Colonial Christmas Dress

I tried to make this dress as period correct as I possibly could (well within reason). The bodice is lined with linen and the dress is made out of 100% silk dupioni. I hand sewed a blind hem on the over skirt, the trim was also done by hand. As well as some eyelets in the back.
Making this a doll dress was the next best thing to making a full size costume:)

What I would wear if I could...

Live in the 1830s.......Well I probably wouldn't wear the gloves or use the paraosl today, but you get the idea:)
I created this collection with polyvore and all these items I found on pinterest.

Bleak House

I watched it for the first time, over the course of a couple of days with my mom and my dad sat down with us the first night, he still has a few more episodes to finish. I don't really like Charles Dickens stories to much, but after seeing Bleak House I must say that I like it the best and I love the dresses of course :)
There was one important detail that didn't make sense to me though. How did everyone who read Lady Dedlocks letters know that she had a child when Nemo didn't even know? I if he didn't know then it couldn't have been written in them! I'm going to have to read the book to figure this part out, unless one else can explain to me/knows the answer?:)


I  think I like this one out of all Esthers dresses the best.

My mom and I liked Lady Dedlocks main green dress best.

Moving on to Emma's Picnic Dress

I don't know when I'll do this dress yet as I need to sell some dresses before I buy more fabric:) But here are my plans.
 I picked out some green silk taffeta and I am going to use embroidered lawn as the overlay. Then there is the flyaway trim around the neckline, I'm not sure what I am going to do for that yet. I'm having a hard time finding some, I found one that I like but it was around $40 a yard!! I did find one possibility on Martha Pullen's online store....

Possible trim

Emma Dress Completed!

This dress went together quite well and I was able to match the stripes up on the skirt on my first try! I was really excited about that :) I used Sense & Sensibility pattern, only thing I changed was the neckline, I just cut the neckline out more square then rounded.

The Fabric Has Arrived / Regency Stays

The fabric for Emma's dress arrived Sat. ! Since then, I have cut the dress out and started the sewing bodice, hopefully I'll have a finished dress to blog about by the end of this week.

Regency Stays, after all my regency dresses you would think I would have made some stay's before now..... 

I finished my first stay's using Sense & Sensibility's simplicity pattern with a few small changes. I used piping instead of boning for 2 reasons 1, being it's more comfortable 2, cheaper ;) I added piping underneath the bust and changed the style a little bit for the straps.

Period Dresses on a Smaller Scale

I'm finally getting back into my sewing mode, its just been one thing after another that has kept me from really getting a move on with my sewing projects. I spent most of yesterday and today sewing.

I now present you with these doll dresses, that I modeled after period dresses.

Enjoy!

My Next Project/The Results

Emma's pink archery dress and green picnic dress tied with the most votes.
So, I'm going to start with Emma's archery dress. There aren't very many good pictures of this dress online, so I had to watch that part of the movie to figure this dress out. The neckline, has lace along the edge sewn on top rather then underneath. The bodice has four darts (two on each side), that was one thing wasn't sure about because in pictures it looked more like the front of the bodice and skirt were all one piece.
While searching pictures I found this blog that has a tutorial for the hair style that Emma had when she was wearing that dress. Some of you are probably familiar with it.
I'm also, looking for a brooch to complete the outfit. I found one on etsy that might work, but its a little more then I wanted to spend. So I'm thinking of making my own...

This is the fabric I have picked out. 

In the picture and in the movie the striping looks to be a darker pink but during the archery scene you get a close up of her sleeve and the stripes are white.

The brooch

The brooch, I determined has two chains that dangle down, one of them has a clamp of sorts to hold her dress up a bit and the other is decoration.

Sense & Sensibility~Pride & Prejudice

I recently watch the 2008 version of Sense & Sensibility and I couldn't help but smile at the similarities between the dresses in this movie to dresses in the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice. I had a hard time getting/finding good pictures of the dresses, so you will have to watch both movies to see better ; )

Elinors dress is gathered and not as flat, while elizabeths has darts and lays flat. They both have the same embroidery in the back too! 

Okay, this isn't a dress...but these jackets are virtually identical only difference that I found was that the collars are slightly different. Elizabeths has a crinkled look while Elinors is smooth.

These dresses are identical too, except for the fabric obviously. Both dresses look elegant on them, but I think this style looks more flattering on Elinor.

Here's a link to a full veiw of the this dress.

There were some more outfits in these films that were similar, I just pointed out the the more obvious ones.

While looking through pictures for this post I found other similarities in outfits with other Jane Austen films. Funny thing about these movies is they had different costume designers! 

Another "Elizabeth Dress"/ Gotta love her dresses:)

This wasn't on my sewing list, but when I found fabric that was similar to this dress I couldn't pass it up. This dress is one of my favorites in this movie and more authentic for regency era then most of the other dresses in the film. 

you'll notice my fabric is a darker green, but they both have the very similar woven in striping. I got my fabric (in the clearance/sale page) from Reproduction Fabric. I made up my own pattern for this dress using Sense & Sensibility regency pattern as a "guide line".

The dress closes in the front with draw strings and a small "waist-band" with a placket on the side. I had a hard time trying to find pictures to help give me a clue as to how this dress closes, I new it had a draw-string at the neckline but I couldn't see/find anything else. Most of her other dresses close in the front with buttons and waist-bands, but this dress and her white ball gown are the only ones that I couldn't find evidence of how they close. So it made sense that they would close they same as the others.  After I determined that everything else came into place.

My dog got let out to come see me and my sister has a habit of snapping pictures without my knowledge, but it turned out to be a nice picture. Which is why sis will snap pictures without my knowledge because I always end up liking one of them.