More Regency Costuming.

I have what is now my "jumper dress" all sewn, with the exception of the hem. I am going to wait and do that last as I really need to try and make a pair of stays so that may very well change the length. Should have made the stays first I know, but I do not have the material at the moment. Next I need to cut out the blouse. I am not really sure of the style for that yet though so I will work on Elaina's instead. Will be sewing/fitting her dress after dinner.

Corset and Regency sewing...

I finally have the Baroque Corset completely boned and sewn together, and I have the decorative ribbon sewn down the front seams. This is really to hide where the pieces were attached. I found JUST ENOUGH vintage blue silk velvet ribbon for this. I have all the binging cut and sewn together but just haven't been able to bring myself to sew it on the darn thing. Maybe tomorrow...

The last few days I have been working on pieces for a Regency Tea that I am attending on September 20th, with my daughter. So far I have made her a bonnet and a ruticle. I really like the later, and the hat is ok. I wish I had made it fuller in the back as I just don't think it is as poufy as it should be. I will fix it later if I have time, but it will work for now and overall it is very attractive.

For myself I have cut the dress and jacket. The dress is something of an experiment in the lacing department as I have it lacing/closing in the front. We will see how it turns out. I did not cut the sleeves large enough and I was not liking how they fit so I decided to make it more of a jumper style. I think this will look nice. The only fabric I have for a blouse though that I really like is probably not very period, and it IS synthetic, but I really like the look so I am using it anyway. I will make another more appropriate blouse for it later when I can find the right material.

I must fix it, its BAROQUE...

Yeah I know, bad joke. I am going to parlay my very much unfinished Baroque corset into the #16 challenge somehow. I will have to look through the terminology later, as right now I need to be sewing. There is a lot of it left to do (especially since a piece went missing and had to be recut/boned), and I am not completely sold on the actual shape of it. I am worried that the straps may end up being a bit too wide, and possibly the back too high. I will need to do a fitting and then decide, which would have been MUCH easier had I made it close in the front AND back, but I didn't want to hassle with re-working the boning placement. That was probably a mistake.

Challenge #16: Terminology

Yep, I did it again--which means I did nothing. Seems like life is always getting in the way of sewing for pleasure, but I am going to TRY and get something finished up for the Challenge #16: Terminology. I have till Monday so am off to sew...

Update...

It has been forever since I have been able to update. We have been very busy, and a simple move from one location to another that was only about an hour and fifteen minutes away, turned into a major undertaking that took weeks to recover from. We have been decently settled, I would say, since sometime in June, but there are still things that need to be done. My youngest son's sports took up much of the summer, and now we are into the football season and school starts next week (you can't see it, but I am so doing my happy dance). I am looking forward to a bit of quiet during the day and a chance to get into a routine again. Maybe this will give me time to actually sew.

It is almost the end of the Historical Sewfortnightly 2014, but I am going to make an attempt to get in on a few of the challenges before it is over. We will see what happens...

A few pics of girls Regency underthings.

Here are a few quick pics of the girls Regency underthings. I am basically happy with how they turned out but will make a few adjustments when I make them again. For now I am going to take out drawstring on drawers and put in elastic. No one can see it and it will just make things easier for her to manage. At some point I may replace the lace on the corset. Because it is so wide I had to snip it to get it to lay flat across the back curve but for now it will do. Elaina loved them! It was hard to get her still so I could take pics that weren't blurry.

Girls Regency underthings.

The dress I was making Elaina is NOT going to fit. I decided against taking it apart and figure I will sell it and just make her a different one, but either way she needs the appropriate underthings. I took a pattern I already had and some lovely cotton I scored at Goodwill for $2 and made her chemise. I adjusted the pattern to make it more appropriate and then used some lace to embellish it/use as casing. The lace is definitely not period but I didn't want to waste expensive trim on a child chemise. Maybe when she gets bigger. I also made drawers for modesty sake. Though she doesn't need one since she is only 8 she really wanted a corset. Since it really only covers the bust area, and I figured it would help the chemise to lay flat under certain garments, I said OK. Here is a photo of it waiting for all the handwork. It has same lace as chemise and boning at center front and one piece on seam of center back. I used scraps of the weed-trimmer string.