I have to tell you about a birthday surprise I’m planning for my daughter!
First, a little background:
My younger daughter loves Jane Austen movies. She never tires of watching them with me and is always swooning over the gowns. This is unusual because she does not like to wear dresses in the fashion of our day that much.
For Valentine’s Day my husband gave me BBC’s latest remake of “Emma” starring Romola Garai.
My daughter watched it with me and all throughout the film she gasped, “Oh, I love that dress!” , and, “Oh, isn’t that dress pretty?”
More specifically, every time Miss Jane Fairfax was in a scene she “ooh-ed” and “aah-ed” over her gowns, which were usually some shade of blue.
During the final episode she said those words that are sure to tug at the heartstrings of every mother, “I sure do wish I could have a dress like that.”
Now, I know some of you readers passing by may have the idea that all homeschooling families are bread baking, soap making, clothes sewing folks comparable to the Pennsylvania Dutch. But I don’t bake bread, I don’t make soap, and I couldn’t sew a decent piece of clothing if my life depended on it.
But I do shop e-bay 🙂
I searched for quite a while until I found a seamstress who made Regency style dresses in women’s sizes.
I e-mailed her and asked her if she could make my daughter a “Miss Fairfax” dress. I sent her the following 3 screen shots of Miss Fairfax in her gowns:
My little Miss Fairfax liked the color of this gown best (on the right)…
She liked the styling of this one…
And she loved the collar and ribbon belt of this one…
I was amazed! Not only did the seamstress agree to attempt the dress in a little girl’s size , but she agreed to take elements from all three gowns and combine them into one!
I cannot wait to see how it turns out! I’m SO thankful for talented ladies out there that can sew!
She’s going to send me the pics of the finished dress soon so stay tuned!
That is so cool! Don’t forget to post a picture of it when it comes. Yay for S!
Thanks Alex, I will!
I love Jane Austen, and I love your blog. It showed up on my wordpress “other people’s blogs” thing. Life and art are so much more interesting than all of those political/celebrity blogs.
Thanks so much, I’m glad you stopped by!
I am very anxious to see the dress but even more so to see Sveva in it. She is going to be so excited, hope she doesn’t read your blog.