Regency: Blue “Elinor” Dress

After all the work I spent March and April doing on that blue Norse dress, I was ready for a Regency palate-cleanser to reset my brain. 

In February I bought two more packs of IKEA’s “Matilda” sheer cotton curtains on clearance that I planned to use for a new  gown, but at the time I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it - until I watched the 1995 Sense & Sensibility for the hundredth time and saw this: 

Yes, that’s a photograph of my television, lol. I THOUGHT that I couldn’t find a pic of this dress anywhere online, so I watched the miniseries again (oh no!) and took this picture. It turns out that the reason I couldn’t find it was because this is a green dress, but in this particular scene it looks so perfectly gray-blue, like a stormy sky, and THAT is what I wanted. 

bodice front before dyeing

I used the Simplicity S8941 for this one, just like the white one I made in 2022. I love the way the dress feels, and the way it fits me; this time I made the skirt a bit longer (the 2022 dress was too short and I had to add a panel at the bottom), and I made the sleeves full length this time, which took a bit of re-drafting. Most of the dress is machine-sewn; although I did finish the hems and sleeve cuffs by hand. 

Once it was finished, I dyed the whole thing. I opted to dye it after I made it because I wanted the white cotton twill tape drawstrings to be dyed as well, and I didn’t feel like trying to dye them separately - I didn’t want to risk messing up the color. I used Rit Dye’s Pearl Grey and Evening Blue (2:1), with a couple of capfuls of Teal thrown in to warm up the color just a bit. I’m super happy with the way the color came out: 

The color didn’t come out exactly 100% the way I was envisioning; but I LOVE the color I ended up with SO MUCH.

All done! This was pretty quick - it only took me about two days to sew; the dyeing process was done in the washing machine and took about half an hour and then a complete wash cycle to finish it off. 

I think for my next Regency trick I’ll make myself a new hat. I’ve always wanted Marianne’s big hat from the 2005 S&S with Kate Winslet. More S&S! Yay! Stay tuned…