Bookweek has come again and as per usual Birdie did not disappoint! Birdie is obsessed with the Pride and Prejudice 1995 BBC miniseries and declared that she would be Elizabeth Bennet for Bookweek. I’m telling you right now, I almost feel off my chair with pure joy and excitement. Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favourite books, and I knew it would be so fun to make this costume. Even better we already had a dress that she could wear, which freed me up to make some fun accessories to finish off the look. Let’s get into the details!
When Birdie came to me telling me she wanted to be Elizabeth Bennet she came with a plan already formed that she would wear her gown from her Auntie’s wedding. Sometimes you just luck out, and realised she was completely right that dress would work! Given it is winter here in Perth I thought she needed a little Spencer jacket to keep her warm and also complete the outfit and give it that Regency look. Instead of tying the waist tie ribbons at the front of the gown as it was worn for the wedding we wrapped them around the back and tied them in a bow at the back. I think it worked better that way given the way the jacket works.
I’m not sure if you can tell from the photos but Birdie has definitely had a growth spurt since she last wore this dress! I think that’s probably not a bad thing, as wearing a full length gown to school is a little tricky and i think the fact it’s a little shorter now will make it more practical. She is just wearing her favourite Young Soles T bars (which i must admit are my favourite shoes too).
I had the most fun ever making this little bonnet for Birdie and I just adore how it turned out. Birdie wants to know why her school uniform doesn’t include a straw bonnet and I’m not sure i have a good answer ;) I have documented the process of turning a thrifted straw hat into this bonnet so i’ll be sharing that very shortly. I went with a straw bonnet as I thought it was going to be easiest for me to acheive and also i just really prefer the look of the straw bonnets.
I love how her little Spencer jacket turned out – the only problem is she wants to wear it everywhere now! This jacket was heavily inspired by the jacket Elizabeth wears when she visits Pemberley (in the 1995 BBC mini series). I used the Mini Darling Ranges dress sewing pattern as the base, and then adjusted it to make the jacket. I actually never planned to include the seamlines in the back, but due to fabric constraints it actually made sense to do so and now I just love that I added them.
I used this brown corduroy which was leftover from the Dawn Curve jeans pattern sample because it was nice and warm and I had the perfect amount left in my stash! The bottom edge of the jacket is really interesting to me, and came about after a lot of zooming in on photos of the original costume. But essentially it’s a drawstring waist which i threaded a cold cord through. Historical clothing often has so many clever details we don’t see anymore, and i really love this drawstring waist and how adjustable it makes the garment.
The jacket is fully lined, however I did this the laziest way possible – no facings, or hem turn backs – i just made the lining using the same pattern pieces as the jacket and then bagged it out. Easy peasy! I used some gold buttons from my stash as well as some gold cord to make the closures.
The last detail is the hairstyle. This one actually stressed me out for quite some time, and i spent a lot of time looking at Regency fashion plates and period drama screenshots trying to look for some inspiration for an easy hairstyle i could achieve myself. I am super happy with how her hair turned out! Is it a bit too fancy for day wear – maybe. Do we care? No. The face framing curls which are obviously a big part of the Regency aesthetic really didn’t last no matter how much hairspray we used which is hilarious when you think about how curly my hair is. What is going on with the genes in this family!
Essentially what i did was to separate two small sections from the ear straight up to her parting at the top of her head. The bulk of her hair went into a high pontyail, which i then loosely plaited and then wrapped in a bun and secured with bobbie pins. The two small sections near her face were braided separately with the same ribbon, and then i just used the ends of the ribbon to tie them around her bun and make a bow at the back. The ends of her braids i curled a bit just so they looked intentional. All in all Birdie loved this hairstyle and I’m so glad it worked out!
The tradition at Birdie’s school is to bring the book your costume is inspired by, so the last thing I made was a little drawstring bag using the scraps from her dress lining and the leftover gold rope from her Spencer jacket, to keep her copy of Pride and Prejudice nice and safe :) There are so many gorgeous Reticules from the Regency period, but I just kept this one really simple because I was kind of going overboard on this costume and needed to reign myself in.
Well that’s it friends! I adore this costume so much and Birdie loves it even more than I do. She desperately wants to dress like this all the time. This child would have a wardrobe full of fancy dresses if I could sew fast enough! In the past she has been able to get away with wearing a lot of her costumes in her normal wardrobe, but with this one I’m not sure she can really do that!
That’s a wrap on Birdie’s bookweek costume for 2024. Next year is her last bookweek as they don’t do it in highschool, and gosh am I going to miss it. Knowing this kiddo I’m sure she will choose something exceptional again so we can end with a bang ;) Hope you enjoyed reading all about my regency sewing adventures for Birdie!
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