Reproductions

This blog is moving

2011-02-20T22:49:00.002+11:00

Dear Friends

I have moved the contents of this blog across to my main Blog at aylwen.blogspot.com and hope you will transfer your bookmarks across. For more intimate costume chatter, you can friend me at http://aylwen.livejournal.com/ .

As you will become aware, I make costumes from 1480s right through to the early 1900s, and what I am working on is influenced by what events I am attending. I am a member of the SCA, the Australian Costumers Guild, the Jane Austen Society of Australia and the American Costume Society. I attend historical costume events both in Australia and overseas and will share my experiences with you at the new blog. I collect antique clothing, and as time permits will share it with you as well.

In 2012 I will resume teaching historical costuming classes in my studio in Yarralumla. If there are any specific classes you would like me to hold, please let me know. I need a minimum of four in a class for it to run at a discount rate, otherwise can arrange individual classes at a quoted price.

Pride and Prejudice - Documentary [1/3]

2011-01-10T18:34:00.000+11:00

Casaquins & Caracos

2011-01-08T17:57:00.000+11:00

Casaquins & Caracos

Front lacing 18C stays

2011-01-08T17:56:00.000+11:00

Front lacing 18C stays

2011-01-08T17:54:00.000+11:00

Front lacing 18C stays

Keeping in touch....

2010-12-23T12:53:00.002+11:00

Dear friends
In this world of blogs, facebook, and forums I have chosen to put my historical costuming adventures temporarily onto Live Journal - please visit me there at http://aylwen.livejournal.com/

Regency period fine cotton embroidered gown

2010-05-29T22:30:00.000+10:00

c. 1810-1820
The fabric has a small floral pattern embroidered inside vertical stripes. It has a gently rounded neckline and puffed muslin over sleeves, which have been attached to the gown after the long sleeves were completed and armholes bound. The cuffs are decorated with rows of padded cording and have a one button closure. The skirt has a rolled padded hemline. The gown is hand stitched, unlined and has a tie back closure.

New content on its way...

2010-05-29T14:56:00.000+10:00

Please be patient as we are working on new content for the blog - we have some wonderful items to share with you - extant regency gowns, spencer, cloak, coat, reticules and more.... and if we manage to find the time - patterns taken from them all for you to work with!

Next Regency Gown Project by Aylwen

2009-10-21T22:34:00.005+11:00

Would you like a copy of this gown? It can be yours - as long as you're aware that to make a reproduction gown is very time consuming - from locating the fabric to copying all the details, plus there are the fabric and labour costs, as well as shipping and insurance. A dress like this is not a low-cost adventure. Feel free to discuss this gown with Aylwen.

There is a gown in Costume in Detail by Nancy Bradfield that I'll use for information.

Together with instructions for three-piece sleeves as shown on page 35 of Period Costume for Stage and Screen by Jean Hunnisett.

Jane Austen Festival Australia (JAFA): Announcement: this rare and complete Regency-era evening ensemble will be on display during the 2010 Jane Austen Festival of Australia

2009-08-04T15:03:00.001+10:00

Jane Austen Festival Blog Announcement

It is a rarity to find a set of matching period accessories, but to have them accompanied by their original outfit, is an amazing find!

This ensemble reportedly comes from the estate of Ms. Eliza Fox of Osmaston Hall in Derbyshire, UK.

The canary yellow, trained ball dress, is fashioned from luminous and heavy silk, and decorated with metallic copper threads in a corded, braid-like trim. The high Empire-waist is decorated with a band of ruffled canary silk, and also a band of the chord trim. There is a shimmering medallion of jewels to the center of the neckline, which is accented by further ruffled silk.

The dainty, delicate sleeves and low neckline create the typical look of the Regency period.

The dress is fully lined in gauze and cotton and fastens with hook and eyes to the back, along with some muslin ties.

The quality construction, and hand sewing, is yet another wonder!

The ball shoes, are made from the same shade of canary silk as the dress and purse/reticule, and are decorated with the copper chord trim in a large gathered medallion. They are a lovely, classic pair Regency shoes, with a carved wooden "Louis"-style hard heel, ribbon ties, and kid leather lining.

The drawstring evening reticule is decorated with the braided trim, and fully lined in gauze. It too, is also fully hand sewn.

The complete set is a true treasure, has an astounding beauty and romance that should never be forgotten and always admired.

Petersons Magazine, 1869

2009-07-05T14:27:00.004+10:00

Pannier Over-Skirt

Curling Ostrich Feathers

2009-05-23T15:49:00.007+10:00

I've been collecting different instructions on how to curl ostrich feathers. Here below they are presented as quotes:

"You can use a modern curling iron, plug it in, set it on low, when the iron is ready, place the feather in the iron (much like you would on hair), and slowly pull the feather through, when you pull it through you can control the amount of curl you want. Do not leave the feather in the iron very long it will burn or you will get a U curve curl. You can bend most any feather this way, just use common sense when doing it."

"The curling iron is excellent! If you steam the feather a little first, the results are even better.
If you're looking to curl the spine of the feather more than just a little, you can do it by first attaching wire (millinery wire is best), then steaming the heck out of the feather, then while it's all nice and flexible, bend the wire to your preferred shape and place it somewhere safe to dry. If the curl is really extreme, several treatments may be needed, and you may need to support the new shape during the drying process (depending on how heavy your wiring is).
To attach the wire to the feather, the suggested method is to use thread -- the thread loops around the feather and the wire, holding them tightly together and is then knotted. Move about half an inch up the feather, create another loop around both, and knot. And so on.
It's strongly suggested that you curl the spine before curling the fronds, as all of the steal usually makes the frond curls fall out."

Links to other information/sources on the web:
http://www.vintagesewing.info/1920s/28-mhd/mhd-11.html
Buying ostrich feathers in Australia

Fichu: A Regency Shawl

2009-05-23T15:14:00.005+10:00

"Fanny, William must not forget my shawl if he goes to the East Indies; and I shall give him a commission for anything else that is worth having.....I wish he may go to the East Indies, that I may have my shawl." "
- Austen, Jane: Mansfield Park

"The Empress had more than two hundred white muslin dresses. This was only a fraction of her extensive wardrobe. She changed clothes four and five times a day. It is not remarkable, then, that she owned several hundred dresses, 558 pairs of white silk stockings, 520 pairs of shoes (she never wore a pair but once), 500 lace trimmed chemises, 252 hats, and 400 shawls. She spent 3,000 francs a year for rouge and thousands more for perfumes, but she had only two flannel petticoats and two pairs of drawers!"
- "Dressing the Part", Fairfax Proudfit Walkup; 1938 F.S. Crofts & Co. (page 255)

Instructions to make a fichu:
http://ladyjaneswardrobe.blogspot.com/2007/03/fichu-patterns.html

Links to images:

http://marquise.de/en/1700/pics/1760_5.shtml

Maurice Quentin de Latour, French, 1704-1788
_Portrait of Madame Anne-Jeanne Cassanéa de
Mondonville, née Boucon (1708-1780)_, c. 1752
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/155913
Possibly the exact same collar, reused by the artist.

Reynolds, Joshua (English, 1723-1792)
_Portrait of Suzanna Beckford_, 1756
http://cgfa.dotsrc.org/reynolds/p-reynold9.htm
Lace appears to be "blonde" in three or four
layers. Probably a narrowish edging attached to
a sheer fabric; compare the engageantes.

Spencer, Gervase
_Portrait of Miss Manners_, 1760
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/objectid/O82100
Multi-layer falling collar similar to that of
Suzanna Beckford but even larger.

Copley, John Singleton (American, 1738-1815)
_Hannah Loring_, 1763
http://www.dia.org/the_collection/overview/viewobject.asp?objectid=41292
http://www.dia.org/collections/AmericanArt/pages/colonial/c3B.html
Very narrow, multi-layer frill of lace or muslin or gauze.

Copley, John Singleton
_Mrs. Daniel Hubbard (Mary Greene)_, c. 1764
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59787
Virtually identical to collar of Hannah Loring
except for ribbon used to tie collar.

Maurice Quentin de La Tour
_Marie Sallé_, 1740
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mlle_Sal%C3%A9_(Lisbonne,_Calouste_Gulbenkian).jpg

More of a steinkirk.

Regency Fashion Exhibition, Australia

2009-05-23T15:03:00.003+10:00

An exhibition of antique regency garments will be on show during the Jane Austen Festival of Australia (JAFA) in April 2010.
Watch the JAFA blog for more information.

An exhibition of antique victorian garments will be on show during the Victorian-Era Festival, 2-5 October 2009 in Canberra, Australia. See the website for more information.

Apologies for quiet-time on blog

2009-05-23T14:58:00.002+10:00

Dear All
Our apologies for lack of communication through our blog. Life has been very busy organising dances, festivals and the family - our 15-year old son is in hospital undergoing brain surgery at the moment.
As time allows I'll be adding more to this blog.
Regards,
Aylwen

Night Clothes

2009-05-23T14:15:00.008+10:00

Regency Night-Dress (1)
This garment is worn at night instead of the day shift in the cooler months. It features:

long sleeves with narrow trimmed cuffs
slit in the front fastened with three buttons equally spaced.
buttonholes are lengthways on the narrow hem.
trimmed collar that is either turned down or standing like a fichu
shoulder pieces

If the night-dress is figure-hugging, wear a muslin fichu made of "a square of four quarters of middling-quality muslin, which you fold like a shawl".
In summer a nightcap without strings is worn, in winter a trimmed serre-tête is worn underneath a cap with strings.
In hot weather the day shift might be worn with a muslin fichu that is replaced by a night jacket.

1. Grimble, Frances, The Lady's Stratagem, pg 183-4.

Sheer Muslin Gown

2009-01-12T17:32:00.002+11:00

I love the look of a sheer muslin gown. Making it, however, is another story. Allow yourself more time than normal and take it slow and easy. Keep your sewing table clear and clean, and keep any animals and children right away. These fabrics snag and stain easily, so use fine sharp pins and sewing needles.

Regency Seams

2009-01-12T16:58:00.004+11:00

Inside hem of the green silk regency gown.

Bib or apron front - note the piping and silk satin.

The cuff.

Elegant Lady's Drawstring Dress Pattern #2

2009-01-11T22:41:00.005+11:00

Make your neckline bias binding/drawstring casing from your fashion material, using the guide on the pattern sheet. Pin binding around the bodice neckline, beginning and ending at the center front and folding under the center front edges as shown in the instructions.

Stitch, taking care not to catch the bodice lining pieces as you go.

Trim seam allowance down to 1/4" and clip curves.

Fold under the raw edge of the binding and fold the binding to the inside of the neckline to create the drawstring casing.

Press neatly and pin in place.

Stitch, making small running stitches all the way around the neckline and making sure outside stitches are tiny, even and neat.

Felled Seams

2009-01-06T09:19:00.004+11:00

I have used this two-step seam method for most of the seams in the Elegant Lady's Closet drawstring dress.

Sew together the seams at 15mm as indicated in the pattern instructions. Open out the seam and trim back one of the seams, in this case I've trimmed back the fabric that was attached to the 'lining'.

Fold the outer edge in over the narrow edge and crease.

Fold again and pin.

At this point you can do a plain hem stitch.

I did a simple running stitch that suited this garment.

The Elegant Lady's Closet Drawstring Pattern

2009-01-05T17:06:00.008+11:00

This historically accurate regency gown pattern is selling through Regency Reproductions and of late some home sewers have asked if there are any step-by-step photos demonstrating how to make this dress.

Here below are some quick photos in the hope they will be of assistance. The text used with the illustrations comes from the pattern instructions.

1. Bodice

Pin the bodice back and side back together, matching notches and easing curve as necessary.

Stitch.

Do note that the side back curve ends below the shoulder of the bodice back piece. This is correct and creates an inward curve for the sleeve.

Clip curves.

Press seam toward the side.

Press and fell both side back seams (see post on felled seams)

Make a narrow hem on the top, bottom, and front edges of the bodice front 'lining' pieces. [I prefer to do a running stitch by hand here]

Pin and baste front lining piece on top of bodice front piece across the shoulder, around the armhole, and down the side seam, right side of lining to wrong side of bodice, matching up armhole edge and side seam. [my basting line is 10mm in from the edge]

Pin bodice front and back pieces together at shoulder seams, right sides together. Stitch.

Press seams toward the back of the bodice.

Fell both 'shoulder' seams.

Pin bodice side seams together ("lining" will be on top). Stitch, stopping at the first dot and resuming at the second dot.

[Snip thread between both, as long as you have knotted the thread. My machine does an automatic knot.]

Regency Seams

2009-01-04T20:46:00.004+11:00

Below are three scans taken from my silk regency gown showing how the bodice is joined to the skirt. You can click on the images for an even closer inspection. The bodice has been completely finished, with the linen lining whipstitched to the outer fashion fabric. The skirt edge has been left raw, and sewn with diagonal basting stitches.

Above: Standard view of the seams.

Above: Seam from the skirt side.

Above: Opening up the seam to show edge treatments.

Regency Sleeves

2009-01-01T16:59:00.003+11:00

Christmas brought a pleasant surprise this year, with a copy of Hovets Drakter, full of colour illustrations of costumes, and with some interesting illustrations of Swedish regency dress. Below are illustrations showing the lattice sleeve of the Swedish court gown.

Desideria, Crown Princess, 1810
Oil painting by R. Lefevre

Empire style bodice with the 'graphic geometrical lattice sleeves'.

Queen Frederika, 1802

Regency Seams

2008-12-23T12:45:00.005+11:00

Looking closely at the side back and shoulder seams you can see that they have not been sewn together in the manner you might see 18th century garments, particularly frock coats. In these garments you see a two layers (fashion fabric and lining) sewn face to face with a piece of fashion fabric, then the seam is ironed towards the single piece of fabric. Over this seam and single piece of fabric is laid a piece of lining, the seams tucked under and then whip-stitched to the existing seam.
(After Christmas I will put up an example)

In this gown it looks like a lining piece has been attached to each pattern piece, whip stitched so that there is a small amount of fashion fabric showing on the inside. Two pieces are then sewn together so that a ridge forms, and is shown at the side and shoulder seams in this photo. I cannot open the garment up to confirm this theory, but on close inspection it looks very probable.

Regency Seams

2008-12-22T15:13:00.011+11:00

Clothing construction methods were different in regency times. They did not have overlockers or sewing machines - it was done by hand. Fabric was very expensive and less plentiful, making frugality a necessity. Garments were fitted to the body and not sewn together from patterns.

Today we sew seams together by machine, right sides together with seam allowances of 1.5cm. The seams are then ironed, graded, notched or clipped to lie flat when turned, then ironed again. In regency garments in our collection the seams are narrow and outside seams are carefully finished to enclose all edges.

Bag-lining is very popular today, with lining pieces cut from a pattern, sewn together to make a garment, and then inserted into the garment towards the end of construction. In the garment below the fabric and lining have been treated as one during construction. Each piece has its lining attached to it before it is added to the next piece of fabric.

The construction methods and pattern style of these two dresses from England is very similar to an embroidered muslin dress in the Snowshill Collection c.1810 featured in Costume in Detail by Nancy Bradfield. The sleeves are very long, they feature apron-front bodices pinned at the shoulder. Both have white linen lining, the silk dress has tiny sleeves under the long sleeves and both feature narrow under-pieces at the front. Both have decorated bodices.

These photos show the side back and shoulder seams, together with the raw edges of the armscye seams inside a silk dress in our collection. In my next blog I will show how this method is done with step by step photos.

This shows the inside of a cotton dress in our collection.

This photo shows the lining of the front bodice and where the silk finishes.

Above are the finished seams of the front opening which are pinned closed underneath the bib front.

Seams joining the front skirt with the bib front. Shown here are the inside seams.

2007-01-22T21:50:00.000+11:00

Our Midsummer Nights Dream Ball was a success! Even though temperatures were higher than expected, lots of people came and had a lovely time. I haven't downloaded the photos yet, but when I do they will be on our Photo Page. The renaissance dances we did were really fun - just like dances must have been danced at the time of Shakespeare, and the band Earthly Delights was great, right in the groove. Our next ball is a Jane Austen/Napoleonic Ball on the 17th February.

Today I started sewing a quilt for the first time in my life! I've been reading about other people starting them and a friend at work is halfway through one, so I've got one of my own to work on at lunch times and on the bus. I've chosen to do a Sweet Valentine BOM Quilt, designed by Lesley at Faeries in My Garden.

Last night I started another Regency ball gown for myself, using some brown silk dupion. I'm using the Sense & Sensibility Regency Dress pattern neckline supplement, choosing the sloping neckline option, but retaining the original low neckline. I've added 10" extra on the fold to the front to pleat up - it looks lovely when pleated up, attached to the linen lining and folded over. I've got to sew in a casing for a drawstring cord so it can be fitted over my shoulders. I'm planning to make an overdress, similar to one worn in the Sense & Sensibility movie.

My daughter Amy is cutting out a new dress that will look like Jane's white ball dress from Pride and Prejudice 2005. To make this gown, simply use the Sensibility pattern, An Elegant Ladies Closet. I will be selling these from next week on my patterns page.

2007-01-19T11:32:00.000+11:00

Greetings all!

Its here at last! I've spent the last few weeks preparing for our Midsummer Nights Dream Ball - and its on this Saturday night 20 January 2007. The weather here is unbearably hot - so it's a night for cooler costumes - sprite-like ones! This morning the weatherman predicted 35 degrees C (95 degrees F). See what happens.

John has been teaching us new dances from his upcoming book focusing on new translations from Italian dance manuals. I'm finding all this very interesting but am glad to leave him to the research and teaching while I do the sewing.

I'm working on a set of Regency short stays this week. They're going together really fast. I really must recommend this pattern. I'll be selling the new stays pattern through Regency Reproductions from next week, along with some new patterns from Tailors Guide. I'm getting quite excited about the patterns - I'll be adding Regency-era patterns from Past Patterns and Wingeo in the next few months.