After pulling apart and reworking the 1813 Kashmiri gown to considerable degrees, I’m now pleased to announce that it is finished! Or within an hour of finished.  I still need to decide if I prefer the sleeve swags on the shoulder or dropped, and if I want trim on the shoulders as in my fashion plate, and if I want the button trim you can see in the plate where the bust meets the sleeve swags. So what do you think?  Sleeve swags on the shoulders: Or dropped: I forgot to pin on the cameo brooch for the photos, so you’ll just have to imagine it in and tell me if I should do gold clips or buttons or something at the join of bodice and sleeve swag. And what about the ruffles/puffs you can see around the neckline in the fashion plate.  Should I have those? The important thing though, is that the dress is done, and done properly, and that all the issues I had with it are fixed.  The back, while still …

I’m making an 1813 dress for the challenge mainly because I found this amazing wool twill at Global a few years ago and knew the pattern was taken directly from early 19th century paisley shawls.  I immediately thought of the Regency dresses made from paisley shawls, and snapped up the fabric, and then waited for an excuse to make it up. When this challenge came up I did a quick inventory of my stash, and realised how perfect this fabric and project would be for the challenge.  Well, almost perfect.  The fabric isn’t exactly like a paisley shawl, which means that making it up is always going to entail a compromise between the fabric and what would have been done historically.  It is, however, as close as I am ever likely to be able to find to an early 19th century paisley shawl, so for that reason I’m happy with it. What are the compromises?  For starters, the fabric comes in 1.5m panels, with a wide border along one selvedge, and a narrow border separating …