Dark attics, regency dresses and costume movies in Dallas / Fort Worth

Back in March I travelled to Dallas to stay with my dear friend Jen. There were two other long distance friends arriving there too for some regency fun, Elizabeth and Maggie, so I couldn't miss spending a weekend together. We begun on Friday afternoon with a flashlight tour through the attics, service quarters and basements of  Thistle Hill mansion. Most of us dressed up for the occasion, but being worn out from making the two dresses needed for Saturday, I went as a muggle. Many of these photos are from Jen.

Arriving to the mansion. Jen and Ginger looking amazing:

Thistle Hill was beautiful. I especially loved the green tiling.

The carriage house.

To see all the exciting dark corners and cozy servants' rooms, you have to take the tour, but I love this photo of Jen, so I have to share. (I think it was taken by Maggie.) She had an antique flash light. So perfect.

And how adorable was Maggie's outfit!

So graceful!

After the tour we headed to Ginger's beautiful house for pizza, Pride and Prejudice and last minute sewing. It was so much fun!

On Saturday we got dressed up and went to stroll around Fort Worth's Log Cabin Village. I knew it was going to be fun but it turned out to be unexpectedly fabulous time. And although I've never really cared much about the high waisted fashions, they definitely grew on me that day. The comfort! And with so many of us wearing bright colors, I thought we looked quite cute.

And the most amazing part. There was a live band and we got to dance! Elizabeth and Ginger are both great dancers. The rest of us mostly followed their lead and cheered.

And you all know about the Regency Ladies Wedgie Society, right?

After Log Cabin Village we visited an antique market and then went to get dressed for dinner. So many stays and petticoats in one hotel room! 

By the time we got to the restaurant, I had mostly forgotten about my camera so regrettably I don't have many photos from the dinner. Most of these are Jen's.

She wore an amazing hand painted dress. And the feather was epic!

  

Red and black, my favorite colors.

Matching necklaces.

Bingley sisters!

I loved the way Ginger dressed up her red dress for dinner.

After dinner we headed back to Gingers for another night of costume movies and that was the perfect ending to such a lovely day.

I had so much fun, ladies! I hope to see you again soon!

Shift and stays for 1810

The stays are hand sewn from cotton twill and cotton sateen with linen thread. They are bound with cotton tape and have a wooden busk and spiral steel center back bones. They are made using J.S. Bernhardt's Schnürleib Fig.C -diagram in Sabine's excellent 'Short Stays' Studies.

The shift is made from handkerchief weight linen and hand sewn with linen thread.

I had made the shift in 2009 during my (then) short lived desire to make a regency outfit. I had made the sleeves accidentally too tight and I had to figure out a quick fix to that problem. My solution was slashing open the underarm gusset and inserting a gore.

Stays details:

The neckline has a drawstring to adjust the fit.

Busk is held in place by lacing it through two eyelets on the bottom of the busk pocket.

Underside:

Why you should always make a mock-up:

Making these stays wasn't my brightest moment in this hobby. I was under a tight schedule and because the pattern is so simple, I thought I could get away with just measuring everything carefully to determine the right size for the gores. I took 2 cm off of both sides at the CF edge (4 cm in total) to prevent it being too loose and trusting my math, begun sewing it together. The finished stays fit in their own way but the shape was completely wrong for 1810.

I tried to fix it by adding two more gussets on both sides of the original bust gussets and changing the shape of them all to more U-shaped. Then I was able to wear it higher and tighten the shoulder straps more to keep it there. Because of that, the waist of the stays doesn't hit my natural waist anymore meaning the hip gores are now cut too high. And I'm not perfectly happy with the shape of the neckline now either. But they do provide the necessary support and worked well under my new riding habit. So even if they are not as pretty as they could have been, they are perfectly functional and that's the main thing.