grin and bear it.  Have been experimenting with crochet edging just to give texture but not sure.