"Muslin always turns to some account or other"

I wasn't planning to go to the Jane Austen Festival this year. I had something else on that weekend and I figured that Jafa's on every year so I'd give it a miss and come back with some new dresses next year.

And then they announced that it would be the last one. I couldn't miss that.

So two months out, Lady B and I (and Lady B's family) bought tickets for Sunday. After getting some Life out of the way we started sewing with two and a half weeks to go.

Lady B was making herself a ballgown and open robe. I needed a new daydress because I've worn all the ones I have at least twice now. That, and I had the perfect fabric set aside and this would be my last chance to use it. (Without Jafa, I never have to do regency again! 🙂🙃🙂)

My fabric came from Patchwork on Parker in Cootamundra. My mum found it one time when she was there without me and, after a quick SMS consultation, bought 4m – enough for a regency gown. The fabric instantly reminded me of one of my favourite dresses from the BBC Pride and Prejudice.

I had to re-jig my standard regency pattern (adapted, probably now unrecognisably, from figure 37 in The Cut of Women's Clothes) to go with my new 1815 stays. Which meant raising the waistline and lengthening the skirt and widening the bodice to allow for the gathering. I first thought of making it drawstring but decided that actually I would rather get the gathers arranged how I like them, then make them stay there by sewing them to a tape.

The skirt I knife pleated to the bodice – largely by guesswork (ie redoing it over and over while the night got later and later).

I couldn't tell how the dress from the show did up the back. I suspect it may have been buttons, but I don't so much care for buttons (they are uncomfortable to lean against and require the making of buttonholes) so I went with self fabric ties. So, after 10 years and 6 dresses, I finally have the archetypal regency plain, pale muslin dress.

It's really boring.


I also assisted Lady B with fitting her (much fancier) ballgown. Once more, those patternmaking classes paid off and I'm getting a hang the 'art' of it. After imitating my teacher by staring at a pattern going 'hmmm' to myself, and having some wild moments of 'I think it needs this adjustment – no that's ridiculous – but I think it will work", all the issues were successfully solved as they arose. We finished our gowns on Friday night in the hotel room in Sydney (where we were for the other event of the weekend).

Lady B is on the right in her new gown. Photo by Steven Shaw. 

We had both booked in to a 9am session on the Sunday morning and after getting home from Sydney the night before – well, frankly, we were probably better rested than if we'd been at the Saturday ball. The talk was about Jane Austen's faith and representation of the church, and how her value of a sincere personal faith came through in her letters and novels.

Then came the picnic where we were joined by Lady B's family.

Happily my spencer suits my dress very nicely. The fit worked surprisingly well given that it was made for different stays.

Then back for a class on making fly fringe:

And time to get ready for the ball where I re-wore my 1830s silk ballgown.

Photo by Steven Shaw

I was especially happy with how my hairstyles turned out for the day.

Time to trim the threads

The Canberra Show has come and gone. I entered two items: the Amygdala onesie and my 1830s ballgown. Because the Show no longer has the Costume or Historical categories, the only options for my garments were Winter/Summer Garment and Miscellaneous Sewing. I won second prize in both categories.

Now is probably a good time to mention that this blog is likely to be going on hiatus for a while. I mentioned in my review of last year that I had been spending more time on music and I've kept doing that to the extent that I'm pretty much not sewing at the moment. I never like it when blogs I follow just stop, leaving no clue about what happened to the person behind them, so I want to say what's going on at the moment. I do not know if this new interest is likely to last a few months, like the brief obsession I had with nuclear power plants the year before last, or 15 years, like costuming.

Here is the last thing I sewed: a quick cover for my pillbox hat so I could be a
'lady going to a funeral' at a dress up party with the theme 'Somewhere else to be'.

If I sew anything in the coming weeks or months I will come back and post about it. I miss the blogging. For now I don’t feel a need to be sewing; even though I have unfinished plans, I am (unusually for me) content with that. Maybe a silk Victorian ballgown was the final boss and I won the game. I can do this and I am good at this; it's time for a new challenge. But I also enjoy writing and without sewing to blog about, I don't have the same opportunity for that. Writing lyrics isn't quite the same thing (especially at beginner level – so don't expect to see an original song on here any time soon).

Anyway, this is my farewell, for the time being, from this particular venture. I wasn't expecting this, although I began to have some suspicions towards the end of last year that sewing wouldn't be my primary focus much longer. However I wasn’t certain enough to say anything then. But now it's well into the year and I have no sewing to post about so it seems time to put down a milestone.