A Long Overdue Update!

I can't believe we are almost through the first two months of 2010! So much has happened since my last posting, there's no way I'll be able to write all that has taken place. But I will say our year started off with a bang! January is a special month in our household, namely because we have 3 birthdays to celebrate. My oldest son is a New Year's Day baby, my birthday is in the middle of the month, and my youngest son is the last day of the month. My daughter was due in February, but decided to come a little early, and now I share my birthday with my sweet little girl!

I have not dresses her up in Civil War, Victorian Era Clothing yet, but my husband did snap this cute picture in the hospital, which I later changed to sepia, to give it an old look. I have a few original Civil War Era dresses I can't wait to try on her. Most of them are for older girls so I have to wait until she gets a bit bigger before I have a fashion show.

Here is another shot of the sleeping angel. I think this was taken when she was 2 days old.

Fall was a very busy time for me. I've never had so many dress orders than I had this year. I made many Civil War, Regency, and Dickens clothing and even a few Steampunk.

Below is my favorite outfit. The lady needed an outfit for Nancy in the book Oliver Twist. With some research I discovered the dress Nancy would have worn would have been in the Romantic Era, which is sandwiched in between the Regency Era and the Victorian Era. This is the first dress I made in the Romantic Era and I had a lot of fun researching the fashion of that time.

The transition from Regency to Victorian is quite fascinating, and elements of both Regency and Victorian can be seen in the Romantic Era clothing. The dresses were not quite as full as the Victorian era and still feature the narrow sleeves of the Regency Era. The dresses were not worn over a hoop but a corded petticoat or multiple ruffled petticoats to give the dress a bell shaped look which later grew fuller as the Victorian Era approached.

Here is my original sketch for the dress.

I already have a few dress orders lined up for this year and I'm looking forward to more! I hope to post more of my work before things get busy again this Fall.