Regency Jewelry: Lover's Eye

 A Lover's Eye pendant, or "eye miniature", is one which contains a miniature painting of the eye of a lover, given to the beloved as a keepsake and reminder of the giver's love.  Legend has it that the practice started with the Lover's Eye given to Maria Fitzherbert by the Prince of Wales in the 1780s, as a token of his [forbidden] love.  Lover's Eyes came and went quickly - the fad lasted only from the late  1780s to about 1820.  

A Lover's Eye could be a pendant or brooch, or could be embedded into an everyday object, like a toothpick holder or cosmetic case.  

AtlasObscura

Philadelphia Museum of Art

I fell in love with Lover's Eyes as soon as I saw them.  They're so delightfully weird!  I decided to make my own.  

I started with a pendant setting I bought from Etsy, with a press-in acrylic cabochon.  I used pearl beads and a pinback I had in my stash, and I drew the Eye myself using pencil and Prismacolor colored pencils.  I cut off the bail from the pendant setting, turned it sideways, and glued a pinback to the back of it. Then I placed the Eye drawing into the setting and pressed the acrylic cab into it to seal it in.  Then I glued 4mm pearl beads to the setting all around the edge of the setting.  

Pearls are often thought of as symbolic of tears in Lover's Eye jewelry;  it's thought that an Eye surrounded by pearls and looking out through painted clouds symbolizes a deceased or lost loved one.  I decided to dispense with the symbolism and go with pearls for my Eye simply because I love the look.  (Although I guess you could say it symbolizes my dead love life as a whole, hehe).  

Here's my Lover's Eye brooch.  I'm really pleased with the way it came out, and I can't wait to wear it.  It doesn't represent anyone in particular, as I have no secret lover;  I was just fascinated with the concept and wanted to make one of my own.  I wish there wasn't a gap in the pearl beads;  that bothers me.  And I think next time I do this I'll make the eye smaller so there's more space around it.  And of course, I'd like to get less superglue on my hands when I do these kinds of things, heehee. 

This was a fun little build;  I'd love to make more and maybe give them as strange little gifts.  My roommate suggested making a Monster Eye and then wearing goth-Regency for Halloween, hehe.  I think I might make a googly-eye one just for grins.  

A Regency Petticoat

 The new white Regency dress I'm working on is VERY SHEER.  I needed some proper undergarments to wear underneath it for modesty's sake.  I have a chemise, but Regency chemises only come down to about mid-thigh; the stays will only offer protection around the bust area.  

So over the weekend I made myself a long petticoat to wear under the dress:  

I based the pattern off of basically every Regency petticoat I've seen online, both extant examples and bloggers' recreations.  It's a simple column, wider towards the bottom.  The top of it sits at the underbust, and 1" straps hold it up.  

Because the shape was so similar, I used part of my basic Viking apron dress pattern to shape the body and skirts, because it's what I had and I didn't feel like starting from scratch.   

At first, I accidentally made the thing WAY too short - what good would it do me if it barely went past my knees?  So I eyeballed it and added an 18" panel at the bottom.  

Then it was too long, because eyeballing is not measuring.  I took a 1-1/8" deep hem, and then added a 1" pleat about 1" above the hemline, to shorten it.  Now it's the perfect length.  

The front closes with a tie that I can tuck inside the petticoat.

In this picture, the waistline is pinned to my dress form to hold it up - I really need to find the time to alter my dress form to be actually shaped like me.  It's close in size, but not remotely similar in shape.  

The cotton voile is itself very sheer;  I'm hoping that the voile and the dress fabric (also a very sheer cotton) are enough together that I'm not flashing the whole world when I wear this outfit.  I've also noticed that the voile clings to everything it touches - I hope I don't have that problem with the petticoat and the dress! 

So that's the petticoat done. Technically my underwear is all finished now, although I really do need to replace my stays.  The current set is too big, and while it does the job, it doesn't do the job well.  I need to make a smaller set.  

But for now - on to the dress!  I'll show you when it's done.  

 

A New Hedeby Bag

 Are you tired of my Hedeby bags yet?  I'm not.  I used the scraps from my Agave Viking dress to make this new bag:  

I used the silk ribbon scraps from that agave dress to decorate the top of the front of this bag.  The inside has pockets on both sides this time.  

The handles came from this bag: 

I just never really fell in love with this bag;  I think I could make it MUCH nicer by using some olive wood handles and a red cord to string it up with.  But until I do that, this one's out of commission - and I used the walnut handles on the the new agave bag.  It just balances the colors better there.  

Meanwhile, I love the new bag, with its silk ribbon trim.  The strap is a whipcord I wove from green cotton yarn.  The handle attachment and the stitching around the edges are embroidery flosss, DMC 501 teal.  I like the color scheme on this one way better than the old one.  

1831 Pink Reticule

You know how much I love making little bags.  Here's a new one, not exactly Regency style but close enough:  

I used this pattern, from 1831, from this website.  A little old for Regency, but I figure the design probably goes back a ways.  And if not, it's still a pretty shape and a neat design.  The bag is triangular - three sides, which come to a point on the bottom.

My fabric, a cotton sateen with a pink and gold embroidery, was taken from an old Elizabethan coif I made for the SCA approximately one million years ago.  There was no way I was going to wear this thing;  I basically just made it for the exercise of learning the pattern.  Once I took it apart and ironed it out flat, the fabric was just enough to do this three-sided bag.  

Isn't that pretty?  I've always loved this fabric.  I got about a third of a yard of it from a friend forever ago, and have used it for small projects off and on, including the Elizabethan coif - that was the last thing.  With three sides, it was a little tricky putting the drawstring in, but I figured it out.   

Here's the finished bag.  Tada!  I love the shape, it's so unique.  The ribbon and tassels are the same shade of green;  the ribbon looks brighter because it's reflecting the light really strongly in this pic.  I love the green ribbon and tassels with the pink and gold embroidery.  I'm working on a white-and-blue Regency outfit at the moment, and I wanted something that wasn't blue to go with it, to add something that helps the outfit not be so monochromatic.  I'll show you that soon!