White Striped Voile Regency Gown

I finally have a white Regency gown! It has been on my list for a while, and made it to the top in prep for the Jane Austen Festival.

The fabric for this dress is from Mood Fabrics, and is a lovely sheer cotton. The construction is bib-front, held up with buttons on the shoulders and a tie around the back.

I do love the sweetheart shape of the front neckline, although it does need some adjustment. I ran the waistband tie all the way through a channel in the front waistband - when I adjust this I will tack the ties down, so that they can't gather the front waistband (which doesn't work so well with these vertical gathers).

My favourite parts of this dress are, the pooouuuufy sleeves, and the high gathered skirt back. The sleeve pattern is just shy of two feet wide, and I think it could be even poufier. What I would do differently next time... less gathering into the front of the armhole. The bottom edge of the sleeve is gathered with a small twill tape threaded through a channel formed by the hem of the sleeve.

The hem has a little train, which I also want to repeat on my next gown. One just feels more fancy with a tiny train.

A couple shots below of the pattern and interior... Because this fabric is fairly fragile and I didn't want to stress it too much with the weight of the gathers at the back, I layered a 1/2" strip of straight grain on the seam. This seems to have done the trick.

I started with a basic darted draft (how to make this will be blogged separately), and then I taped it together and recut it into the shapes below for this gown.

The back/base of the bodice (will be) laced in the front (once I get around to putting in the eyelets, for the festival I pinned it directly to my corset. The extension is two layers of linen, with an extra scrap of voile at the center front to stabilize it a bit more. The fabric exterior just runs straight down from the strap. What would I change about this? Extend the lining further down! It kept popping out above my apron straps.

That's all I've got for now - there are a few edits pending, but I'm looking forward to making this pattern again! With even poufier sleeves!