Dress Progress, or The Lack Thereof

Much to my distress I am having a difficult time with the bodiced petticoat. It is quite hard to envision darts without any sort of real guidelines - or at least that is the trouble I am having. Hopefully I can conquer them tomorrow and finish the petticoat and chemise over the weekend.

An exciting bit of news: the lady at Austentation is mailing my hat tomorrow, and she said it should arrive on Tuesday. I'm so happy! Now if only I could get my hair permed before Easter, it really would be a Marianne Dashwood Easter. But we shall see.

In other sewing news, Dr. Byers has once again requested a jacket for him to wear while driving his 1930 Ford Model A. If at all possible, he needs it by April 11th, which does not give me much time. To make matters worse, there is not a pattern to be found to make the jacket quite like he wants, and black wool gabardine seems to be a scarce commodity! I did find a handsome ready-made, but the price tag of two-hundred-and-fifty needed more than a spoonful of sugar to make it go down. Though perhaps lack of time and proper materials to complete it will make it sweeter? I must admit that I am hoping so!

So, hopefully I shall have pictures of the underthings before too much longer, and then the dress - time is running out!

In Christ and Mary,
Jessica

Voile & Linen

I decided that my original plan to wear the dress I ordered for Easter, and make the Picnic gown for Emily's wedding wasn't a good one. Instead, I'm going to make the Picnic gown now to wear for Easter and Emmy's wedding. So, today I went to JoAnn's in search of a light-weight cotton, and some sort of peach-colored material. I found the most beautiful voile, with a cross-stitch type design on it for the main dress...

Unfortunately, there was no peach to be found, and since waiting and checking back probably wouldn't change anything, I decided to buy some white amaretto linen (a linen-rayon blend) and dye it myself. So, a package of 'Sunshine Orange' RIT dye was purchased, and here is the first rinse...

And here is the finished dye project, next to the voile so you can get an idea of how the dress is going to look...

For the white dress, I'll be using Mrs. Chancey's 'The Elegant Lady's Closet' - the drawstring version, with elbow-length sleeves. For the pelisse I'll either adapt her pelisse pattern, or use the Regency gown pattern. I'm not quite sure yet. And, since I don't have the proper Regency underthings, I shall be constructing a chemise, and bodiced petticoat in white muslin.

Hopefully tomorrow I can start on the chemise and bodiced petticoat while I wait for the new patterns to arrive.

Much love and prayers,
Jessica

Dressing for a Wedding

Just the other night while doing some research, I was reminded of the lovely shop selling hats and bonnets similar to the ones worn by the endearing heroines in the Jane Austen films - Austentation Regency Accessories. Being an admirer of Marianne's outfit in the picnic scene in Sense & Sensibility, I finally decided to purchase the hat.

Of course, the thought process from the buying of the hat to necessity of making the gown to wear with it took place within seconds. No sooner had I arrived there, than were my thoughts rudely interrupted by, "Where shall it be worn?" I always manage to create an event, but it does get rather dull doing that ~ knowing that you will be one of the few in period clothing.

However, by Divine Inspiration, I remembered Emily's wedding in April. So, as long as Emily doesn't mind my wearing a Regency gown and hat, then I have a wonderful event to wear it to!

In the mean time, I have my Easter dress to alter, some scrub tops to make, and maybe some dresses for the little girls (inspiration from April Cornell!). Perhaps some new, pretty aprons for the Soup Kitchen, too.

Much love and prayers,
Jessica