Rouleaux trim started

I'm copying this gorgeous spencer from the Chertsey Museum in the UK. I was lucky to inspect it in detail on a previous visit and hope to visit it again in 2017 to get better quality photos.

Preparing to transfer the design, and while I'm sewing I've worked out how it might have been sewn in period - not the way I've prepared it, and possibly would save a lot of time in the whole process.

Techniques as well as step-by-step how-to will be discussed in greater detail in my Kickstarter book at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1245085016/trims-frills-and-furbelows

2021 Update: I am working on a tutorial for a different way to make Rouleaux Trim - or, the way that trim was made for this particular garment. 




























- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Elizabeth Bennet's Moss Green Spencer

I started sewing my version of this regency spencer on Sunday. The original spencer is made out of a lighter fabric, whereas mine is a thick cotton velvet. As I need to keep sewing to get it completed in time I am simply posting a picture diary. Do ask questions if anything is not clear or you would like to know more and I am happy to assist.

Pattern templates

Lower petals

Upper and lower petals pinned in place

Sleeve attached

Mock-up of sleeve band showing petals bending in.

Evolution of the Regency Spencer?

I've heard it said that the Earl of Spencer singed the tails of his tail-coat while standing beside a fire and then cut off the ends, unwittingly starting a new fashion. Or was it? Looking at these pictures of an early spencer from 1795 at http://www.abitiantichi.it/collezione/abiti/corpino25.html makes me wonder - was it simply evolution?

Regency Spencer

I love this little silk spencer with its embroidered flowers - and being able to find a cotton velvet to match made it extra special.

My main difficulty with this project was the embroidered flowers - they were very thick and caused havoc in seams. 

I used the Sensibility Spencer Pattern - and would recommend it to others for its ease in making.

I have the bonnet, now I need to make a spencer.

On the planning board... some regency gowns and spencers

A few new garments have been added to my planning board - to be completed for JAFA (Jane Austen Festival Australia) next April. Not all of these will be made, but these images in combination will help make up two wardrobes.

Fichu: A Regency Shawl

"Fanny, William must not forget my shawl if he goes to the East Indies; and I shall give him a commission for anything else that is worth having.....I wish he may go to the East Indies, that I may have my shawl." "
- Austen, Jane: Mansfield Park
"The Empress had more than two hundred white muslin dresses. This was only a fraction of her extensive wardrobe. She changed clothes four and five times a day. It is not remarkable, then, that she owned several hundred dresses, 558 pairs of white silk stockings, 520 pairs of shoes (she never wore a pair but once), 500 lace trimmed chemises, 252 hats, and 400 shawls. She spent 3,000 francs a year for rouge and thousands more for perfumes, but she had only two flannel petticoats and two pairs of drawers!"
- "Dressing the Part", Fairfax Proudfit Walkup; 1938 F.S. Crofts & Co. (page 255)

Instructions to make a fichu:
http://ladyjaneswardrobe.blogspot.com/2007/03/fichu-patterns.html

Links to images:

http://marquise.de/en/1700/pics/1760_5.shtml

Maurice Quentin de Latour, French, 1704-1788
_Portrait of Madame Anne-Jeanne Cassanéa de
Mondonville, née Boucon (1708-1780)_, c. 1752
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/155913
Possibly the exact same collar, reused by the artist.

Reynolds, Joshua (English, 1723-1792)
_Portrait of Suzanna Beckford_, 1756
http://cgfa.dotsrc.org/reynolds/p-reynold9.htm
Lace appears to be "blonde" in three or four
layers. Probably a narrowish edging attached to
a sheer fabric; compare the engageantes.

Spencer, Gervase
_Portrait of Miss Manners_, 1760
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/objectid/O82100
Multi-layer falling collar similar to that of
Suzanna Beckford but even larger.

Copley, John Singleton (American, 1738-1815)
_Hannah Loring_, 1763
http://www.dia.org/the_collection/overview/viewobject.asp?objectid=41292
http://www.dia.org/collections/AmericanArt/pages/colonial/c3B.html
Very narrow, multi-layer frill of lace or muslin or gauze.

Copley, John Singleton
_Mrs. Daniel Hubbard (Mary Greene)_, c. 1764
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59787
Virtually identical to collar of Hannah Loring
except for ribbon used to tie collar.

Maurice Quentin de La Tour
_Marie Sallé_, 1740
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mlle_Sal%C3%A9_(Lisbonne,_Calouste_Gulbenkian).jpg

More of a steinkirk.