Regency Sleeves

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

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

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.

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.

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.