Regency dress "Boston", museum replica

Let me introduce this project. First of all, I've never been into Regency era. Oh well, yes, I've been, but never so much passionate; I prefer more fitted clothes, more structure and more volume. Yes, Empire gowns are extremely comfortable, easy to make and budget friendly (if you're going to make a day dress), look good on smaller body types like mine and are good friends in the summer heat but...they miss something. I don't know how to describe this feeling, I always feel like I missed something at home when I wear an Empire dress, probably because it looks like a modern dress rather than an historical one. 

Then I made Boston... and everything changed. 

Boston is not the he first Empire dress I made after an extant dress (read about the MoMu dress here) but it has something special. 

The weeks before the event in Marlia (Tuscany) I felt really down. There were high expectations from this event and my mind started to suffer; I felt like all my dresses were absolutely wrong, badly made, poor and miserable, all my patterns useless. I had too much pressure. The more my work goes on and the more I expect from me and my dresses. They have to fit in a certain way and have to be finished in THAT way; I would never, never go to an event with a machine sewn hem or a wrong fabric, I try to take care of every detail. So I feel really disappointed, sad and gloomy. I wanted to stay at home that weekend to work on other stuff. I also forgot to mention the dress I planned to wear (which now fits again!) was too heavy for the heat wave we had in September and my short sleeved green dress wouldn't have been a great replacement. So frustrating. 

Than my boyfriend decided to take me to the fabric store three days before the event. He wanted me to go because I needed that break away from home (and he was right). At first I refused; I was out of time to make a dress (I had to leave on Saturday morning and we were on Wednesday...) and had no ideas about. Then I walked into the fabric store and found this. The perfect fabric. Striped cotton sateen in burgundy. I  made a quick research on Google and Pinterest and found an extant dress at MFA Boston. It is more 1815 but our event was set in 1810s so it would have been perfect!

And so Boston was going to be made...

I had everything: a pattern, plain cotton for lining, buttons for the back closure, thread in matching colour and a lovely black velvet belt. I immediately pre-washed the fabric and luckily it dried quickly. The bodice was cut and assembled the same day, skirt and sleeves the day after so that I had the dress finished on Friday. I still ask myself how I did...but I did! And it was a success. Trust me, I never got so many compliments like on this gown! 

I altered a little the design of the dress to fit my pattern and I used buttons instead drawstring as fastening. There was no time at all to draft another model. The original dress has also detachable sleeves but unfortunately I don't have enough fabric to make them. 

And now the photos...

The original dress on the left

A success. The colour of my fabric is really vibrant and bright as shown in the photos, the stripes are of the same width of the original dress and so the sleeves. As told before I had to change some small details like omitting the piping and the ribbon at the back, but it's not a big issue. 

I got so many beautiful pics at the event, not like last year (when I was wearing an anonymous brown caraco some of you may remember - now sold). I'm so happy with this outfit I decided to offer copies of it on my Etsy shop! 

Other photos of the real Boston.... 

The detachable sash...

...and the detachable sleeves!