1790s Spotted Gold Open Robe at Lyme Park

Some of these photos are taken of the garment on me rather than on my mannequin, as the robe looks absolutely awful on the mannequin - all baggy, and completely the wrong size! However, it fits me like a glove! But I've also taken some photos on the mannequin, for completions sake, which you can see here on my blog.

Today my family traveled to Lyme Park at the National Trust in order for me to get some photos of my recently-finished 1790s open robe for my portfolio. It was also a bit of (nervous) fun to be dressed up in early-Regency style at a stately home, and surprisingly enough, I saw lots of people dressed up as Edwardians, so I didn't feel too out of place!

We didn't have too much time in the gardens, as it looked as though it were about to start raining, so I got changed to save the fabric of my dress!

I'm not wearing any underpinnings, unfortunately, as I haven't made any yet/can't find many 1790s transitional stays or patterns for sale. However, I don't think I'm far off the right silhouette. 

The back view, which has been wrinkled a bit by spending an hour and a half in the car. I'm also wearing my 1790s black and gold turban, and underneath is my 1790s chemise en robe. I accessorized with some feathers, a 1940s pearl necklace, and some little pearl earrings from Accessorize.

 The dress was really hard to walk around in, seeing as it is just that little bit too long.

I may have looked insane, but I felt like a Regency empress for a day!

1790s Black and Gold Turban

Here is a project I managed to finish in a couple of days. It was very fun and relaxing, all except for how sore my hands are now from hand-sewing! In all, I'm pretty happy with my results despite the base being rather flimsy due to all the weight of the fabric. So much, that I wish turbans were in fashion today! I've been wearing it around the house and probably terrified the cleaner when I ran around the corner and bumped into her wearing it, haha!
It was very quick and fairly easy due to instructions and blog posts on the web - I used Frolicking Frocks' post as inspiration - so I'm very pleased. Initially, I thought it would have to be a project I put off until my open robe was done.

Firstly I cut a circle 14 inches in diameter as Natalie suggests, and gathered it to a piece of bias I made (from a thick ribbon ironed like a piece of bias binding), the size of the circumference of my head. This made a shower-cap type of hat style, which became the base for wrapping and draping the other fabrics over the top, and also leaves a circle of fabric at the top so that it looks more like a turban.
I twisted my black ribbon with the spotted taffeta quite tightly and coiled it around the base, pinning and (I have to admit) glue-gunning as I went. I tacked it in places and glued it in others, where there was too much fabric to baste down.
Then I wrapped a piece of corded trim around between the coils of the turban, slipped feathers between a gap in the turban, and stitched little pearls over the places where the tacking was visible.
Lastly, I stitched the other side of the bias by hand to the inside of the hat.