The page with info and more photos of my latest Regency gown is done

Nothing says Regency more than a printed cotton muslin gown, so this was actually among the first fabrics that I ordered, at the same time as the fabric for the teal c. 1800 gown. But then the directoire gown happened, and I got obsessed with Valeria's embrodiered 16th century camicia, and with finishing her Eleonora di Toledo gown.

But it is finished, and it has been photographed (as you could see from my previous post).

And now it also has a page of it's own, discussing construction, and showing many more photos. It's here!

The finished muslin gown

I will write a page about it later, with information about construction etc,  but here's at least one photo of me wearing it.

The regency muslin dress is getting closer to completion

Allt it really needs now is sleeves. I am thinking about making short puff sleeves and separate long sleeves that can be attached to the short sleeves. There's one exampe of that in Patterns of fashion, and many more in images of the period.

Photos. With cat in box.

The ties in the back will be tucked in, and tied a little looser at the neck too. This is my first regency dress without a lining in the bodice, but the originals that I looked at for the pattern were all unlined.

Sewing - a little bit of this and that

When trying on Valeria's camicia and gown I realized that they seams attaching the sleeves to the body of the camicia would be visible when she wore them together, and that this meant that I "had" to embroider over that seam too. I started a little while I was in Delft, and continued last week at home. One of the sides is now made and I have done about half on the other.

However, yesterday I got tired of embroidery, and started on a muslin gown from c. 1810. Since it's not all hand sewn (though there's enough of that too) it ought to be finished this week.

The skirt is sewn, and I have attached (by machine) the 7 metres of hand-hemmed ruffle at the hem. Now I need to make sleeves, and attach the skirt.

A very few photos from Drachenwald Kingdom Unviersity

Last weekend was Drachenwald Kingdom University in Delft. I had a marvellous time with old and new friends, and my calss on same-sex sexuality in the Middle ages was well recieved. This is not somethign I do research on myself, but built on the scholarly literature of the subject - I will post a list of suggested reading later.

I wore my c. 1300 Italian silk gown with split sides during the day on Saturday and the shiny investiture outfit at court and feast. I have just one photo of me though, a selfie at that. I was too busy being in "the current middle ages" to take photos.

Mostly of the site, which is a couple of 17th century houses that used to b used for gunpowder storage back then.

Mistress Margaret de Mey and Fru Branna från Korpåsen

The weather was nice enough to sit outside for shorter periods, so I spent some time sitting by the canal, embroidering on Valeria's camica.

I finished the Eleonora di Toledo skirt

While the bodice has been finished since April it took a while to get around to finishing the skirt. Not only because that's  a lot of trim to sew down, because that was finished this summer, but partly because I didn't have the unbleached linen I wanted to use for lining, and mostly becuase I started worting on the embroidered camicia (see last post) again.

But now the skirt is lined and finished. This would have gone much quicker if I had simply baglined dit, but of course I wanted to do it the way the original was done - apart from the fact that it wasn't lined, but I do that top spare the silk satin of the train from the dirt of the floors at events.

First I sewed a wide strip of the silk satin, the lining and the top fabric together on machine and then I folded all the seam allowances up against the skirt and whip stitched them in place.

 I then folded the silk satin strip , making it stick out about 1, 25 cm/1/2 an inch from the edge, and sewed it in place by hand.

It does take time to round 5 metres of skirt twice ;)

The I pressed it, and started cutting the edge with scissors.

Finished!

Since I probably have to take in the bodice a little I will have to wait for Valeria to come home so we can try it on, before I attach the skirt.

And the 16th century embroidered camicia is ready to wear

Though I will make more embroidery, at least around the neckline, just not right now. I will take break from that and finish Valeria's white satin Eleonora di Toledo gown. After all the only part of the camicia that will be seen in public is the sleeves.

And she's at a party, so I'm posing in it.

Close-up of a cuff:

The inspiration: