I've been spending a lot of time on pinterest lately, searching for fashion plates and I have to say I found quite a lot of nice ones. I had the idea of provençal regency clothing because I play a provençal washerwoman at reenactment. I knew there was specific 18th century clothing from that province of France, but ignored that in fact there was 19th century too.
It is characterized by a fabric called cretonne, which is a strong cotton cloth with a very specific print such as this :
A close-up for a better view of the print:
And here are my two favourite fashion plates I found on Pinterest :
Amsterdam, 1807.
Washerwomen, one of them is wearing a provençal cap.
I will be making the red dress and the blue spencer as seen on the plate above.
For the dress, I'm using as always the bib-front pattern from Janet Arnold from her "Patterns of fashion" with some alterations, since I am sewing a working class dress there won't be a train and also short simple sleeves.
So far, I finished the bodice and have attached the back of the skirt to the bodice. Everything is handsewn so it takes a lot of time to make, but I prefer it instead of machine stitches which I find breaks a lot easier.
I also bought regency looking shoes from amazon, and I love them, they're perfect for a working class lady. The shipping was very fast, I received them in a week, and also the price is very interesting! I ordered the brown ones, but I will definitely buy more shades.
You can purchase them here :
http://www.amazon.com/Ollio-Womens-Comfort-Pointed-Oxford/dp/B00GXMEC8A/?ref=pd_sbs_shoe_21&ie=UTF8&refRID=19TYMTPVSNH1FTTRJYNH
And here are some pictures :
The back finished. The lighting makes it look pink, but in real it is red.
That's all for now, until next time ;)
