Jane Austen Festival 2018: Creating a Day Dress/Ball Gown

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I recently returned from the Jane Austen Festival and it was wonderful (despite the heat). Because my husband and I recently moved I didn't get a lot of time to make my gowns. I ended up making one ball gown and one more day dress which is less than I wanted to make. I am kind of glad now that I didn't make another one because it was quite rainy and muddy on Sunday and the gown I made last year now has a nice layer of mud on it. :( Anyways, onto the day dress!

Step one: Stays. The ones I made last year didn't work so well (They were too big) so instead of doing them myself this time I ordered them from Historical designs on etsy. They are absolutely perfect! I never could have achieved anything close to this.



Day Dress 1: I found this lovely block printed cotton on Etsy (shop: handprintedshop) from India that was only $50 for 10 yards! It took about a month to get here. It was a lot more sheer than I expected so I ended up having to line it.
Block printed cotton from India

Pattern: Last year I used The Elegant Ladies Closet pattern from Sense and Sensibility for my dress. At the time I thought I had done well but looking back now I can see some mistakes (besides the glaring obvious ones).

This time I was planning on using the Laughing Moon #126 pattern to get a more historical feel. I also like this pattern because it has 3 different bodice views and 6 different sleeve variations. I could make my own with the other pattern but I do not think I am that skilled just yet.

This pattern was quite easy to work with.  I was able to make the first dress in about a week and my ball gown only took a few days. It would have been shorter but I cut the patterns down too small and had to order a new set.

The bodice was very easy as long as you followed the diagrams and instructions. I did notice that for me the sleeve bands needed to be shortened a bit. Also the lining pieces in the front overlapped; I was not able to attach ties to them and instead kept them pinned.

Bodice fitting.

I decided to go with elbow length sleeves because they were something I was familiar with.  They went together pretty easily but I had to add a dart into the elbow area to get rid of some bagginess. 



 Now the skirt was a bit tricky. I've never done pleats before so it was new to me.  I actually didn't pleat them correctly the first time and had to fix them and they still didn't sit right. I'm sure with time they will get easier. 



All in all I had a great experience with this pattern. It was so easy to use even for someone who isn't a seasoned sewer like myself. 


The ball gown was constructed in the same way, but was made out of curtains from Ikea! I struggled with some sizing issues but was able to figure it out after consulting with a Regency facebook group.










Finally I added a scarf I had lying around, a feather borrowed from a friend, gloves, and sewed a little reticule.  Ball gown complete!












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