Dressing · History

Just a quick pic from the 1940s Wimpole at War event last weekend. There was a jacket to go with this as well, but I managed to leave it in the staff room most of the day...so I was a teensy bit cold. But I love the waistcoat so much that it didn't really matter.

Excuse the rubbish lighting and the odd expression =P

Well I got home last night (and just as well by the look of the news...thank goodness no one was hurt). I only stay for the first four days, I need to be a Wimpole on Sunday and there was nothing else I hadn't been to before.

The Dressing Hisory stall at the Queen Square Traditional Fair was a great success, so I'll be needing to reorder quite a few things now. As a matter of interest, is there anything anyone would particularly like to see? Coloured stockings/particular patterns/different eras of hats?
The stall looked like this btw...
( Image of the stall hiding under here )
 

I also went to the 4 Sydney Place event, which was very interesting...and a great privilege to see inside.  The house is beautiful, and the room much largers and grander than I had imagined.  You know the Elliots' house in the 95 Persuasion?  Not so very different.  There is also talk of the Holburne Museum taking over the bottom two floors and making it an extension of the museum...a sort of Jane Austen Museum III.  That would be wonderful I think, although the only thing she really wrote there was the Watsons, its obviously a very important part of her life and who she was.

So...what did I wear?  Well I never finished the expensive but amazing outfit, because there was an awful lot of handsewn detail that I really didn't want to rush.  I'll do that for next year now.  I did, however, make a 1795 robe in Vanners Silk which I copied from a fashion plate in a book I have which is a bit too fragile to scan.  The underdress is in spotted muslin (not printed, but actually stitched).  I'll put some pictures up of that on its own one day.  I would like to point out that my hair had fallen out a bit by this point.  (The picture was taken at about 5pm, and I'd done my hair at about 7am...)  I'll probably put up some more pitcures of the robe on the dummy when I get around to it.

Anybody know anything about C17th dress, particularly 1640s, or know any good resources for it?  Pictoral or documentary, both would be useful.

PS.  Post-JAF post coming tomorrow =]

The Haberdashery section of Dressing History has been redesigned and now contains our clocked stockings and our new range of patterns!  Some very exciting new additions to start off what will hopefully be a very successful month!

Has anyone used/seen used their 1837 - 1840 dress pattern?  Somebody had bought it and wants to use it for an 1843 Christmas at Wimpole costume.  I have heard many many bad things about them, but I've not seen this pattern before.  Is it any better than the rest? 

All this JAF prep has got me very into regency again...and I wondered what everyone's favourite ever regency costume was?  Anything anyone has made/seen on screen/seen in a portait or fashion plate that really made them fall in love with regency?

Well the clocked stockings will be available...next week! 



Thats my prediction anyway, so everyone who is interested, you need wait no longer.

My new pattern series, starting with my 1800 Day Dress, will be available this week, unless it rains so much that I cant take the photos in the studio, which is now at the end of the garden because, apparently, photographic lighting and backdrops aren't suitable for a dining room.  Soon to follow are the 1843 Day Dress which is revised, improved, expanded and adapted from the Wimpole Instructions.  I will also have an Open Pelisse Pattern ie one with bodice and skirt in one all the way around available soon, the final version of which will be viewable at the Jane Austen Festival, with any luck.

Still lots and lots to do about JAF mind you...but I'll get there in the end.

I've never done any before so I thought I'd have a go...





Hope you like them...please comment/credit and all that =]

Is there anybody out there who know how to knit/knot/net a purse/reticule c.1800-1815?  All me attempts are rather dismal at the moment, so anyone who can give me any advice or point me towards somewhere/one who can would be very much appreciated!

Serena

(who is getting very nervous about getting everything finished for JAF...)