Starting in the Middle: The Search for the Georgian Gown Fabric Begins and Ends

There are already several adventures currently going on, but I suppose the most exciting one - the one that is crowding out the others in my brain from my sheer excitement over it - is the amazing find I made yesterday at the fabric store. (Triad Plus Home Fabrics, for those of you in the Sacramento area.) Have you ever gone looking for fabric for a project without having any particular fabric in mind, and then suddenly there before you is exactly what you were hoping you would find? Well, this all-too-rare experience happened to yours truly yesterday! I was in raptures. I am still in raptures! Which I had better cut short now so I tell you what I actually found...

It is for my first Georgian gown. I have wanted one of these for nearly as long as I have been making Regency gowns, which is getting to be quite a while ago, now. After all, Georgian was the style of Jane Austen's parents and the literary genre of her predecessors, as well as what was being worn when she wrote 'Northanger Abbey', 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Pride and Prejudice'. I digress, however.

This fabric is a heavenly blue with 1/8th-inch wide satin stripes. When I saw it, I knew. Once I discovered it was a mere $3 per yard, then I also knew I must get it.

(It is polyester, but I am willing to compromise if I can find such a wondrous design for a mere total of $23.)

I wavered between gold and some other solid color for the underskirt, but my eyes alighted upon a beautiful taffeta-looking ivory, and, being the sort of person who tries to buy every item of clothing to match every other item of clothing I own, I decided to go with white (just in case I make a few more Georgian gowns...).

Of course the first thing I had to do upon arriving home (besides reading a few chapters of Mrs. Gaskell's North and South ...because I was at the riot scene...) was to grab my Georgian stays and stitch furiously! Because I stubbornly insist on finishing the underpinnings before I can begin on the outer stuff. Which leads me to another subject for another post...