Regency Mourning Gown

Regency fashion isn’t a style I particularly care for but as I have somewhere to wear it, the Jane Austen Festival Australia, I have made several regency dresses. I needed some evening wear for the festival and eventually I came across a fashion plate that I liked: a half-mourning gown from 1812.

I couldn’t find the fabric I wanted in Canberra and was nearly ready to settle for a too-heavy light blue fabric when, on a visit to Cootamundra and I found a lovely purple fabric which has a beautiful drape. I also found in Cootamundra the striped white for the sleeves and a textured white for the under-bodice.

I scaled up a pattern for a regency dress from The Cut of Women’s Clothes (I think it was diagram 37) by scanning the page and using a data projector to project the pattern onto paper so I could trace it at the size I wanted. I then adapted the pattern to make the dress from the fashion plate.

The white under-bodice is basically a rectangle sewn into the sleeve holes. The overbodice is secured to the underbodice in the front as well.

 The ribbon lines were sewn on by hand.

The dress does up in the back with hooks and loops. I usually wear it over a bodiced petticoat.With my other regency dresses I have gathered the skirts in the back but because this one was a bit fancier I decided to use pleating instead.

The fashion plate has a trim around the hem. Originally I tried to replicate this trim by gathering and twisting a long strip of fabric but it didn’t create the right effect. The first few times I wore it the dress was without trim, because I hadn’t worked out how to do it. I ended up making 50 florets from the same striped material as the sleeves and sewing these close together to form the trim.  I used this method for the florets:

Cut a circle of fabric

Use an anti-fraying agent around the edge

Sew gathering stitches around the edge and pull into the middle and secure

To attach to dress sew three beads over the gather point

It took 49 florets to go around the hem.

To make the fancy sleeves I cut a small sleeve cap and two rectangles. I bound the cap and the long edges of the rectangle. Then, when sewing it all into the sleeve hole I folded the rectangles around the cap and slightly gathered the short ends of the rectangle in the seam.  

I based my turban on this one from the 1980 BBC Pride and Prejudice series. 

I began by making the shape I wanted out of gardening wire and wrapping it in batting. I wound a long strip of my dress fabric over that, hand sewing to hold it in place. I left an edge hanging out to fray and decorated it with a string of silver bauble wound around at intervals. I secure the turban to my head by running bobby pins through the string of beads. 

I also made a matching reticule.

The Difference a Deadline Makes

or All You Need to Know to Write Essays on the French Revolution

In 2007 chemise dresses started appearing all over the costuming blogosphere. I decided to follow the trend and make my own. I had received The Cut of Women’s Clothes for my 18th birthday (pro tip: having an 18th birthday is a great way to start a sewing library) so I used the diagram from that (based on this dress) to cut out my dress. It’s largely made up of rectangles, so I didn’t make a pattern. There is a lot of fabric in the dress and it all has to be gathered by drawstrings at the neck and waist. I left out the mid-chest drawstring from the original because I didn’t like the way it looked.

My hair has the leftovers of blue dye in it – doesn’t quite manage to look like 18th century hair powder.

The dress is made from white voile which has fine gold threads running through it. I used purple lace to trim it and purple satin for the sash and hat. The dress is worn over a corset and petticoat. The petticoat is two rectangles of fabric gathered to a waistband.

The corset was made from the pattern in Period Costume for the Stage and Screen but unfortunately my pattern scaling skills weren’t up to scratch and it ended up being too small. It was still wearable, but the lacing gap is huge. I mean to make a new 18th century corset but I am unable to get my head around the horizontal boning. I left that feature out of this corset, but I do think it would be better to include it. I bound the corset by hand and did the eyelets by machine. The outside fabric ended up being quite baggy so I realised it needed to be constructed differently. Now I use this method for 3-layer corsets.

I trimmed a straw hat to wear with this dress and for evenings I wear it with a turban (which should probably have a feather in it).

My chemise dress won 3rd place in the Canberra. It was finished in a rush the day before entries had to be delivered because I put in the entry form before it was finished and then proceeded to get distracted by other projects. It turned out to be quite easy and didn't deserve being put off for most of the holidays.

I've worn this outfit a few times at the Jane Austen Festival Australia.

This style of dress is known as a chemise a la reine, and was made popular by Marie Antoinette. As with everything she wore, it was criticised for being against the values royals were supposed to uphold. In this case, chemise a la reine was thought to be immodest. Some of her other outfits were criticised for being too fancy, or not fancy enough. The poor woman just couldn’t win.  

The above teachable moment was brought to you by a high school presentation and a university essay – because knowing your fashion history is an excellent way to get a handle on historical politics.