I Finally got to wear it!

I thought I would do a quick post for my regency bib front dress. The Family and I went to Fort York, in Toronto, back in June for the War of 1812 celebrations.  I took my recently finished dress with me so I could get some pics of me wearing it in a setting of the same time period. Although the pics aren't so great I had a good time at the fort with the kids.

 

Me looking not so impress outside the officers mess.  While I was actually wearing my dress I found a few things that need shall we say adjusted... I need to make a tuck in the bodice so the shoulder will stop sliding down.

some of the volunteers that were roaming around

the Encampment, they had 200 tents set up that weekend

The York Regency Dancers, they are based at Fort York. 

They were a  lovely group off people we had dance lesions while we were there.

And a picture from one of my budding photographers!

Regency Bib Front Dress part VI

  

It’s  done! after many days of staring at it Finally picked it up and finished it.

I finally machine stitched the sleeves in, stitched the bodice to the skirt, and hand stitched in the lining around the arm holes and

along the skirt.

 

 

I finished hand sewing the side openings, and the button holes for the front , added all my buttons

I finished stitching down the Bib and added the ties as well.

And the finished dress :)

And from the back …

Regency Bib Front Dress part V

 

 

 

Well I’m not as far along as I would like to be but alas I have good news for this post …  I have fixed my issues on the sleeve, yah!!  I redrafted the sleeve over the weekend so today I cut out a mock up of the new sleeve and took it for a test drive, I could move my arm in all the directions its supposed  to move in, it didn’t pop any seams this time and is rather quite comfy.

Pictured below is the new sleeve shape in the mock up fabric, and a picture of the final before the pin tucks were done.

 

 

 

So here we have it I’ve got the final sleeves basted in, And the bodice basted to the skirt.  The Bib is only pinned on for the moment I have a feeling that there will be some adjustments to be made here.

Thing that still need to be done on the dress…

I need to finish stitching the side openings, baste the bib to the skirt, find some thing to use for the dress ties,  place the loops for the ties on the back of the dress, and buttons for the bib.  And then once its all basted together I make sure it fits and run it through the machine.

Regency Bib Front dress part IV

So the first sleeve look good on it’s own and the bodice was good on it's own and when the two where put together  it looked ok  (once I basted the sleeve in the right way) but when I tried it on on it was a no go.... there wasn’t enough ease around the arm.  And it needed more fabric through the under arm and around to the back.

So me pinning in the sleeve... the first time ...

Since it didn't fit right I decided to try adding a gusset to the under arm (that's where it popped its stitches)

Here I got the new sleeve with the gusset basted in, felt a lot better but still not right the should keeps sliding down my arm and it could use a little more ease around my arm.

So back to the drawing board I went and drafted out a new sleeve, third times a charm ... right ...   I have yet to cut this one out, I'll do it with a scrap piece of fabric this time (lesson learned .... the hard way...).

Regency Bib Front Dress part III: Complications

Dress dairy entry for day three.  Ive run into some complications with my sleeves.  I basted my first sleeve into the opening and tried it on ....  popped 6 pins out, telling me I need a little more give in the under arm. So I'm going to work out a gusset of sorts to fit and try again.  I drafted out the rough shape I need, but being frustrated with my sleeve issues, changed gears a little bit and decided to work on my regency shift.  I will work on the sleeves on the week end (update IV to be posted on Monday).  I did manage to close up the seem in the skirt back, but don't want to do any more work on the rest on a hole until I figure out those sleeves.. Arggg :S.


There is a future post for my Regency under pinnings coming where I'll give you all the details.  But for now this is all you get  :)

Regency Under Pinnings

 

So With not one but 2 regency dresses I think its time to consider some appropriate under pinnings, Yes we're talking a corset and a chemise.  I've already made myself a bodice petticoat when I made my 1805 dress.  But its time to get down to it and get the rest in the works.

 

Now the questions is short stays or the full length ones ??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the peach stays pictured above but I'm thinking that the short stays will do.  I'm going to draft them up based on my dress patterns and some light boning (aka cable ties) for the lift and separate part of the show.  :)

Side bar - Cable ties are cheaper then the boning from the fabric store and more supportive for the shall we say well endowed.  I'm not an extremely busty person but the light weight stuff from the fabric store just didn't stand up to any long term ware. So it will hopefully look something like the one pictured lower right ( I apologize I don’t recall who's blog this picture is from)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chemise will look pretty much like these one very blah but that's ok, function over form..... right??

For my shift I'm going to try and keep the sleeves pretty short so they'll fit under my 1805 dress, and narrow to fit under my Bib front dress.  I'm not sure how long I want to make it yet, but I'll probably keep it knee length.

I’ll have to play around with some design ideas for both the chemise and the stays and see what works for me.

 

Bib Front Regency Dress part II

Well here we go, part 2.  For those of you who want to have a go at making one of these yourself The Hungarican Chick has a lot of good information and design ideas.

So here is the mock-up/lining for the bodice. I added 3 inches to the bottom of the bodice pieces so I can get the waist band just where I want it. Not up at my nipples and down at my belly button, those would be completely different dresses.

I dug up a piece of fabric in a nice light blue/green colour but alas there is not enough to make the skirt, sleeves and bodice out of it.  So it's now just a plain medium blue.  I went over to the local fabric shop and picked up some cotton lace and some random trim I may or may not use.  But as I type its being dyed blue to match the fabric for the dress. I've also have been doodling some more today with sleeve and bib ideas. 

 

I think on this dress I'm going to go with the longer sleeve or a 3/4 length.  I traced a full length sleeve pattern to play with, I'm going to cut one out of some scraps kicking around here to play with style and the length.

 So I've went with the 3/4 length sleeve and put a few larger pin tucks in at the edge, I also did the matching tucks on the hem of the skirt and the top of the bib.  Here is the modified sleeve pattern with the extra section for the pin tucks.

This is the finished tucks at the hem line of the skirt and an idea of the shade of blue.

And I got the bodice pieces all sewn together, turned and pressed.

I got the sleeves and bib  pinned and ready to run through the machine.

Tomorrow I'll work on basting the sleeves into the bodice and pinning the skirt on...  that's going to be a lot of pins.

Bib Front Regency Dress

I've been wanting to make a bib front regency dress for a while now.  As Ive had a hard time sleeping this morning I started the research part of the project.

I look at other peoples projects and Janet Arnold's diagrams and extant pieces from the museum collections.

I'm still not sure how I want to do the bib on the front yet, so I'm just going to mock up a plain one for the time being. so here are some of my drawings for the front closure and bib.

After I did my doodling I traced out my pattern pieces so they where one big bodice.  The pattern I used is the Simplicity 4055 with a lot of modification.

The simplicity pattern is ok but I wanted it more period less costume :)  here is a picture of the first round of alterations.

So here is the first round, I cut it out and stitched it together.  I found that this pattern is not designed for any one with um shall we say boobs... so

It was back to the drawing board for me.  I added 3 inches to the bottom of the bodice pieces and added a dart so it fit better.

I've got the pieces stitched together and tried it on now I have to figure out the details for the bib and find some fabric to make the dress with.  I'll post some more follow up pics tomorrow.

In the mean time I'm open to suggestions/pics for the bib design.