A mint green 1810s ball gown

                                                                    May 2021

I bought this fabric several years ago, at Shepherd's Bush market, and gave half of it to my friend Alfhild. She hasn't done anything with hers yet, but I had already decided that I wanted to make a Regency ball gown from it.

It is cotton, with small dobby dots and a narrow silver stripe. The silver stripe inspired me to choose silver fringe as embellishment - there really isn't enough fringe on modern reproductions of historical gowns in my opinion :)

I got the fringe from this Etsy shop. And I also found a small piece of cotton velvet at my favourite thrift store which matched the cotton muslin perfectly. So I decided that the gown should get a sleeveless spencer, for variation. The large shawl is BTW also from that thrift store: the Pentecostal second hand in Mölndal.

And I also found a small piece of cotton velvet at my favourite thrift store which matched the cotton muslin perfectly. So I decided that the gown should get a sleeveless spencer, for variation.

The spencer is made with a lighter green silk lingng, so it is fully reversible

I make all my regency outfits by hand, and when hand sewing you can sometimes do many things at the same time - so the hem was hemmed, the fringe attached, and small beads sewn to the hem at the same time.

On this photo you can see the beads, it is however the neckline, which took a little more work. The edge opf the neckline is encased in a strip of the fabric, through which a ribbon runs to adjust the fit of the neckline. The cat is Kenya, the most social/clingy cat that I have ever met.

The turban is made from remnants of the cotton muslin and the velvet, and I used the instructions on the Oregon Regency Society's web site.