RSV Ladies' Retreat - Day 1: Manor and Butterflies

Over the July 16 - July 19 weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend a fantastic Regency-themed retreat with eleven other ladies of the Regency Society of Virginia.  We traveled to Eastover Manor on the James River, where we stayed for three nights and two full days.  

This was my bedroom - shared with two other ladies - for the weekend!  

This door led off to the bathroom.

We had a charming view of the backyard and the river!  

These are all of my things waiting to be unpacked.

This window looked out on the sunroom.  

And this was our closet.

We had the complete run of the house, which has five bedrooms, a library, a parlor, a dining room, kitchen, and sunroom.  We also had access to the extensive grounds, including a garden, spacious back lawn, and two walking/hiking trails down to the river.

My room was off the library.  Here is the view from the doorway of my bedchamber:

So many books; so little time!

The doorway to my room can be seen on the left. Jenny, one of my roommates, is seen here sewing on a lovely silk spencer.

The stairway led up to two additional bedrooms.

This is the fireplace in the parlor.

Such a lovely room!

The windows in the parlor look out into the sunroom - which was barely used because it was so hot all weekend!

The gorgeous dining room

All in all it was a thoroughly charming place.

We began arriving late Thursday afternoon, wending our ways through winding country roads surrounded by trees and lush vegetation on all sides.  One of the first things I noticed upon arrival was the myriad butterflies flitting and floating about the front of the house.  

(I may have taken too many photos of butterflies...)

The back of the house is quite as pretty as the front!

This was the view of the James from the backyard of the house.  It is situated up on a cliff above the river, with no direct path down.  

We got settled in and had an excellent dinner of quiche and salad followed by brownies and cookies, which we ate in the library while watching Pride & Prejudice on the DVD player.  

Would you believe I had never seen the BBC version of P&P?  My fellow RSV members couldn't believe it either when I announced that fact somewhat shamefacedly last year at the annual RSV meeting.  In fact, it was this shocking revelation that ultimately led to this retreat happening, as there was much "You HAVE to see it!" and "We should have a Regency slumber party and watch it!" going around.  And mission accomplished!  Now I have seen it and understand what all the fuss is about.  It was quite delightful.  :)  

Some of the ladies had brought along several Regency fashion books, which got thoroughly perused during leisure time (of which there was quite a lot!)  

Victoria (my other roommate), Kimberly, Stacy, and Heather

Jenny, Bonnie, Megan, Denisa, and Rebecca

I brought out my sewing at this point, because I was determined to finish a dress I had started earlier that week.  I had originally planned to finish it before the retreat, but first I had to make a bodiced petticoat to wear underneath, as I was using a somewhat sheer fabric for the dress itself.  I will dedicate a full post to the dress after these, but I will refer to it several times in the following posts as the Yellow Sprigged Dress.  

New Projects

I've been really terrible at keeping up with my blog for the past... year.  I kind of got wrapped up in my wedding and all of the projects associated with it.  I haven't even finished blogging about my wedding dress!  I also have many recent costuming projects and Regency Society of Virginia events to write about, as well.  I promise I'll get to this backlog of posts soon.

But right now, I'm working on several new projects for the next RSV event - our Ladies' House Party!  I'm so excited about this.  We are renting an 1800s plantation house on the James River for a long weekend next month, and I plan to equip myself with a large enough Regency wardrobe to last for four days!  I'm pretty close to being there already, but I'm also using this as an excuse to add some more variety to my costume closet.  I've been wearing the same two dresses for over two years now, just switching out the accessories and overdresses.

Apron-Front Gown

Blue Day Dress

They are fine dresses, but I have to admit I'm getting a little sick of them.  I'm overdue for a new Regency dress, I think.  I've also been wanting to make my undergarments a bit more historical, as I've been wearing a modern tank top with a built-in bra all this time.  Therefore the first new garment I am making is a linen shift.

I've been sewing it by hand, simply because I started it that way by following the directions (Laughing Moon 115) and it made sense to keep going that way once I'd started.  I'm rather enjoying it.  :)  And I think it'll be much more comfortable and sturdy with the flat-felled seams, as opposed to machine-stitched seams and serged seam allowances.  Not to mention more accurate!

The shift is almost done; I just need to hem it and add the neck casing.  My next project after that will be a yellow cotton bodiced petticoat, using the La Mode Bagatelle pattern.  I've fallen in love with yellow as a Regency color, and I have recently acquired 5+ yards of a lovely yellow sprigged cotton voile:

This will be my new Regency dress!

It will look so nice over the yellow bodiced petticoat, with my yellow boots and yellow embroidered shawl (which I just finished!) and my gold velvet spencer.

Let's see, what else do I want to make?  If I have time, I definitely want to make the Laughing Moon stays as well, a new spencer, a new bonnet, and if possible a pelisse.  I have fabric for all of these things, but will I have the time?  We shall see!  But I probably won't be blogging much between now and then.  :p  Come August I will have more time, but more on that later...

Wedding Dress Blog

Now that my wedding is over, photos of my gown no longer need to be kept secret.  Therefore I have made my Wedding Dress Diary blog public!  I will be adding more posts now that I have a bit more leisure time to sit and blog.  :)  Once I have all of the making-of pictures posted, I'll get to work on the professional wedding day photos as they come in!