Monthly Archives: September 2019

Sense and Sensibility – The Elegant’s Lady Closet

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Oh look, Regency dress!!! I was very unsure how this silhouette would look on my bottom heavy frame, but it turned out pretty well! It’s all due to peer pressure. Two of my friends wanted to go to a Jane Austen Evening and it gave us all an excuse to sew for a different time period.

Project: Jane Austen Evening Dress

Recipient: Me!

Pattern: Both from Sense and Sensibility, The Elegant’s Lady Closet for the dress and Regency Gown for the bodiced petticoat.

Fabric: Lots of stash busting on this one. Lavender dimity from @shopmakethislook on Instagram. Ribbon I bought at Costume College in 2018. Lavender organdy left over from my Lanvin reproduction, and left over white tulle from my (unblogged) Rear Window dress. White for the petticoat and hem came from Dharma Trading, but I can’t remember what I used.

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I love the back so so so much.

Hand embroidered purse to coordinate with my dress!

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I even found white ballet flats at Target in January. Why? Who knows. But I hot glued some pleated organdy on those suckers and it really made the whole ensemble that much better.

My friend group is planning to go again this year and I’m torn on whether to make another dress. How many Regency dresses does one woman need? I might just wear this one again because I still love it.

Halloween 2018

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The girls talk about Halloween all the time. 2019 will bring a vampire and…a superhero? Plans are not yet set. But 2018 was pretty fun.

Our budget was very tight last fall, so I might have pressured the kids into costumes I could make mostly from my fabric stash. Plus, what is more fun than Dorothy and the witch???

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Project: Halloween 2018

Recipient: Lu and Charlie

Pattern: Simplicity 4139

Fabric: Lots of leftovers from my stash. I don’t remember where I got the solid black, but the purple and black lace was from my 1910s mourning dress. The white on the Dorothy costume was the same leftovers from their Baptism dresses, my 1918 winter ensemble, our Lanvin reproductions, and my Ottobre blouse. I STILL have more of that fabric! The gingham is 1/4″ gingham from Robert Kaufman. I wished I’d bought 1/8″ gingham because tiny child is tiny.

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We also found a single pair of ruby red slippers at Payless Shoes (RIP) and they were exactly Chi’s size. Kismet.

I used the same pattern for both and holy cow, Simplicity runs huge! Lu’s was I think a size 4 and Chi’s was a size 3. I didn’t bother to save the pattern when I was done because the proportions were so strange.

While Chi’s costume was very cute she really rarely wore it. On the other hand, Lu wears here witch costume ALL THE TIME. Both wore their special Halloween shoes until they had holes. So I’d call it a successful holiday.