Regency is a period most people are familiar with, if for no other reason than the insane popularity of Pride and Prejudice - or more specifically the Colin Firth one that made every history loving girl fall head over heals for Mr Darcy. I mean why wouldn't you.
The fashion of the time was a nod back to the roman and Grecian styles. The waistline moved right up to under the bust that also moved right up. Skirts were narrow by comparison to earlier styles and the look altogether more sleek and less floofy. The image of Regency is so engrained in our minds that we often don't realise the entire period lasted less than a decade (1811-1820 or the time in which the Prince of Wales ruled as Regent for an ill King George III).
Besides the cut of dresses the era is also known for its excess, whilst the Bennett's had their modest farm we must remember and picture the Netherfield Ball, or the sheer amount of food being brought into Netherfield on Bingley's return. There was once an awesome show called Supersizers Go where they would live as in a specific era and the Regency episode is hilarious. I recommend watching it.
Regency is not a period I am unfamiliar with, I have made something like 10 dresses of this period all using the sense and sensibility series of patterns. They tend to sew together very quickly and simply on modern sewing machines. Though more so than any other era a regency stay of some description is required to get the silhouette correct - least you look more like a 70's hippy.
So what has made this project jump the queue as it were, well Foundations revealed are running a competition. The theme is Once Upon a Time and the idea being that you create a character. I am happily using this as inspiration to get creative.
So I selected my character, which in the end was harder than you would think - not only because there is so many characters to create but also because I still need to stick to the two rules - busting the stash and working on skills. Regency was already on the cards and seemed to be the easiest to adapt to the theme set out. By now you are probably thinking another Lizzie Bennet then but you would be wrong. That would be far to easy (Plus I would do Mary she is way more interesting). I decided I wanted to adapt the regency style to a character of folklore - The swan Maiden.
The tale of the Swan Maiden exists across a number of cultures, however I was able to find published (at least online) tale and song for this which means (I hope) it will fit the boundaries set out by Foundations Revealed. The basic premise of all stories is that a hunter sees swans land, shed their feathered clocks and transform into beautiful women who proceed to bathe then put back on the feathered cloak to transform back into swans and fly away. Hunter steals cloak and blackmails swan maiden to marry him. Eventually Swan Maiden finds clock and flies away. Academically there is much discussion over the themes and tones in these folklores but really I just love the image of the transforming swan.
What I will need in terms of costume pieces
1. Feathered clock, of cause this would be the most important part though it is as yet only ideas in my head
2. White Regency Dress
3. Regency Petticoat
4. Regency Half Stays, which I already have done (thank the lords for small favours)
In order of priority though I will make the petticoat, followed by the dress and then the cloak. I know this seems counter intuitive given the importance of the cloak but I can get the dress and petticoat done whilst mentally figuring out how I will do the cloak and what its design will be, and I can plan out the draping/pattern changes I would like to do to the dress while I work on the Petticoat. Also as the petticoat is made up of mostly the same pieces as the dress its almost a wearable mock up to get my sizing right.
Skill wise I will need to draft some elements on the top of the dress which is quite new to me. I have some ideas such as wanting slashed sleeves. I also need a more mythical sort of look to the dress so design is obviously the biggest part of this project in general. Again I will be concentrating on finishes (you will see this as an ongoing theme) with things like hand sewing and seam treatments and all those fun things.
Now to the important bit, the stash. The bulk of this (the dress part) will be using not only stash fabric but entirely recycled fabric. Early last year some friends and I were invited to inherit the sewing stash of a late dressmaker. Within that stash was an unfinished wedding dress of white silk. No one else wanted it because they would never finish the dress but I saw potential. Specifically large panels of silk that could be repurposed to a new item - it was always earmarked for a regency dress. obviously first step will be to get it out unpick the old dress and see what I have to cut from (I will try and get this done next week)
I may need to get some silk organza for some of the elements like the insides of the sleeves because I don't see the point of mixing polyester with silk, though the cape will likely be made from an polyester fabric that I also got from the same dressmaker because it seems like it would be financially problematic to buy a silk for the cloak and then in all likelihood glue feathers to it. Though net may be a better option. Again these are things I need to think about. See why I am starting with a petticoat.
