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Saturday 3 March 2018

Making a Regency ensemble: Foundation layers


Over the past few months I’ve been working to research and create a foundation layer for the 1810’s. To be honest, this strikes me as a really difficult era to do well, given the very... extreme silhouette. Having recently become an official member of the Regency dance group at Fort York though, I now have an official sewing goal to which I can work!

Out of the garments, on my list right now, I have a chemise stays, and a bustle pad (so little!). My old chemise didn't work for this, as the neck was too high and the body too narrow, so I had to create a new one. I also recently completed a petticoat/slip, because the most appropriate gown fabric I have is quite sheer, and definitely needs the extra layer underneath!
Now for pictures:

 
Stays. These took a lot of drafting to figure out- this will be the subject of an upcoming post.[update: the post is here] Not a lot of cording, but they work well and I'm glad to have finished them! I think I learned a lot making them.
The bustle pad. In real life it is so tiny it's comical. I made it completely out of leftover scraps from other projects (except for the tape ties)- it's even stuffed with scraps!

Chemisette, made of some great super cheap cotton gauze I found on Queen St. In this photo I still hadn't gathered together the frill. I put it onto a separate band in the end, with whipped gathers (but I hemmed it beforehand for no apparent reason). That frill took way too much hemming. What's more, I have a second layer of frill sitting around half finished. Maybe it will become part of this at some point... maybe.




Stay tuned for more info and updates on newer parts of the ensemble soon! (for real this time).

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