The Ramblings of a Seamstress, Gardener, Chicken Keeper, and Housewife

I started this project last June, and just now got around to finishing it.  It'll be needed this weekend, so the deadline helped.  ;)  Initially this was going to be for me, but it ended up sized more for my friend Chris.  So she's the lucky recipient of this Vanity Fair-esque hat!


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We still need to sew some faux hair curls to the front, but otherwise it's done.  She wanted something that made doing her hair easy, and this will definitely be that!  It doesn't get a whole lot easier than throwing on a hat that already has hair sewn to it.

As for construction, it's an iridescent silk exterior, a fleece mull layer, and a straw hat's crown for the base.  jenthompson was kind enough to lead a group of us in how to make Regency turban-style hats that are permanently attached to a hat base.  If I recall correctly, the straw hat started life at Party City.  After mulling the hat, I just pinned and tacked the silk until I had something I liked.  I sewed a straight-grain band around the bottom to hide the raw edges of the crown silk, then covered the seam with the gold trim.  I curled the peacock feathers using a plastic knife (yes, that really works!) and tucked all the feather ends into a filigree cone bead.

It's nice to be making progress!  Tonight I'll be fixing some small errors on my own regency hat, and tomorrow I'll work on a chemisette and some sleeves for my dress.  I've gotta look spiffy for tea this weekend!

Total cost for this hack if you buy all-new materials: $50 or so.  Total cost for my hack, since everything came from the stash: $0


When I decided to outfit my hubby for the Regency Era, I was prepared for footwear to be the most challenging part.  Buying actual equestrian boots is terribly expensive (my eBay watch list, which I set up months in advance, yielded absolutely nothing under $200.)  Costume boots don't come in the right shape or dual colors.  Evening slippers probably weren't on the table to begin with, being as they don't seem at all 'manly.'  After much fruitless searching, I gave up on finding something ready-made in my budget.

Instead, I decided to modify some costume boots he already had.  We bought them 8 or 10 years ago for a swordsman outfit he wore to a convention.  They'd seen only occasional use since, and really no use at all since we moved to Texas 6 years ago.  So I wasn't too concerned with ruining them.  After all, they were in pretty poor shape after rough storage and weren't exactly high-quality to begin with.  Just for reference, these are the Ellie 121 Bernhard boots.  They're still sold on eBay and Amazon.

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Saturday some friends and I attended a Regency-themed event: Archery and Jane Austen, hosted by the Wylie Recreation Center.  It's unusual that a city puts on a costume-friendly event like this, so we had to take advantage of it!  Since the main activity was archery, I assumed it would be an outdoor event.  Coming on the heels of some harsh winter weather, I also assumed it would be chilly.  Well, I was wrong on both counts but my friend Chris got some snazzy cool weather gear out of it anyway!

Working from Laughing Moon #130, I made her the redingote without the cape.  Chris's only request was that she wanted something colorful to break up the all white dress she'd be wearing underneath.  Knowing she loves purple, I perused the selection at JoAnn's and came away with a velvety velour/suedecloth sort of fabric.  While it's not historically accurate, it is super soft and a great color.  Parts of the bodice call for a lining and I just used some light lavendar satin that was already in the stash.

The pattern goes together well enough, though I did find it particularly time consuming.  I did have issues with a few of the marks not lining up, but everything was close enough that I wasn't confused by it.  I made some adjustments based on Chris's body type, so I essentially cut the collar, sleeves and sleeve heads in the smallest size, and the bust and skirts in the size that corresponded with her bust measurement.  This caused a little bit of wonkiness with the sleeves since I didn't adjust the sleeve pattern to correspond with the larger-sized side bodice piece, but in the end it still fit her all right and worked out for the archery.  I did shorten the standing collar by about an inch since the pattern instructions specifically mention that it's very tall.



( More outfit and archery fun! )

Yesterday was the DFWCG's Mourning Tea.  There was a spectacular turnout!  One of our members extended the invitation to the local Lolita group as well as a local heritage museum.  Many of them accepted, and there must have been 50 attendees.  Wow!

We had a choice of hot black tea with orange and cranberry or iced mango tea.  I chose the hot tea, even though it was almost 90 degrees outside.  It's still fall, and I want those seasonal flavors!


( More pictures! )

If you were a Regency stays pattern, where would you be?

I hate having to admit this to you all, but I haven't started my Regency wardrobe yet.  I made awesome progress cleaning up my sewing space though, and today I was going to get started on my stays.  My fabric, busk, and cotton cording are all grouped in one place, in a tote, all handy-dandy.  The pattern, though?  It's MIA.

I spent a little more time tidying up just to make sure it wasn't tucked away near the supplies.  No luck.  I glanced through my patterns too, but I didn't find it there.  Looks like I'll be going full scale organizing blitz on that room until I find it.  Yikes!

ETA: Crisis averted!  I found the pattern.

I did manage to get pics of my dress fabric choices.

( Pictures and rambling thoughts ahead! )

I think I'm fairly set on making long stays for my Regency wardrobe.  I know short stays would be quicker and a little easier, and they're on my list of stuff to make too - just not anywhere near the top.  I'd feel more comfortable wearing them once I've lost some weight (and belly bulge.)  So for the present, it's long stays for me!

I've got Past Patterns 001 earmarked for them.  I know they're technically more 1830s-40s, but I think with a slight modification of the shoulder straps it would do for Regency.  Have any of you made them, or do you forsee that pattern not working as well as I think?  I don't have a specific backup plan if that's no good, but I'm sure I can enlarge something from one of the many pattern books in my library.  LOL

In any case, I picked up some white cotton sateen and Sugar 'n Cream yarn for the cording.  I still need to get the busk bought/made.  I'll probably use a paint stirring stick for the mockup, but for the real stays I want a hardwood busk.  Hedgehog Handworks sells them, but I may go to a woodworking store and pick up a bit of wood so I can sand down my own.  That's dependent on how the prices compare and how much time I'm willing to devote to it.  I'll try to get the mockup made this week so I can get going on all my other Regency projects.

I think I've settled on a soft crowned bonnet with a straw brim, but that's dependent on my finding either a straw sun visor or one of those baseball hat with a straw brim sort of hats.  I'm going to check out the straw hat selection at Garden Ridge because it seems like they almost always have those styles.  I found cheap dyed straw sun visors on eBay (green and shades of yellow) but I'm not seeing any dyed straw bonnets in fashion plates.  It's probably better to go with a natural tone anyway, so the bonnet looks better with a wider range of future outfits.  Worst case scenario, I have some straw totes I can cannibalize for the braid and make my own crown.  Buying one pre-made is just easier.

I'll get some pics this week of the fabrics I'll be choosing from for my dresses.  For the daytime outfit, blue is a big contender.  I've got some blue dotted swiss, or I could go with white voile and top it with a blue spencer or pelisse (in velvet or velveteen) or maybe a printed fabric spencer that also has shades of blue.  I like blue!  I'm still sorting out the shoe situation for that.  I've had a little luck finding lace-up jazz boots in white, but not being able to try them on before buying them worries me.  For the evening outift, I'm thinking pink.  I was lucky enough to snag some pointed-toe pink and gold brocade flats for $10 on eBay, so that decision was easy.  I've got some changeable pink silks in the stash that will hopefully be perfect!

I may experiment with a turban for evening hair.  I should be able to hide pin curls under the daytime bonnet and then arrange a passable evening style without too much trouble.  The last time I did my whole head in pin curls, I got this:

I think I could do it a little better this time, but really with a turban and (possibly) some additional curly hairpieces here and there pretty much any pin curls should do.