Saturday, February 5, 2011

Regency Gown 2.0

Pinning all the bodice ruching to a self-bias strip to cover seam allowance.
I am now in the process of constructing a sheer Regency dress to go over my bodiced petticoat. I am using the Sense and Sensibility pattern again, but have altered the bodice by adding an extra 4 inches to the center so that I can ruche it uniformly across the front. This was by advice from my friend Jennifer Rosbrugh over at HistoricalSewing.com. She's amazingly creative!

I had my husband measure out the back of the dress so I know how much overlap I will need for the buttons.  I know that buttons for this time period must only be cloth-covered or wooden.  Would it be a BIG mistake to add these pearly buttons instead?

Oh, and I am TERRIFIED to use my machine's button-holer!  How do I ensure they come out the same size?? Now that I have my bodiced petticoat finished, I should be able to try on the ensure outfit without much assistance!  :-)  More pics to follow!  

2 comments:

  1. Your machine's button holer should have come with a special presser foot for it. The presser foot measures the size of the button you're using and only creates the button hole the size for that button every time.

    Practice several times with several button sizes on a piece of extraneous fabric from your stash.

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  2. Whoa... but there's not a special button-holer for each size button, right? I'll just have to try this thingy out!

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