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 :)

Regency whites

My first Regency gown is ready! I might still add some more embroidery but it works fine as it is, too. The pattern was from the Janet Arnold book, the embroidery patterns I drew myself. Normally I never wear white (and I mean never) but this costume doesn't feel all that strange in its pristine whiteness. I have a mint green spencer in the making and it looks great with the gown but I want to make another one, maybe a black or a red one.

The gown with all the underthings (naturally :) ) and the chemisette I made with Janet Arnold's pattern. I really like the ruffly collar.

A gown like this would require a chamber maid to help one to put it on. Luckily I apparently have contortionistic abilites and managed to button up the back and tie the laces myself...

  

 You cant really see it in the first three photos, but the hem is actually embroidered with a rather large fern pattern. I drew the pattern myself and used fly stitch, chain stitch and something the embroidery book called the rosette chain stitch (pretty direct translation from Finnish; I tried to look for an English equivalent but couldn't find one) for the embroidery.

Trip to Bath, part 1

 I'm travelling to London in September and I also plan to go the yearly Jane Austen Festival in Bath which conveniently begins during my trip (I confess, I had a cunning plan when I booked the flights...). Of course the event is a perfect excuse for making Regency costumes! So far I've finished short stays and a shift, high waisted petticoat and I'm now embroidering the hem of my first gown. Also, I have a spencer in the making.


                                           

Here the gown has no sleeves or back fastenings yet. I'm trying it on for size. I crocheted the bonnet from paper yarn :)

Some time ago I knitted a lovely Shetland lace shawl. I think it matches the look perfectly.

Oh, and I made a chemisette too. I really like how it turned out. The pattern is from Janet Arnold book.

A little peek of the hem embroidery. The dress seemed to call for some kind of fern pattern.

Happiness is a finished costume

Now, then. The caraco ensemble is suddenly finished. I even trimmed the hat to go with the costume and of course there are pictures. I have to say that this is by far my favourite costume; today when I put it on it suddenly... worked. And with the cap and the hat I just got the right feeling :)







If you're a dame you must have a hat. I can't stop praising the paper yarn which I used for this hat, it just worked so nicely.

Quick photos of the nearly ready caraco ensemble

Phew. The trimming is now in place and the sleeves sewn on. I threw on the whole costume to see how it looks and to determine the placement of buttons:





Please ignore the daring flounce of petticoats. I really need to shorten them but just haven't got around doing it yet...



Shock! Horror! Actual legs showing! I knitted these stockings just because I can :) They're a very plain toe-up model, and I used my favourite merino wool-silk blend yarn. The garters are just a lenght of red cotton ribbon.

Caraco in the making

For the past months I've been making a caraco jacket. Well, a kind of a caraco. It seems that there are many variations of this garment and mine is sort of a midway solution. I chose to make my caraco a little bit shorter because I'm short myself and a longer version looked a bit heavy.
Here everything is just pinned on as I was testing what the whole get-up would look together. Since then I've shortened the jacket a good 10cm and added ruched trimming made of the petticoat fabric (nice lightweight taffeta). I still have to set in sleeves, make the buttonholes to the false comperes front and sew on the buttons, with which I'm really pleased. The first time I tried embroidery on fabric-covered buttons and they turned out very nice :)