Regency Day Dresses

Hello everybody! Today I want to share a project and a commission I had: four Regency day dresses for Dollits, ResinSoul Rong and Iplehouse JID bodies! It was requested by Tsumorri (on Instagram and from Discord chat), and what can I say? I cannot resist myself to period clothing in doll size!

Since I think this was a wonderful experience, and I learned a lot, I want to share how we did it, and the end results I got. Some dresses (the JID ones) are not modeled on Coco because they are way too big for her.

We did a collaborative Pinterest board to keep track of fashion plates, reenactment photos, patterns and tutorials. The request consisted on four drawers, four dresses, an apron and a shawl. I will leave collage here, and more photos under the cut!

Fabrics

I bought them specially for the project, following Tsumorri's specifications. It was quite a travel, actually! I loaded the images on my cellphone and went to the fabric hunt with the hubby... the thing is, I ended up visiting 5 stores, all of them on far away places in the city. I couldn't get some colors or some patters!!

I was so stressed, and I got two options for the pale yellow, and two options for the ivory one. The last store was actually funny. We arrived around 40 minutes before the closing hour, but the employees were already cleaning and closing!? I bought many fabrics there, and we had to get out of the store through the emergency door, because they have already closed. Then hubby looks at his watch... and there was still 10 minutes left for the closing hour *facepalm*.

Drawers

As you may have noticed, I like to start dresses from the inside out. So the underwear goes first, and then I make the lining, and finally the dress xD. This time, I had to make four drawers. We originally thought of making them all white, but then we changed one to ivory and one to pale yellow, so they would "match" the dresses.

Also, you can see that they have small embroidered "labels". When I was drafting a pattern I thought: "How would she 'discover' which pants fits which doll?" So I decided to add that label, with a letter regarding the brand of the doll, and the color matching the outfit.

Blue & White

I started with this dress because it was for a Dollits girl, and the measures were really close to Coco's. After testing some of my ribbon colors on the fabric, Tsumorri selected the deep blue ribbon. The sleeves were inspired on this photo, and the bodice was inspired on this dress.

We also aimed for a 1810's style on the skirt, without any gathering on the front. I did pleating instead of gathering, because I personally think it looks better.

Apron

Tsumorri got the idea for the apron, because Mathilde (the doll that will be wearing this dress) is an artist, and an apron for painting is a really good idea. We used this reenactment photo as a reference, and there is also this tutorial to make an apron.

However, I did some changes. Originally, the shoulder straps are fixed, but I did a "snapping" system with two beads an button loops, so it would be easier to get on the doll. Also, I made it with a ribbon on the back, so it could be fastened better than with a snap.

Ivory & Red

This was actually the third dress I made, and it made me doubt so much because JID girls are so thick! All the measures were 3~4cm bigger than Coco's, so I ended up asking Tsumorri to double test the bodice for me. The inspiration came from the sleeves of this dress, and the bodice like this fashion plate.

Once again, I did pleating on the skirt. You can see a wip on my Instagram!

Teal & White

This was the last dress I made, and since I already had worked with the Ivory dress, I wasn't that 'surprised' about JID measures. For this one, we tried to replicate the dress on the far right of this fashion plate.

However, I know the teal cotton I had would not fall properly for the shorter skirt. So we used a thinner and heavier sheer fabric. I personally love how this dress turned out, and it is my favorite color combination. I also used a sheer fabric I had for the shawl. I think it complements the colors really nice. A detail on this dress is that both skirts are pleated, as you can see on this wip on my Instagram.

Pale Yellow & Purple

The idea for this dress came since I got the two fabrics, because I wasn't sure if Tsumorri was going to like the pattern or not. After testing some of my ribbons, the decision was to use the darker purple ribbon to add a little more contrast on the dress.

The double skirt and bodice is inspired on a dress worn by the character Caroline Bingley on Pride and Prejudice (2005), and the puffy sleeves and back ribbon were inspired on this reenactment dress. I'm showing you this one at the end, but it was the second one I made!

Espadrilles/Sandals

We were also requested some crochet espadrilles/sandals from the Etsy to match with the dresses. The colors chosen were: #3, #31, #41 and #43 from our thread chart. I personally love the teal sandals, they look so nice on this color!!

And this was all!! I really enjoyed doing this commission and working with Tsumorri! It was really fun researching into the era, and hoarding so many fashion plates and references. What do you think of the end results? The teal is my favorite one :D Anyways, thanks for bearing with me, and I hope you are having a great weekend! Any dolly news?