A highly sophisticated evening

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One of the great delights of living in Washington, DC is all the quirky little events that pop up and this was one of them - the Jane Austen Ball:Mr. Darcy's Delight hosted at Gadby's Tavern in Old Town Alexandria.  The event highly recommends attending three dance classes prior to the event to learn all the English country dances - some easy, some mindbendingly hard - but for me it was all about the costumes!



For the design of my dress, I did some research (Sense and Sensibility - Col. Brandon over Mr. Darcy any day!) and then got to work. For my dress I used the Basic Bodice from Gertie's Ultimate Dress Book and then took off about three inches from the bottom in the front, four inches from the bottom in the back and added a button placket.  The neckline I cut lower in the front and back to make it more appropriate to the period.  I had some perfect crisp, white cotton in my stash for the classic Regency look.

Testing out necklines

For the skirt of the dress, I cut the front as wide as half of my waist measurement and then left the back as the full width of the fabric for some extra volume.  I made a small placket at the middle back of the dress to avoid using buttons on the skirt.

The finishing touch was a bias binding made from scrap fabric in my stash and a wide navy blue ribbon.  Add some jewels and feathers to my hair and I felt like I was actually back in time!



I also had the honor of making my friend Liz's dress.  She went with a beautiful white cotton with lavender flowers that we trimmed with deep purple bias binding.  



I have officially got the historic costuming bug!  It really felt like we had gone back in time.  The other costumes at the ball were phenomenal!  We're already planning our gowns for the the George Washington birthday ball!








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