Regency Fitting Tips
Looking Good in Regency Dress IS Achievable!
Increase your sewing skills and make your costumes look like the clothing your ancestors wore!
Do you feel that Regency clothing looks terrible on you?
Afraid to make something from the Regency era because you have a large rib cage or are well endowed on top?
Do you feel that your curvy figure doesn’t match the slim Greek aesthetic of the early 1800s?
Well, nonsense!
You CAN look good in Regency styles with a little bit of work to make the garments fit your figure in a complimentary manner. With just a few pointers you can feel confident when wearing these flimsy fashions.
Bodice & sleeve mockup fitting
Rarely does a pattern fit straight out of the envelope. Any one who sews knows you have to fiddle with it so it lays correctly over the individual figure.
But sometimes it can get confusing. You can feel lost and overwhelmed looking at such tiny Regency dress pieces and wondering how they will ever cover you properly. That was how it was for me years ago when I first started sewing Jane Austen fashions.
Get that Regency silhouette!
We all want to look fabulous and be proud of our costuming. No matter what your sewing skill YOU CAN!
Knowing a few tricks can help.
Like how someone with large arms can look decent in puff sleeves.
Sleeve Mockup
Or how to disguise your wide rib cage. Or, how do empire-waist gowns look flattering on anyone with wide hips & full bust?!
The biggest issue I hear with wearing Regency styles – “the dresses make you look pregnant! I’m 55 years old!”
Well of course they do… UNLESS you know the keys to solving this problem. They aren’t hard.
Let me teach you the tweaks to avoid this undesirable look.
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What some happy customers are saying:
“Will refer to this again and again. A regency sewing can’t live without.” ~Roberta H.
“I bought your Regency Fitting Tips recently and I love it! It has many great tips and I haven’t even finished reading.” ~Victoria Woten
“Very good information for many aspects of putting together a regency dress and achieving the regency silhouette.” ~Pemberley Dreams (on Etsy)
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In this valuable handbook I’ll get you on your way to looking like you stepped out of the past.
Handbook covers:
- Practical guidelines for fashions from c.1795 to 1820
- Tips to enhance your sewing skills
- Day and evening bodice fitting techniques
- The secret to a slim appearance in early 1800s clothing
- Corset fitting & sewing tips for a proper Regency silhouette
- How to fit fabric to the bust, shoulders and upper chest (the biggest area with fitting issues)
- How to cut sleeves to hide large upper arms (and minimize that banded-stuffed-sausage look)
- Working with sleeves for both day and evening bodices
- How to avoid gaping necklines
- Dealing with extra fabric around the shoulder area
- Keys to making the rib cage visually smaller
- Skirts of the period – how wide; where to gather; and trains
- Other general era-specific sewing information
and much more!
There’s no reason you can’t fine tune your costumes to look your best. You deserve to present a proper historical silhouette and feel great in your costume!
Regency Ball Dresses
You want your historical garments to look like clothing they wore back then. The secret is in the fit of the fabric to the body! I’m excited to share with you the techniques I use in my own costuming.
Let’s work together so that not only does the costume look good, we FEEL confident while wearing it. And playing dress up is the best when we enjoy doing it!
You’ll be on your way to a beautiful Regency wardrobe!
DETAILS: Digital Handbook in PDF format for easy reading.
COST: $ 25.00
SPECIAL OFFER $ 9.97
Begin Your Fitting Success Now!
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I was wondering… when researching about Regency fit, everyone seems to talk about helping well-endowed women fit their regency, but no one ever seems to talk about the other end of the spectrum. I’m slender and a B-cup, and I haven’t been able to find any info anywhere about getting the proper separation and lift required for this silhouette to look right. The first corset I made did nothing but flatten. Is there any info in here that helps the smaller figure?
My first Regency also flattened me too much and I think it’s because I made the bust gussets too small as it didn’t fit me snug like the Victorian shape I was used to. This handbook, while giving tips for larger-busted women, does include a few tips for small busts and how a corset should fit no matter what bust cup size you have.
You can also do what women have done for centuries and add small pads below the bust, inside the corset, to achieve more period-looking cleavage.
Padding is very useful. At the moment I have a bust that could be anywhere between a small B and a DD cup depending on proximity to birth of my latest child (we are trying for 4 and are currently on 2) time of day. Padding is the only way of solving this particular problem.
Ladies, your first task is to work on your gussets, sometimes ‘pinching’ the bottom of them will create a better ‘cup’ rather than just an angled shape, which happens a lot for some folks. Also, you might want to look into using a busk and back-closing your stays. Make sure your stays fit you properly. I posted a tip on properly fitting your stays here: Once your stays shape you properly, your gowns will follow. http://oregonregency.blogspot.com/2011/10/achieving-proper-fit-with-regency-stays.html. Also, here’s a great image by one of the Oregon Regency Society members showing how ‘pinching’ one’s gussets can change the shape of your stays dramatically.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6evqgHvVKB0/Tzx9yEbGMkI/AAAAAAAAAKg/ijSvZ9d5pz8/s400/megancup.jpg
the pinching works AMAZINGLY better than you can imagine.
http://abaronetsdaughter.blogspot.com/2012/02/stays-battle-continues.html
here you will see the Megan Cup as translated into a DD cup. The ORS post by Mrs. Johanesen is AMAZING and super helpful too and inconjunction with the dress fitting tips (which, I own of course) this is a recipe for success!