Regency essentials: A little white dress - part II

Alright, here comes the second part of the post about my little white regency dress, with pictures of it being worn. The following few photos were taken after returning from an event so please excuse my poor curls that have loosened in damp weather. We quickly pinned them up because they were way too long for the correct look (although my hair was too long to create proper regency side curls anyhow). 

Noora kindly let me borrow her long-sleeved chemisette and bonnet for our event so I could complete my day look. Doesn't that bonnet just look great!

In these photos you can see that the sleeves aren't as puffy as they ought to be. I didn't add a lining to the sleeves because I wanted them to be sheer but without any support the fabric was too thin to hold up the shape of the sleeves properly. 

I loved this silly look! I know it isn't a flattering look to modern eyes but I don't care! ;)

And here you can see my underwear that I was wearing under the dress. I made a shift with short sleeves, short stays with a front closure and added more tucks to my already existing petticoat. The front lacing of the stays is very practical for getting dressed on your own, however, it doesn't create the correct separation effect that a proper busk would. 

Even though I haven't personally worn this dress again, it luckily hasn't lingered in my closet completely unused! Mia borrowed it for the Jane Austen ball at Skokloster Castle in Sweden last year. She looked absolutely lovely in it! And isn't her pineapple reticule just adorable!

It was fun to see someone else wearing my dress. 

The dress fit surprisingly well for Mia. It was maybe just a tad short, even if regency ball gowns could actually be quite short.

Mia wore a chemise (dated 1820-1840) that I made from the Regency Women's Dress book (see pages 12-13) and gave to her. The pattern was unaltered so it's a direct copy from the book. 

The chemise worked really well under this gown as it supported the puffy sleeves quite well, so the sleeves actually looked nicer this time!

In case you're interested in reading about the construction of this gown, check out my previous blog pos about it.