Regency Has Taken Over My Life
Your girl has been bitten by the Regency bug for some time now and it doesn't seem to be slowing down, mostly due to the amazing events put on my the Regency Society of Virginia.
First up is the Ladies Retreat put on by the RSV. They rent a house built in the late 18th or early 19th century for a long weekend, and we do activities from the period and eat food mostly based on historical recipes. This year we were at the North Point Plantation in King William, VA.
I brought two outfits for each day, Friday and Saturday (we arrive Thursday night and depart Sunday morning but those days there is no dress up due to travel). Here's what I wore and a bit about each garment:
Friday Daytime: my blue cotton block print apron-front dress, made from the Laughing Moon pattern. I really need to get a nice matching hat!
Friday Evening: my 1790s blue silk outfit. Since the first wearing (in September 2017 at Gadsbys), I altered the dress. Lowered the neckline, shortened the shoulder straps, reduced the volume of the sleeve head, and redid most of the edges by hand. I'm much more happy with it now. Also, the little evening spencer fits better over my newer stays that have bust gussets than the old 1790s transitional stays, so that's a great bonus. I also got a new wig but I need to re-style it.
Saturday Daytime: I wore my simple white drawstring dress with a new spencer made from a peach plaid cotton. The cuffs have a box pleat detail like some extant ones I've seen. At some point I will add the same treatment to the whole collar. By the afternoon, it had gotten so hot that I shed the spencer and hat and just wore my white outfit alone.
Saturday Night: I wore my orange bib-front gown that I altered in advance of the event. I made a whole new bib (this one has diagonal tucks and is cut on the bias), re-attached the skirt with pleats instead of gathers, put the sleeves on correctly (they were backwards! whoops!), and changed the buttons. I'm really enjoying this gown now. I borrowed coral accessories from my friend Megan to change the look from the last wearing.
Next up is the picnic at Maymont Park in Richmond, which was in mid-October. This was a really fun, casual RSV event. People brought picnic stuff and we plopped down in the park and just enjoyed the scenery and each other's company. The park is lovely and has so many great photo locations. I made a new dress for this event: a cotton/silk blend in a white and yellow pinstripe. This fabric moves like a dream and weighs almost nothing. I used my trusty drawstring dress pattern and this got whipped up in just a few hours. I added my black silk spencer and I love the color combo!
Another fun event that I just attended was the Lady Detalle's Pumpkin Tea, which had a theme this year of the movie "Austenland", a very funny film about Jane Austen addicts. This meant the costumes we wore should be a bit over the top and fanciful! I made a new spencer from cotton voile with Mameluke sleeves, worn over my silk bodiced petticoat. I added a chemisette, fichu, and cap to make it super fluffy. Photos by In the Long Run Designs (first) and Judy (second).
For the evening portion of the event, I wore my orange gown again with a hat made by Shocking Bad Hats, borrowed from Megan for the event. It coordinated really well! Photo by In the Long Run Designs.
I've got more events coming up the next few months and no doubt will post photos!
First up is the Ladies Retreat put on by the RSV. They rent a house built in the late 18th or early 19th century for a long weekend, and we do activities from the period and eat food mostly based on historical recipes. This year we were at the North Point Plantation in King William, VA.
I brought two outfits for each day, Friday and Saturday (we arrive Thursday night and depart Sunday morning but those days there is no dress up due to travel). Here's what I wore and a bit about each garment:
Friday Daytime: my blue cotton block print apron-front dress, made from the Laughing Moon pattern. I really need to get a nice matching hat!
Friday Evening: my 1790s blue silk outfit. Since the first wearing (in September 2017 at Gadsbys), I altered the dress. Lowered the neckline, shortened the shoulder straps, reduced the volume of the sleeve head, and redid most of the edges by hand. I'm much more happy with it now. Also, the little evening spencer fits better over my newer stays that have bust gussets than the old 1790s transitional stays, so that's a great bonus. I also got a new wig but I need to re-style it.
Saturday Daytime: I wore my simple white drawstring dress with a new spencer made from a peach plaid cotton. The cuffs have a box pleat detail like some extant ones I've seen. At some point I will add the same treatment to the whole collar. By the afternoon, it had gotten so hot that I shed the spencer and hat and just wore my white outfit alone.
Next up is the picnic at Maymont Park in Richmond, which was in mid-October. This was a really fun, casual RSV event. People brought picnic stuff and we plopped down in the park and just enjoyed the scenery and each other's company. The park is lovely and has so many great photo locations. I made a new dress for this event: a cotton/silk blend in a white and yellow pinstripe. This fabric moves like a dream and weighs almost nothing. I used my trusty drawstring dress pattern and this got whipped up in just a few hours. I added my black silk spencer and I love the color combo!
Another fun event that I just attended was the Lady Detalle's Pumpkin Tea, which had a theme this year of the movie "Austenland", a very funny film about Jane Austen addicts. This meant the costumes we wore should be a bit over the top and fanciful! I made a new spencer from cotton voile with Mameluke sleeves, worn over my silk bodiced petticoat. I added a chemisette, fichu, and cap to make it super fluffy. Photos by In the Long Run Designs (first) and Judy (second).
For the evening portion of the event, I wore my orange gown again with a hat made by Shocking Bad Hats, borrowed from Megan for the event. It coordinated really well! Photo by In the Long Run Designs.
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