Little recap of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath and some new projects

This September was my first time attending the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, UK. Needless to say, I had a blast, and I'm already planning to go back next year and stay longer. The festival is a week-long affair, though this time I only went for Fri-Sat-Sun of the first festival weekend. I met lovely people, saw many lovely gowns and costumes and the Grand Regency Promenade was definitely one of the highlights of my year so far.  I was also very pleased with my clothes and the pineapple reticule I had knitted was definitely the most popular handbag in town!

Soldiers (a whole campful of soldiers!) doing a shooting drill demonstration  at the Royal Crescent on Saturday morning before the Grand Promenade.

 Promenaders at the park after the Grand Regency promenade.

Me providing a bus-load of Japanese tourists a perfect Regencyesque Bath photo moment :)

At Jane Austen's house on Great Pulteney Street.

Being creepy and old through a creepy and old mirror at Holborne Museum in Bath.

The most popular handbag in town.

I combined the festival trip to a visit in London; I had several days to spend in London and I had fun snooping around museums (costumes!) and seeing the sights and just taking in all the excitement that's London.

I now have to make this for next year's festival.

I'm already planning dresses for the next year's JA Festival, but I also have projects lined up for the 18th century side of the business. I really like the great print/chintz craze that's consuming the costumers near and far and I'd like to make some plainer, everyday 18th c. clothes. So, this black flowery print fabric is waiting for a transformation into a little jacket, most likely I'm going to use the Baumgarten's Costume Close-up pattern for the swallow-tail jacket and the great tutorial written by Rebecca in A Fashionable Frolic blog. I will make a red or green cotton petticoat to go with it and I need an apron too, and a new cap.

 Also, I think I need to make a new pair of stays. The yellow stays just don't fit right and anyway, third time's the charm... Today I bought lovely fabric for the top layer so I guess they'll be my chinoiserie stays :)

All ready for Bath

 The London (and Bath) trip is getting closer, so for once, just in time, my Regency promenade clothes are finished and waiting to be packed. I'm really happy with the results!

The pineapple reticule is a combination of two patterns I found in Ravelry and Knitty. It was a fun project to make!

The turban-beret saves the day; I don't think I can take any hats or bonnets with me because I don't really have any room for them in my luggage and they'd be squashed anyway, so the beret is the obvious choice.

A couple of close-ups of the spencer:

I knitted 3-stich i-cord for the frog closures, then pinned it in place and fastened it with tiny stitches. The spencer actually closes with hooks and eyes, the frogs are just for show :)