Earlier this year, before the pandemic hit the UK and we were still free to go about our business, I went to the cinema to see the latest adaptation of the Jane Austen classic, ‘Emma’. I did not know that it was my last trip to the cinema before lockdown, and I remember fondly pestering my mother all the way through the movie, offering unwanted insight into the beautiful costumes. Out of all the sumptuous gowns on offer, I was automatically drawn to a simple striped day dress Emma Woodhouse wore on several occasions. I had previously delved into regency fashion, but all of my dresses were early 1800s drawstring front gowns, having a general dislike towards the later back fastening gowns because, by their very nature, they are tricky for one person to put on themselves. However, I fell so in love with this day dress that despite it being back fastening, I had to make it.
For once in my sewing life, sourcing the fabric was not an issue. The day dress was made from a simple white and blue striped fabric for which I found a suitable Rose and Hubble ticking stripe alternative. However, I do acknowledge some apprehension towards working with stripes, because I was aware I would have to do a degree of dreaded pattern matching. Sourcing trim was a little more difficult during the lockdown, with my order of cotton lace taking over two weeks to arrive. Luckily it was a perfect match and I did not have to go through the trouble of ordering more samples. When it came to finding a pattern however, it was a real challenge.
Despite being a popular era for costumers, there aren’t actually that many Regency patterns out there, and even less back fastening ones. I tried numerous patterns over weeks and countless mockups, but eventually settled on some sort of hybrid creation. Surprisingly, my final pattern was made from a mixture of a 1820s pattern piece front, and a 1840s commercial dress back piece, which I shortened to meet the empire waistline. Sleeves were another major obstacle, having never made puff sleeves before and to be honest, never really liking that style in the first place. But I wanted to remain true to the original design and therefore had to get over my hatred of them. After many many many sleeve mock ups I ended up scaling up a puffed sleeve pattern from Janet Arnold Patterns of Fashion 1 which, with a little editing, worked nicely. The trick was the have a puffed sleeve that wasn’t too big and funny looking.
The final dress took around a week to complete. As per usual, some minor problems were encountered and overall, I made the dress a little too tight fitting at the waistline, but it is still wearable. I was originally planning to leave the bottom of the skirt untrimmed, but that’s not very in keeping with the original design or era so I decided to experiment with 1820’s puffed shaped trim. I made over 50 leaves, which I then pleated to give a 3D effect and sewed each leaf individually onto a long strip of cotton lace so I could easily apply the trim to the skirt hem. I’m really pleased with how the skirt trim turned out!
There is both safety and danger in replicating an existing gown. Although the design process is taken out of your hands, you can easily become obsessed with trying to replicate every detail exactly. I would say my dress is similar enough to the original as to be recognized as being based on it, and yet, different enough to still be my own. My first ever gown was inspired by a TV show, and I often take inspiration from my favorite period dramas. The ‘Emma’ dress certainly won’t be my last movie inspired gown!
History, But Make It Fashion 
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