Red and white block printed gown

It's nice to have a new dress. This particular dress has been on my to-do list for a long time, ever since I bought those Indian block prints and long before that really. The reason I haven't got around making it until now has been, as ever, the lack of the right fabric. Anyway, I found nice white cotton voile around the New Year and was really chuffed to bits. Finally!

The "little white dress" is certainly the ubiquitous Regency fashion
item, but the patterned print fabric dresses were equally popular, in all available colours. I'm not well read enough on the topic to write about it at lenght, but there's plenty of information on the subject to be found in the net.

The dress pattern came from Janet Arnold's book, and it's the same I used for my very first Regency dress, the white fern dress. I always liked that pattern and it worked well, so why not use it. I cut the pieces and then set out printing them. I used the narrow border print on the neck edge, the cuffs, the "belt" piece and the hem. For the hem I also used the big paisley prints to create a wide border. The rest of the dress is printed with the little flower motif. I measured the hem border very carefully, to make the both hem pieces match when I sewed them together. I was a bit less meticulous with the flower motif, and didn't measure and mark the placements. It shows, if you examine the dress really closely, but not so much as to really bother me. I'm already planning to print fabric for another project, so maybe I'll be more careful next time.

Now, then. Enough with this, here are some pictures.

The neck-edge and the belt pieces

Sleeve

The dress hem

It was surprisingly hard to print both the hem pieces. It didn't really take that long, but after finishing the first piece, I procrastinated for a week before starting on the second piece.

I like the back and the pretty pleats

Well, it's winter, after all, so the Shetland lace shawl came in handy here.

The colour looks pink but it's actually red. I swear I'm not doing this on purpose... :)

This dress has already proved to be very versatile, it matches most of my Regency spencers and shawls. That's what I really like about Regency fashions (and try to keep in mind whenever I make new things), that you can mix and match different items of clothing and have a new outfit with small changes and different combinations.

I made this 1790s-1800 spencer in early January 2013

The dress with the long-sleeved frilly chemisette

The dress closes with 3 dorset buttons and there's a ribbon running through the belt channel underbust that ties at the back, to secure the fit of the bodice.

Looks fab with this spencer, too.