Regency Ball Gown (October 2015)

I made this ball gown for the Portland Country Dance Community's English Country Ball in 2015.  I had already made the stays and chemise and pantaloons, and had made a day dress as well, so this was a breeze.  Also, since I was making it on a deadline for the ball, I used a borrowed sewing machine instead of hand-sewing, which made it come together nice and fast! 

After that, I wore it to the Time Travelers' Ball in Hillsboro, to church once, and to a recent wedding. 

INSPIRATION

Since I intended to wear the ball gown to a ball, I knew it needed to be shorter than my day dress.  Regency ball gowns showed the ankles, because the dancing was lively and involved dipping and bouncing.  A floor length gown would have been stepped on!  I looked about online and found two fashion plates in particular that I liked (then saved them to my computer without any source information... sorry!  I wasn't blogging then).  Each one has the very high waist of the early Regency, with a sheer overskirt that looks great in motion.  The puffed short sleeves are further decorated. 

(Each of these fashion plates is old enough to be in the public domain, but I don't know where they came from originally or who digitized them.  I found the first on Vintage Victorian's Period Fashions Reference Library, and the name of the file when I saved it says the dress is from 1812.  The second was found on Jane Austen's World's informative post about the Regency fashion for net overdresses.) 

PATTERN & FABRIC

The pattern from the dress started as the pattern I'd already drafted for my short stays.  To make the white day dress, I simply added more coverage for the bosom and somehow drafted sleeves.  I say "somehow" because it was a while ago and I don't remember how I did it, but I suspect muslin was involved.  To make this dress, I slashed and spread the sleeve cap to make it fuller, and altered the bodice to be back-closing.  It closes with two hooks and eyes in the belt area, and snaps above that. 

I got the fabric from Fabrics For Less, which was then on NE Sandy Blvd (but has since moved to 12115 SE Powell Blvd), Portland OR.  Being on a budget, I was pleased to find their name an accurate description of their wares!  The cotton sheeting I bought for the dress was $3/yard and the chiffon no more than $5/yard.  For the bodice, I cut each pattern piece once in cotton and once in chiffon, layered them together, and worked them as one piece (this is called flat-lining).  For the skirt, I simply made two layers so I could get the flutter of chiffon over opaque cotton. 

I accented the bodice with a shaped swag of white brocade lined with pink satin, and used pink piping around the armscyes.  Both effects are really quite pleasing! 

WEARING IT

When I made this in 2015, it fit just right.  Since then I have gained some weight (though I can't figure out where?!), and now the snaps at the back want to burst open when I move abruptly.  At the wedding where I last wore this, I danced the Macarena and every snap popped open before the end!  Heeeey, Macarena!  It's a good thing the hooks and eyes at the waistband held, or the whole dress would have slid to the floor! 

Amusingly, after the dance, a middle aged gentleman said to me: "Only in Portland could Thurston Howell the Third dance the Macarena with Lizzie Bennet from Pride and Prejudice!"  I curtseyed, and he bowed, and I got a friend to re-snap my gown! 

The back view... those snaps just want to burst open!