Saturday, July 26, 2014

Becoming Jane, or at least dressing like her

Last weekend my niece, her roommate and I attended the Jane Austen Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, and had a most wonderful time. You can learn all about the festival here:
http://jasnalouisville.com/2014-jane-austen-festival

What I wanted to share, besides my love for all things Jane Austen, are these three dresses I made for us to wear at the event. Mine had to be pulled up in the back with pins to keep the train from dragging in the mud the first night, then I liked it so much that way, and was so mindful of the pleated trim that had taken me an hour per yard to make, that I left it that way for the remainder the festival. In keeping with the self-imposed frugality of the summer, for my dress I used fabric my aunt gave me a few years ago, (but paid $20 for "The Elegant Lady's Closet" pattern).

For the girls' dresses I used Simplicity 4055, which sewed up fairly quickly. At the last minute I whipped up three little matching bags called "reticules" and voila! we were ready for the Regency promenade.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

New Pfaff City

Look what DH got me for our 30th anniversary! I'm so excited I could almost stay home from church just to play with it, but I'll defer gratification a few more hours. It's a Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2, to replace my sadly no-longer-fixable 1222E, which we traded in along with the two parts machines. I hope to get thirty more happy years out of this machine (and the same husband).