Costume College: Friday Day, A Dress From A Movie

Yeah!  I got to wear my Lizzie Bennet wedding dress Friday day.  Oh my heavens was in comfortable!  I think that Regency is my new favorite era!  I didn't feel mooshed into a corset because my stays were not tied very tight!  Huzzah!!  It was also very fun doing my hair all curly like around my face.  I felt that it really softened the lines between my face and hair.  Anther fun aspect of this era...no tight buns or itchy wig!  Hahahahaha!!!

I took a lot of pictures of other costumers Friday day.  There are waaaay to many to post here so I would like to share my Facebook Friday Day album with you!

Josie was so good in putting up with my posing for pictures!  I had studied fashion plates and paintings from the Regency era and tried my best to look like the ladies of then!

Fun curly hair!

My puffy backside...we'll just pretend there was a little bum pad back there. ;-)

Huzzah for fun pom-poms on flat, comfy shoes!

Wedgie picture!  Hahahaha!  Too funny...

Oh what fun!  I am now a part of the Regency Ladies Wedgie Society...thank you Jennifer from Festive Attyre!!  Too fun!

Several fashion plates showed one lady from the front and one from the back.  What a great way to show both sides of the dress! 

I love this picture!  Looks like a Jane Austen scene to me!

Be blessed my friends!

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Elizabeth Bennet Wedding Dress: Complete!!

Way back in April, I started on the Lizzy Bennet Wedding Trouseau from the 1995 P&P.  Well,  yesterday I finally finished the coat from the wedding dress!  (Well...I would really like to find a piece of lovely lace for the veil like Lizzy's....)  But anyways....Huzzah!!!  I had been on my back last week with my annual back tweeking, so I didn't think I would be able to finish the coat, let alone do any sewing at all!  But thank God, my back is almost 100% back to normal!!  Yeeeeaaaahhhhh!!!

Anyhoo, here are some images of Lizzy in her fabulous dress as a reminder:

Image source: The Enchanted Garden Tumblr

Alas, I cannot find the source of this image....

My coat.  There are of course some changes that were made.  The tab across the front is larger as it has to cover the waist band of the dress...and the buttons are ivory with a sparkly center.  I tried in vain the locate buttons that were similar to the originals, but no dice.  I have looked high and low for a cross like Lizzy's and finally decided to use a silver cross that I already own!  The lace is left over lace from a Lizzy Wedding bonnet that I made for a client.  My Mama selflessly sacrificed a length for the project.  Thank you Mumsy!!

Some wonderful images of the dress at Lyme Park as taken by the Paula who writes Podheim Blog.

Emma wearing Lizzy's dress.

I'm kind of stressing about the back and how far out it bumps out.  I think it is the thickness of the fabric and the amount of fabric that the coat uses.  But there needed to be that much to go around the dress.  So.....

I did find some examples of the back of pelisses that did stick out this much in fashion plates from this era.  Then I remind myself that this is a movie recreation and not an exact replica of an extant garment, so my desire to have it era correct gets to relax!  Yeah for that!!!

Patterns I used for this pelisse:

I modified Butterick 6074.  The hem of the spencer was too long so it was cut up quite a bit.  Then of course the neckline had to be altered to slope down towards a separated center front.

For the skirt of the pelisse, I used the skirt part of this La Mode Bagatelle pattern and slit the front piece up the center angling it from top to bottom.

The fabulous shoes that I got off of eBay.  I found this awesome Regency Shoe Hack from The Bohemian Belle and decided that until I can own a pair of American Duchess Highbury shoes, these will do nicely!  I will be making a fun cockade for the top of the shoes to cover the base of my tooties...

When I get back from Coco, I am going to add some petersham to the top of the shoes and the place where the side seam in extant examples is placed...but for now, I am happy to have some Regency looking shoes!!  

Onward and upward to my Gala dress!

Be blessed my friends!

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Elizabeth Bennet's Wedding Dress: Part 3

I finally got the skirt attached to the bodice and all hemmed nicely in place!  I LOVE THIS DRESS!!!!  It is so pretty and sweet looking!  I am having trouble locating just the right buttons for the front and tab of the pelisse, so that is causing me to stress a bit.  But I know that they will appear at just the right time!  

It has a 4.5" hem which is about what I have seen on extant dresses.

Jennifer from Historical Sewing helped me with knowing if it was ok to pleat the back.  She found several instances where the skirt was pleated not just gathered, which I really wanted to do...the pleats were smaller and more centrally located, but I love the way the back on this looks!

I was in a panic to find just the right fabric for the pelisse as the original looked like a jaquard and as I live where I live and am limited by the stores I have here, things were looking grim.  The dress fabric is a very interesting color...not white and not ivory, so matching online would have been a nightmare.  I was in JoAnn's and found this fabulous fabric in the red tag section!  Laaaaaa!!!  Clearance how I love you!  I had to get some from two different stores as not one store had enough...that's ok, I have it now and it matches the dress fabric perfectly!!!

Pretty jaquard fabric for Pelisse!

OH!!!  I soooo cannot wait for this outfit to be complete so I can try it on!!!

I have a few projects for clients that I am wanting to get done and sent off so I can concentrate on my Costume College outfits, so I will be putting this away for a couple of days...Sigh...how I want to work on this! But, soon I will be back!!

Be Blessed my Friends!

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Elizabeth Bennet's Wedding Dress: Part 2

Well, as usual, my aspirations for a project were waaaaay too grandiose, but that's ok.  I had hoped to be done with the dress yesterday, but Thursday I decided that I needed to re-do the fasle drop front panel...it was too straight across the top and I wanted to to be scooped a smidge.  So, I re-did the original panel and it was to short, so I had to make an entirely new one.  Then I added the sleeves from the La Mode Bagatelle pattern and they were too long, even though I cut out the "short" sleeves.  I ended up using the sleeves from the lSense and Sensibility pattern Simplicity 4055 and I love them oh so much better!  

After making the adjustments, I tacked on some lovely antique lace along the neckline and moved on to the skirt.  This morning I pinned the skirt to the bodice just to see what it would look like.  I pleated the skirt to the waist band (that is so funny a word here as the waist band is up under my bosom and not even remotely close to my waist...) and I think I really like it!  I have to do some research to see if that was done back then, then I'll try it on and see if it looks good on my person then I'll sew it on!

Emms is super tall so I can tell that my hem is going to be very deep...

Close up of the pleated panel...

Another view that gives a good example of the fabric and how the woven stripes look...and of course the lovely lace!

Pleating in the back....I really like this!

Even though this dress is typical "Regency White", I still love how very elegant it is turning out to look!  Can't wait until it's done and I can try it on!!!

Be Blessed my Friends!

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Elizabeth Bennet's Wedding Dress: Part 1

Well, yet again, my perfectly laid plans have taken a left at Albequerque!  And that's just ok.  I have put away my Ruth DeWitt Bukater boarding suit as I discovered the other day that I only have 3 months before Costume College.  That's not 3 months of straight sewing time...oh no.  Two months of summer falls in between now and the first weekend of August.  So, after a moment, couple of hours of sheer panic, I called my friend Josie and she talked me off the ledge of costume craze.  Thank you my friend!  We now have our Coco wardrobe decided upon and I am feeling very happy.

Enter my first outfit to work on.  Lizzy's wedding dress.  From every image I have seen of this outfit it looks as though it is a one piece outfit, but I plan on making mine two pieces.  A dress and a pelisse.  

This image is off of Pinterest...alas, I cannot find a reference for it....I even did the reverse look up thing on Google...no dice.  I need to find fabric for the coat, lace, and fun buttons like the original.

My awesome fabric is a brand new, King sized, Egyptian Cotton flat sheet that I found at a local thrift store!  It is perfect and oh so soft!!  I love it!!  It has a super lovely weave so the stripes stand out.

I'm using the faux drop front view from La Mode Bagatelle pattern.  The original image looked as though it had pleats on the front panel so I did that with mine!

I had some issues with the back/side seam as my body shape isn't conducive to this style I guess, so I did bone it so it layed flat.

I am hoping tomorrow to insert the sleeves and start on the skirt section!!

Yeah for Regency and Elizabeth Bennet!!!

Blessings my friends!

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