Regency gowns – to me – have often all looked the same. It probably has something to do with the simplicity of their design, particularly in the early Regency period when plain dresses were very fashionable. After a bit of research, I discovered the Regency bodice that wraps around and crosses over at the front, and decided to try this relatively simple bodice design for my next Regency day dress.
I have been involved in the JAFA Costume Challenge, for the Jane Austen Festival Australia (2013), where participants make a Regency garment each month. This garment was also designed to double-up and form part of my Historical Sew-Fortnightly entries, specifically for the Challenge #5: Peasants and Pioneers (making a Common dress).
I found a pattern for a half-robe that crossed over in front in Janet Arnold’s book, Patterns of Fashion 1, which I thought I would try, making a slight alteration by extending the skirts to the floor. Sensibly, I began with a toile of the bodice and soon discovered that the person who wore this dress must have had a hideous figure! The bust was way to big and shapeless, and the waist far too small. I ended up having to spend a few days in pattern adjustment just to get it to sit nicely on me! (Though, in fairness to the poor person who once owned this dress… it could be me who has the hideous figure! hehe)
Hopefully I have achieved a nice fit after all that work! This gown was made of cotton shirting material and lined with white cotton voile.
Pattern Pieces
The skirts of Regency gowns were usually just big rectangles of fabric. For this gown I altered the pattern to make the skirts longer and also fuller, just because I like it better that way! I cut two back pieces (each measuring 44″ wide and 49″ long), and two front pieces (each measuring 20″ wide and 49″ long).
The other pieces consisted of:
- Bodice Back
- Bodice Side-Back
- Bodice Side
- Bodice Front
- Bodice Front lining (which I didn’t use, as I made a lining layer using the bodice front pieces)
- Sleeve (not pictured below)
- Half Belt (measuring 1 inch wide and 16″ long, not pictured below)
In this picture you can see some of the alterations that I made to the pattern in my cutting. Please note that Janet Arnold patterns do not include seam allowances, and all measurements given here also do not include seam allowances.
Construction Steps
Step 1: The bodice was pieced together, and then the lining was pieced together. When piecing the bodice together, attach the half belt into the waist at the side seam. For the half belts, I made a tube of material 1 inch wide and the required length across the front of the bodice. I had two half belts, one attached to each side, however it was difficult to tell if there was actually one or two from the pattern. (The picture of the extant above appears to have just one on the outside.)
Step 2: With right sides together, the lining and bodice were sewn around the neckline.
Step 3: The skirt was pieced together, starting with the centre back seam and side seams. As the front of this dress wraps around the body, it was not necessary to have a centre front seam. Instead, the vertical front edges of the skirt were hemmed.
Step 4: The skirt was then pleated. The pleats at the back were 3 inch pleats, positioned 1/4 inch apart. For the side pleats, I used any excess material to make three even pleats near the side seam, positioned 1/2 inch apart.
Step 5: The bodice and skirt were attached, and the lining hand sewn down around the waistline.
Step 6: The sleeves were attached. I had made a toile of the sleeves, but when I cut them out they still didn’t fit properly so I had to cut out another pair. I find sleeves very hard to figure out! They were supposed to be lined, but I ended up discarding the lining.

The sleeve pieces. I cut the pattern vertically down the highest part of the sleeve head and widened the sleeve to fit my shoulders. I then needed to take the sleeve in around the arms later. The white lining was cut first in an altered shape, but discarded later.
The sleeves in this garment show the remains of eighteenth century fashion, with elbow length sleeves which are then shaped around the bend of the arm.
Step 7: The half belts were held in place at the front edges of the garment with some small stitches and hooks and eyes. I not only used a hook and eye on the outside front edge, but I also used one on the inside front edge as I was worried I might stand on the front of the dress and it would fall open.
Step 8: The bottom of the dress was hemmed and braid attached around the neckline and sleeve-ends for embellishment. A self-covered button was attached to the front neckline with a rouleau loop behind, which can be used to alter the neckline.
Historical Sew-Fortnightly Details: This dress should be fairly historically accurate, even though I have altered the pattern in length. It took me a few days to get the toile fitted correctly, but after that it would have only taken approximately 8 hours to complete. This will be first worn at the Jane Austen Festival Australia in April, 2013. The total cost was $25 AUD.
I am thinking of getting a pretty silver clasp to put on the waistband opening. It just might give it a bit of a bling-factor!
For more of my Regency sewing, go to My Regency Journey.
Related Posts
My Regency Journey: Making a Dress for Daywear
My Regency Journey: Making an Embroidered Morning Negligee
Sources and Relevant Links
The half robe (pictured) – from the National Trust Collection website
Patterns of Fashion 1: Englishwomen’s dresses and their construction c. 1660-1860, by Janet Arnold – buy through Amazon
Jane Austen Festival, Australia – website
Jane Austen Festival Australia, Costume Challenge
Historical Sew-Fortnightly – hosted by Dreamstress
It looks great. I love that button detail.
Thank you!
Impressive! It suits you.
Thanks!
oh, i am so jelous. I attempted to make the dress and make it longer like you did at the begining of my sewing journey. And it went all wrong. I got the lining of the bodice ok it fitted quite well. But the crossover bit was horrendous it wouldn’t sit right and when I tried lengthening the skirts it just looked all wrong. I ended up using the ‘lining’ as my bodice and turning it into an open robe.
http://stitchintimeandspace.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/regency-dress-ii-nearly-there.html
If you click on the tag regency you’ll see all my posts of trials an tribulations.
I must agree with you about how it doesn’t sit right! I was tearing my hair out when I did a calico mock-up of the bodice. It took me days and days until I was happy with how it was sitting. And then even when I cut it all out, the sleeves had to be redone twice. It was much more difficult than I had expected (and, incidentally, I have heard that several people have had problems with this Janet Arnold pattern, so at least the problem isn’t us!).
I do like your open robe, though. It must be a good feeling to still have something at the end that you are happy with, even if it wasn’t what you had originally envisioned!
I loved the post and pattern! I can’t wait to get started and add this dress to my regency wardrobe. Hopefully I’ll be able to wear it to the Jane Austen festival one of these days for now I’ll just have to make due with the local Netherfield ball.
Good luck! There is nothing like making a new gown, I think! If you are making this particular Janet Arnold pattern, just make sure you do a mock-up or toile of the bodice first (to save any fitting issues later).
Wonderful work, loving the blue stripes, hitting a few HSF challenges here girl!
😀 I love the stripes too!
This is lovely. As are you! Newest in maternity fashion!
I am trying to make something that fastens in front because I live alone and cannot get DRESSED unless it does. Once I have my undies on, I can’t move my arms back enough to do up the back. So….I’m going to try this and do it so it doesn’t LOOK as if it opens in front. I need a lady’s maid, but you just can’t GET good help these days!
It is helpful to have a dress you can do up yourself, that is for sure! If you want to disguise the wrap-around feature, just make sure you allow extra on the front panels so it wraps right around your body to underneath your arm. That should make it less obvious that it is a front fastening garment. Good luck!
Thank you! Good idea!
Thank you. 🙂 Only yesterday did I find a historic plate of a “shawl front” ball gown from 1816. I was somewhat puzzled about the construction, but your post pointed me into the right direction at last. Thank you very, very much.. =D
xx Nessa
Glad I could help! I also find it very puzzling to work out dress construction from fashion plates. It can be very tricky.
Indeed. But thanks to Google and some very dedicated bloggers, it has become a bit easier. 😉 I’ll keep you tuned on how it goes if you like. 🙂
I would love to hear how it goes. Have fun sewing!
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Really clapping wildly at this dress. I love it and I love it on you too. I’ll bet your Jane Austen 2013 was wonderful. Looking forward to reading on and seeing what (if anything) you have going for this year [2014].
Thank you so much for writing these Regency articles. They are informative as well as beautiful.
Cheers,
Lyric
http://www.sewcroandquilt.wordpress.com
I am glad they have been useful! Thanks for visiting. This year I am trying to do a bit of 18th century, but feel free to pop back and see. 🙂
Reblogged this on Sew Cro And Quilt and commented:
Beautiful dress Tea In A Cup! I have got to remember the detail of the pretty lace on the neckline and arm edges. Sew on point!
Can you make a tutorial video showing how to make a cross over bodice for a regency dress Please.
I don’t really do video tutorials as yet, but Jennifer over at Historical Sewing does offer a range of sewing/historical workshops with online support and video tutorials. Maybe check it out and see what she has on offer. http://historicalsewing.com/classes