Using Saris & Shawls to make Regency Garments

11 January 2013
Exactly a year later and the summer heat has me thinking about saris again. The paisley shawls that I found for a shawl dress will have to wait for cooler weather, but the silk saris have a lovely handle in this hot weather.

Pinned the sheer silk sari pieces, face together, to the blue lining,
stitched 1cm seam.

Kept the arm hold and waistline seams open.
Turned it through, pressed and then sewed a 1cm casing channel.

Front and back, turned through and pressed.
Being careful to press on the lining side because of the gold trim.

Pinning the two face together so the fashion fabric is a little longer than lining.

Hand sew the fashion fabric together with a very tiny fine backstitch.
When you lay it flat it looks like this.

The next two pictures are from a previous post showing seams in an antique regency dress in my collection.

 11 January 2012
Over time I have been collecting links to Regency-era garments made from Saris and Shawls. Adrienne Unger, a costumer from Sydney, will be teaching a workshop on how to make a regency gown from a sari at Jane Austen Festival Australia in April 2013. In the meantime though, here are a list of links to keep your internet connection buzzing!

Dress made from a woollen paisley shawl

• Gown made of cotton sari http://www.manchestergalleries.org/the-collections/search-the-colle...
• Gown made of silk sari http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/gown-made-from-a-shawl/ 
• Fashion Plate http://213.215.47.131/maciet2/map_zoom/prepare_visu.php?im_pos=15&collection_name=M5053MA_214X02X&collection_id=188 
• Silk net gown in the Musée Historique de Tissu de Lyon. http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/reddress.jpg
• Fashion plate 1810 http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/co...
• Shawl dress http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/co...
• http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%...
• Fashion Plate 1801 http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/casey/full/01/rbc0068.jpg
• Tunic1806 http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/casey/full/01/rbc0179.jpg
• 1809  http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/casey/full/01/rbc0262.jpg
• 1810 http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/casey/full/01/rbc0282.jpg
• Dawn's images http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/DLuckham/Regency%20Dresses/r...
• Suzi's images http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/Sistersuzi/1806ParisianSummer...
• Coat http://www.costumes.org/history/regency/ackerman1809to1828/promenademerino.jpg
• Overdress http://picasaweb.google.com/101938061106280749419/PrideAndPrejudiceResearch#5381911946177924210 
• V&A dress http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O13827/jacket/
• V&A dress http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74453/dress/
• Percalee Importee http://s269.beta.photobucket.com/user/DawnLuck/media/Fashion%20Plates/sari1.jpg.html
• 1810 http://s269.beta.photobucket.com/user/DawnLuck/media/Fashion%20Plates/sari2.jpg.html 

Apologies if any links are broken - if you find any broken links or have any further links to share please use the comments box below.