Regency: New Jewelry and A Repair

 Here's a beaded necklace set - necklace, bracelet, and earrings - that I made a couple of weeks ago.  This started out as just a bracelet, but I had LOTS of these teal beads, so it ended up being a whole set.  

The beads are plastic, and the chain and fittings are gold-colored brass.  

I'm planning on wearing my white Ikea Matilda dress for Halloween this year, with a teal ribbon and this teal jewelry, and a teal shawl I plan on ordering myself for my birthday.  However, the Matilda dress still needed some work:  it was about 3" too short! 

I needed to add a panel to the bottom of the dress, but I didn't have much fabric left.  I had to piece the panel together, which made the stripes not match up.  In order to draw the eye away from this - and hide the seam - I added a row of puffs to the bottom of the dress.  

It's period, it was easy and quick to do, and it camoflages the added panel very well.  

Now the dress is finally ready to wear! 

Regency: White Ikea Dress

 Long time no see! It’s been about a year since my last entry. Dunno if anyone will even read this, but blogging is fun whether you have an audience or not. ;)

So, I’m still in the SCA and still making Viking clothing. I haven’t done much new since the last time I was here, in that vein - I made a new apron dress because I outgrew my old ones (again!), but I don’t have pics for you at this time. 

What I do have is a buttload of new Regency/Empire stuff, starting with this white round gown: 

This was made with Simplicity’s S8941 pattern, by American Duchess. It’s a 1790s-early 1800 round gown with a drawstring closing front.  The pattern is designed for a woman of about 5’4”, and I’m 5’9”, so I did a lot of adjusting and lengthening. The biggest changes I made were to the bust, where the pattern was too small for my rather ample bosom; and to the overall length, because of the height thing.  (American Duchess has a great post about fitting this pattern).

The fabric is from an old set of IKEA’s Matilda sheer curtains. It’s basically a cotton voile with a woven stripe and dot pattern. It’s very sheer, so I wear it over a long full petticoat; eventually I intend to create a couple of new busted petticoats in different colors so I can alter the feel of the dress. 

I love the way the dress came out. It fits perfectly, and it feels great to wear. I think the only thing I don’t like is the way the back of the bodice is pointed in the back - it’s totally apropos for a 1790s gown; but I think the next time I make this pattern, I’ll straighten out the back.