MLS Designs

The Jane Austen festival was so much fun this year! Mummy and I stayed in the centre of town this time, instead of staying with our friend who lives in the suburb of Odd Down. We love staying with Ginny, but it was so nice to be 1 minute's walk from the Abbey Church Yard and able to say to new acquaintances 'come for tea this afternoon, and we'll have a nice noisy game of cards afterwards' which we did nearly everyday! Even better, we were only a few minutes walk from the lovely cocktail bar Ginny introduced us to last year :)
Mummy and I both had complete, brand new outfits for the promenade, then the rest of the week was a mixture of old and new, dresses and spencers, hats and caps, it's wonderful to have such nice big wardrobes of clothes to chose from each morning, I took everything we have, and some things came home unworn but it was so nice having them there if we wanted them, and I never wore the same thing twice, except my stays and petticoat ;) Then Aunty Jac joined us for the rest of our stay. I managed to get one of Clare's dresses to (sort of) fit her, and she wore mummy's spencers and wide brimmed hats to cover her modern hair, so, not too bad for a last minute addition!
Now, without further ado, ( pop on under the cut for lots of photos! )

Since coming home from Bath, I've been rather poorly, first with strained intercostal muscles from all the coughing, then with a dreadful head cold. I'm now over the cold, and most of the cough, but the strained muscles are as bad as ever, and now my back, which has been compensating for my chest muscles, is bad too, so I've been pretty slow this last week or so. I have finally managed to unpack from Bath and put everything away, including all the things from our reenacting escapades, and I've been indulging myself with a spot of modern sewing - some everyday tops and a skirt. I do need to get back to 'proper' sewing though! I need a ball gown for a Victorian Ballmoral ball next month, and then there's a Regency Christmas ball I want to make us new dresses for, and our winter dance demo this year is a Scottish Victorian theme, so I have a kilt I need to alter for Mummy, and I need something warm and tartany to wear too. Also, we've been invited to a 12th Night party by some new friends, so I kind of want a new Elizabethan dress ;) I really need to pull my finger out if I'm going to get all that done, and make a start on my WIlliamsburg wardrobe!!

I've been a busy little bee today, so now I'm resting, drinking tea, eating biscuits and posting photos from the trip after the Bath ball. We had a lovely time, the weather was perfect, not too hot, and it only started to rain once we'd gone into the house, and stopped again before we went outside again! Any way, ( here are some photos, mostly of my new rasperry wool dress... )
My kirtle is all ready for handsewing in Scotland, and I made a mocup of Mummy's, and we did a fitting, but it's not working too well at the moment, she's not very comfortable at all ... I'm going to change to a back opening, and try a curved centre front seam, and try putting more boning in for the fitting and see if that works any better, but not now! Now I'm going to play! I've pulled out my fabrics, found my inspiration pics and now I'm going to work out a pattern ready to start work on a new Regency bonnet, or maybe it'll end up a hat ... who knows :D

I am still feeling a bit pooh, did a bit too much this weekend I think, you know what it's like when you finally feel as if you're getting back to normal again!
I'm hoping I'll be able to get back to work this week, having missed the entire first week of term! I think I'll only be doing half days though, not my usual 3 full days. If this weekend is anything to go by, I won't manage to last a whole day without a nap! Tomorrow will probably be a late start, so I'll do the afternoon, then I hope to manage to get up to do mornings, as I much prefer getting the bus home at lunch time rather than at half past four when it's dark!
My regency dress is going at a snail's pace! I have finished one sleeve, and the second one just needs the frill sewing on, it's all hemmed and gathered ready to go. I might take it for my bus ride tomorrow actually ... hmm, hadn't thought of that! The skirt is hemmed and has one tuck, and I'm going to pin it to the bodice for a fitting to see if I calculated right and there's room for another :) then I just have to sew the sleeves and skirt to the bodice and finish the neck and add a frill, and it's done. Then I can get on with the next one! I do like to work myself hard don't I?!!

I seem to have the dreadful cold / flu that's been going round this Christmas, it's really knocked me for six and is ruining my last week of holiday :( I slept all afternoon, instead of going out with my best friend for an afternoon of fun and shopping, not fiar! Why couldn't I be ill next weekg, when I'd have got sick pay!?
Anyway, I have been doing a little bit of sewing in the evenings when I start to feel better. I drafted a highnecked regency bodice the other day, but didn't feel up to putting my stays on till yesterday. I'm using the raspberry wool I've had in the stash for years, (mummy says it's more mulberry, but oh well, the tag is named now, so raspberry it is!) It's lovely and warm, but still nice and fine, so should be perfect! It's got a very soft hand, and would have been useless for 18thC or 1860s, but should work very well for this.
I'm making the dress on pg 99/100 of Costume in Detail, high necked front opening bodice with frills at the neck, drop front skirt, smooth in front, pleats and gathers in back, long sleeves with bands and frills at the wrists and 2 tucks in the hem of the skirt. I also want to make a new chemisette with lots of frills at the neck, if you're going to be frilly you may as well be very frilly!
So far, the bodice is together and hemmed, and the skirt is together and hemmed, but the sleeves are only cut out and I haven't even started on all the frills yet!
I've also decided to hand sew this dress. I started last year making 2 dresses with lots of decoration that would be all handwork, so decided to construct them by hand as well. I then thought, I may as well do all my 18thC things by hand, since so much had to be done by hand anyway. This meant that the only hand sewn garments I did last year had a lot of work in them, so I thought, "why not do this relatively easy project by hand as well?" it won't take nearly as long as the chess piece 1820s or the sunflower sacque, and will get me hand sewing faster ready for my 2 upcoming 18thC projects.