When you’ve got an arms-length-long list of projects that all have deadlines, the only thing to do is start another project quick. So here’s a tutorial for a raspberry regency reticule!
Exhibit A for what happens when one makes a new pair of regency short stays right when one is coming down with a flu and is taking lots of cold-and-flu medication. You might get what I got: a pair of regency RIBBON stays.
One long piece of white lace trim with a moth-nibbled middle makes… two short pieces of white lace trim! Here’s a tutorial for a pair of 1790s chemisettes – one with ruffles down the front and one without, suitable for any early regency sartorial vibe!
A sewing friend gifted me a pair of sheer voile curtains to see what I could make with them. One became a ruffled 1780s apron and the other became a white muslin summer mantelet!
One of my favorite 18th Century costume references is this portrait of Olive Craster by Sir Nathanial Dance-Tolland. I love the puffy blue stomacher bows. I love the enormous pearls worn high on her neck. I love her pet squirrel. But mostly I love the lace mantelet that she is wearing over the top of all of it! When I found this embroidered silk fabric I reckoned it was MEANT. Let’s see if i can make the blonde silk gauze mantelet from the portrait!
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it another wrapping gown? It’s the Fitting and Proper Chintz Banyan! Let’s talk about how to put it together.
An 18th Century short-gown is the same sort of garment as a bed gown, except, well… shorter.
Sort of. Mostly. Sometimes.
Here’s a well-dressed woman in her 18th Century bedgown, hanging out at the top of a mangrove tree. As you do.
When I was gifted a length of striped linen from Burnley and Trowbridge,I knew just what I wanted to do with it – Burnley & Trowbridge had just released a new pattern, and I would turn my summer fabric into a summery 18th Century linen bedgown!
How often do you have a sewing project that goes really really wrong?
