Regency Walking Party

I finally had an occasion to wear my new Regency dress and purple Thrift Store Spencer (though it quickly became too warm for that).  As you can see above, the curve of the back actually turned out nicely. I was having loads of issues getting it to lay flat when pinning it, so I am pleased with this result. It think it shows off my bustle beautifully.

There are a lot of things I wish I had done differently with this dress even though I am still happy I made it. One thing is, the dress turned out way too short. I can't understand how that happened since my Regency Dress 1.0 was extremely long and I used the same pattern. Oh well... the shortness actually came in handy for the walking party, since the other girls were either dragging their hems through the mud, or eventually became tired of holding up their gowns.

The table spread reminded me of the Mad Hatter's tea party.

Another thing I messed up was that the bust of the dress was too high. It kept riding up and slicing my boobs a bit. Heather says if I have the right foundation garments this might solve the problem. Also, Jennifer gave me some pointers of how to modify my bodiced petticoat slightly to push my boobs together more. So, hopefully I can make this dress work.. eventually.

Fun picnicking blankets!

The picnic was so much fun, as we had a lot of food to share and loads of wonderful conversation. I can't wait to have another event like this! There were many beautiful dresses to look at and many looky-loos wandering our way. Hopefully PERC Fresno will grow over time with more period costume fans in attendance. 

The whole group in assembly at the Japanese Gardens in Fresno.

More pretty costumes!