Today I would like to both praise and curse my friend Rhona, for being an extremely bad influence.
At the beginning of July I’m going to London for a three-day weekend with friends. Being London, and being July, I expect it to be excruciatingly hot and stuffy. (It’ll probably rain now.) In order to try and stay as comfortable as possible in the heat, I’d bought two patterns for sundresses – a 50s-ish halter neck, and a gathered maxi dress. I have absolutely miles of cotton shirting (mostly vertical stripes in various shades of pink and purple), plus all the organic cottons, so I figured these would be ideal. Long and floaty, nice and cool, and I could make little bolero jackets to go over the top to avoid sunburn.
And then Rhona started talking about making a very lightweight Regency-style dress to wear on her summer holiday. And then there were links to patterns, and fabric. And now there’s a fabric-shopping trip planned, and I want a Regency-style dress too!
So I’m looking at Simplicity 4055, mostly because I have a card from my local fabric shop for a free Simplicity pattern. (Hoorah for free!) And then I started wondering about Regency underwear (as you do), and discovered that there used to be a matching underwear pattern, but it’s out of print. And then I discovered that both patterns are actually by Sense and Sensibility, and I can buy the matching underwear pattern after all.
And then I started thinking about layers, and asymmetric hems, and combining lovely organic fabrics with stuff that’s been languishing in my stash, and about the visual ridiculousness of wearing a Regency-style dress with a half-shaved head and Doc Martens… and that’s something I really want to do! So, when I start wandering about looking like a somewhat punk Jane Austen, you only have Rhona to blame.
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