ORS Retreat

Just to throw this in off the bat, I'm all Graduated! Yay!

So, events for this summer: The ORS' Regency Retreat! (for which, I am SO excited)

http://orregency.org/retreat/retreat12.htm

 I'll need an entire regency wardrobe, for i've nothing fit to wear, and there'll be balls and parties every night!
Fortunately, the Winter Retreat they held in 2011 had this list of suggested garments:

 - 1 nice ball gown
- 2 evening ensembles
- 3 day gown ensembles
- An apron for messy workshops.
- Night clothes
- Slippers for indoor wear 
- A comfortable pair of outdoor boots to go with your daywear
- A spencer, cloak or redingote
- A bonnet

With the summer retreat there will be a picnic and so a Bathing Costume is required as well, and will be this year's competition piece.
Now with some clever regency techniques I can reduce the amount of gowns I need to sew. By having a day gown with detachable sleeves or a chemisette can be transformed into an evening look by removing the two modesty items, revealing a lovely short sleeved, low decolletage evening look! There, one dress, two looks.
So, I've been brainstorming like crazy! I've come up with a vague idea for a Gowns. The bathing suit might prove the most difficult, but we'll see. Also, I wonder, since it's summer, if I will actually need a spencer, or if a warm shawl should be sufficient.

So for Day gown 1, I have some inspiration:

I really like that the dress on the right is so bright and colorful, such a contrasts to the gauzy white gowns ubiquitous in the Regency. It's only decorative element is the contrasting yellow thread it is sewn with.

I'm thinking that I will combine the V-neck of the printed dress and the matching chemisette with the Raspberry gown and make the sleeves less bulky and the skirt more full at the back.

To make this process even more complicated I am also attempting to be an Economy-minded Seamstress and only use Fabric I already own.

Now to think up Day gown 2...

Titanic/downton abbey gown

In honor of the titanic centennial year, and the general desire to have a lovely downton themed evening gown I put the pedal to the metal with my graduation showcase and made one! What do you think?

Naughty time!

What do you get when you combine 14 hours at school, with corsets, and racks upon racks of Edwardian theatre costumes? A test drive of the merchandise!

Pemberlies!

The pemberlies have arrived! With lots of time to spare before the regency ball. I am currently trying them out in my home with my silk stockings and petticoat. They're a perfect fit! Though quite slippery at the ball of the foot. I cannot wait to get started on dying them! I love that they're a blank canvas.

Beautiful Dresses!

It's Beautiful Dress Time! or BDT for short.

This sexy little number is what is known as a Robe a l'anglaise. from the latter half of the 18th century. (17980's or so)  Beautiful cotton fabric with a metallic embroidery design. Center front closure and 3/4 sleeves, which may have once had a few flounces on them. The bodice appears to be tabbed at the hem and, though we can't see it, the neckline is probably deep and rounded.

Now, what's so confusing about this gown is that it appears to be depicted with Pocket hoops as the skirt support. At least, that's what I believe. The silhouette of the skirt is pretty square, all things considered. The fullest part is not at the hips, like you would see with a bum roll.

This is the back view of the same dress, the square hips are really obvious here. And the skirt train seems 'collapsed'.

The silhouette of this gown is beautiful, and misleading. White cotton fabric, embroidery that runs vertical, what appears to be a train, puff sleeves and a below bust waist line are all details of 1805-1810. The wide sash isn't typical of the time, but not totally implausible. What's so strange is the fullness of the skirt. It must be shown over a relatively full petticoat for the time. I love this dress and shape and I am a stickler for accuracy. How can you not love it? It's beautiful!

Education, 7:00am, what is this?

That's it, Autumn is coming, it's official. It becomes official when Starbucks brings out their pumpkin spice lattes.

This means that I start school tomorrow. Which means little time for personal sewing. In theory I could update with what I am doing in school, but since this blog is accessible from my facebook, and I have classmates on there, and we have a not so healthy competition going on.... maybe not?
We'll see.

Let's see, a beautiful gown of the day...

This 1910(ish) beauty has hand embroidery, applique's and insertion lace. It's an overdress, which would have been worn with a colored slip underneath. The Princess cut is absolutely gorgeous. I think it is very similar to this plate, which I found dated for 1909

The gown on the left with it's vertical decorations and high waist are evident of an attempt to bring back the empire waisted gowns of the early 19th century. Something that was just succeeding when WWI brought it to a halt and the style completely changed to reflect the new world mentality.

**Note** My photo collection of gowns has been the work of several years. I don't always know where I got an image from, though I do wish to give proper credit. I apologise, any infringment on copyright is unintentional and meant only for educational purposes. I will say that the first photo (I think is from a private seller [Vintage textiles?] who noted that the neckline was only pinned to be square and didn't fit like that)

Inspiration, where for art thou?

Fall is coming so quickly! I cannot believe that summer is already over, tomorrow is september 1st, and soon I will be breaking out my Autumn decorations. I do love fall, the beautiful colours, the smell in the air, pumpkin spice lattes...bliss
More importantly, this season (by season I mean fall/winter/spring) is already looking quite busy. There is School, Halloween, Jane Austen's birthday, Christmas, Titanic Centennial, and a Regency ball to sew for.
I'm already feeling concerned, last year I was so busy with school, there was no time for personal sewing and I desperately want to commemorate the Titanic centennial by dressing up (it's not like there will be another one any time soon) I really want to go to the Regency Ball, which will be my first ever! Halloween, of course speaks for itself, and finally Jane Austen's birthday. A very important event with JASNA, I will be giving a presentation on what the Dashwood's would wear, and I need to sew for that...*phew*
So, I had better get busy.

I am totally in awe, and inspired by this lady's work. http://bridgesonthebody.blogspot.com/ I want to try that kind of project! And I really want to say a big thank you to her, she gave me the answer my teacher could not. How to scale patterns up from a book if it's not on a graph and you don't want to free hand it. I knew I could use a projector, but there had to be something easier, I thought of scaling up at a copier but staples wouldn't do it and said they couldn't, but she mentions way at the beginning that she scaled it up 200% at a photo copier, then another 200% of that!
Mwahaha.
I did it today, and it was so perfect. I cut the pieces out individually after copying them the 200% and angled them to fit on the one 11X17 piece of paper. All in all, including many trial and errors, I paid only $1.68. Not bad, not bad.
So, first corset will be...

(Picture from Dreamstress's blog)

I tried this corset once already, it turned out okay, a bit big, and I didn't really finish it neatly, or use the right fabric, or anything like that. The silhouette was right though! That's all that really matters. 

But now, I know more! Round two, begin!