Regency!

I've finally joined the bandwagon and made a Regency dress and spencer!  Here I am wearing it at a Pumpkin themed tea event.  The dress is mostly the Sense and Sensibility pattern with some alterations recommended by Katherine and others.  The spencer is Period Impressions (though I had to make up my own sleeve as I had a ton of trouble with their sleeve shape.)

I was inspired by spencers made by fellow costumers like Lauren and Stephanie as well as this fashion plate

So here I am!

I had a truly wonderful time and can't wait to make more spencers and open robes to wear with my dress!

May Welland visiting dress

I was inspired by the dress seen several times on May Welland in The Age of Innocence.  Mine is made from a black with white stripe cotton and some white ribbon with black pick stitching.  Patterns are the Truly Victorian natural form era jacket bodice, a heavily modified Hermione overskirt, and the basic natural form underskirt with two tiers of pleats trimmed with ribbon.

 

 

 It needs a white ribbon belt or something for when I wear it next.  The front is too plain.

Hat is by One of One Creations https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1148722603028.2023366.1376476474

Crocodile bustle dress

Last year I found a red satin embossed with a crocodile print.  So crazy that I had to have it!  I was inspired by the Pingat red day dress at the Kyoto Costume Institute.  My version is the crocodile fabric paired with a plain red taffeta and black venise lace with tassel trim at the hem.  Bodice is an altered Truly Victorian late bustle bodice and the skirt is a heavily modified Truly Victorian 4 gore underskirt. 

 Here is a close up of the croquet mallet harness I made out of one wide belt, one cannibalized thin belt (used as the shoulder harness), some brass D-rings, a scrap of black vinyl fabric, and some brass stampings.

Dashwood helped keep the fabric in order

Madeline dress

For the Steampunk World's Fair this year, I made a new evening bustle dress inspired by the gown Madeline wears in the film Interview With the Vampire, and a dress someone made and wore to Costume College 2008.

The bodice is a Truly Victorian with no changes.  The skirt is a heavily modified combination of the Truly Victorian 4 gore underskirt and the back of Simplicity 5457 (OOP, but easily found on Ebay).

I made a corset!

I'm taking a pattern and drafting class at school, and today I completed my first corset.  I drafted up and modified an 1892 corset from the book Waisted Efforts by Robert Doyle.  Of course it fits me better than my dress form.

Undergarments

Here are a few undergarments I've made for my historic costumes

Laughing Moon Bustles and Hoops pattern:

 

 Truly Victorian #208, plain with ruffles for a petticoat

 

 Laughing Moon Bustles and Hoops pattern:

 

 1830's corded petticoat, no pattern -just help from internet friends

 

Regency bodiced petticoat, altered the Butterick 6630

   

Half stays and chemise from the Simplicity 4052 Regency undergarments pattern:

 

Butterick B4254 This was a first try, so be kind!!  I KNOW it's laced wrong. (Panniers commissioned via Ebay, but it's been so long I forget who made them).

 

Late 18th c. rump pad, Wingeo #216 (worn with 18th. polonaise)

 TV 170, view 1 bustle petticoat  Ugh, what an awful photo.  Sorry!

 

I've also made an early steel bustle with attached petticoat (TV 108) and a late steel bustle with attached petticoat (TV 101), but I don't have photos of them.

You'll also note a sad lack of corsets.  I'm currently taking a pattern drafting class and am making my first corset now.

misc accessories

I've made a few things to compliment my outfits:

Bustle coat

My regular winter coat does not fit over my bustle dresses, so I was forced to make one that would.   This was before Truly Victorian came out with her fabulous bustle coat pattern. 

Made of velvet, interlined with cotton quilting, lined with moire bengaline

Here's the inspiration.  It was a free pattern online.  It wasn't to scale and needed major tweaking!

 

Chemise a la reine

Koshka the Cat got a bunch of us all hot and bothered to make a late 18th c. chemise a la reine.  It is a gown made popular by Marie Antoinette as an alternative to the constrictive, formal court gowns required by ladies of her status.  Though it was considered shocking at the time - it seemed as though the queen was compromising her dignity as Queen of France by appearing in her undergarments (chemise), it quickly caught on, as evidenced by portraits of the day.

Marie Antoinette

 Princess Louise Augusta

 

 Lady Elizabeth Foster

 

And now here's my version.  I used the Wingeo pattern, which I admit I didn't love.  There were actual pieces missing from the pattern and the sleeve wasn't right (wayyyyyyy too big) :(  Thanks to Koshka's advice, I got it finished.

 

And here I am with Koshka, without whom this gown would not exist.

 

And here are the undergarments to go with:

Chemise and short stays (though I should wear regular, long stays with this)

Then the cotton petticoat

 I also made a small bum pad to keep the back of the dress from collapsing above my rear