Little White Dress and Pink Spencer

A simple gathered-front white late 1790s gown and sleeveless pink taffeta spencer.

Inspiration & Resources

Costumes Parisiens, An 10, 1801-1802, Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs via SceneInThePast Flickr "Désirée Clary, wife of Bernadotte", circa 1810 by Lorentz Sparrgren, Boris Wilnitsky Fine Arts Therese dress, page 54 of Napoleon and the Empire of Fashion: 1795-1815.

Related Blog Posts

A Ball in Bath 03/05/2017 This past summer, I was lucky enough to spend two weeks visiting England and Scotland with my good friends Katherine and Megan. It was my first time traveling abroad with other history lovers and costumers, and we packed a lot of fun stuff into the trip, including a week-long stay in Bath. I had visited Bath once before with my husband in 2012 but it was only a small part of the trip (less than 24 hours) and ever since, I’ve dreamed of coming back for a longer stay and in costume. It’s just too perfect! Now that I’ve managed to achieve that goal, I’m hooked and can’t wait to return. Jane Austen Festival I’m looking at you! The first of a series of posts about my trip is a picture-heavy recap of the time I went to a ball and came home drenched in champage.

The Little Pink Spencer 03/15/2017 Last January I spotted a portrait on Pinterest and immediately knew I had to recreate it. I had the perfect fabric and matching tassels in the stash, and the pattern was a simple modification of the pattern I had already made for my teal wool spencer.  When I spotted a similar spencer in an 1801-1802 Costumes Parisiens fashion plate, I knew I had to make it for my Bath wardrobe.

The 2016 Louisville Jane Austen Festival 06/05/2017 The 2017 Louisville Jane Austen Festival is almost here, and since it’s my next costume even, I thought it would be the perfect time to tell you about the 2016 Festival. Okay, so the perfect time would have been last year, but let’s not nitpick here.

Construction Notes On My New Little White Dress 07/02/2017 My latest white 1790s dress (worn to a ball in Bath and at the 2016 Jane Austen Festival) was a bit of an experiment. I had been planning to make a new late 1790s white dress for some time. I wanted a gathered front for adjustability, but I didn’t want to do the exact same construction as my green sarcenet gown. You see so many different ways of constructing front gathered gowns in this transitional period, and I wanted to explore more with this style.

The 2017 Louisville Jane Austen Festival 07/24/2017 I’m home from a wonderful weekend attending the Jane Austen Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. I recently wrote about my experiences last year, and what a great event it is, but I must say this year was even better.

Costume College 2017 - What I wore 08/23/2017 And now for what I wore!