Lady Georgianna

For your auditory delight, I have uploaded the tracks from our forthcoming EP “Ladies of Misrule”, featuring “Take Heed” the video for which will be appearing on this site soon. Enjoy!

Tags: 18th century, 18th century music, baroque, folk music, nymphs, swains

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These are some of the ‘alter egos’ we have created:

Name: Elisabeth/Gordon

Age: 15

Home: Captain Luke’s Ship

Favourite Colour: purple

Favourite food: fish

Job: Working on the ship

Special abilities: I’m in disguise

Name: Lonely Lil

Age: 28

Home: cottage

Favourite Colour: black

Favourite food: pies

Job: pie maker

Special abilities: backing

Name: Captain Luke

Age: 45

Home: U.S.A.

Favourite Colour: silver

Favourite food: fish

Job: Captain

Special abilities: black smith

Hello to you all! I haven’t been posting on here for a while, but I thought I’d add an interviews page for your viewing delight. Enjoy!

Tags: 18th century music, interviews, Lady Georgianna

Pershore students came up with new words to an 18th century song on the theme of friends. Our future is safe!

Friends I love to have and care
Kind to people everywhere
Gentle, kind, unselfish, fair,
Be the friend that’s there for me.

I would like a friend who cares
Someone who is always fair
Funny, honest, jolly, kind
Someone I can always find.

I hate a friend who calls me names
Who doesn’t have fun playing games
If they see me having fun
They will make my brain go numb

Tags: 18th century, Abbey park First School, Abigail Seabrook, eighteenth century, Holy Redeemer Catholic Primary, micaela schmitz, Pershore, songwriting, Workshops, Wychavon district Council

We learned some great stuff this week- we had a new dance with people changing places with different couples and we wrote a new song. We’re still working on some more verses, so I’ll post that when we have a bit more.

ALSO…. we got to see some staged fighting demonstrated by Hetti, who is fabulous.  The students have decided her character in the show will be ‘Drunken Duncan’….

Our students learned the part of a ship
fore = front, aft= back, port= left, starboard = right….

They know what to do when someone says ‘Captain’s coming’ and they
know how to hit the deck too!

The staged hair grab is an easy, effective and safe stage effect, which they enjoyed trying.  I’ve seen it demonstrated on a special on the making of Dr. Who.  And well, I have to say, the session outside with the *fake blood* was super fabulous.  No, we’re not telling you our stage secrets, but many had a ‘very good death.’  

Tags: 18th century, Abbey park First School, Abigail Seabrook, Dance, Dr. Who, eighteenth century, fake blood, hair grab, Hetti Price, hit the deck, Holy Redeemer Catholic Primary, Lady Georgianna, micaela schmitz, Music, nautical terms, stage fighting, theatrical blood

We have confirmed that we will be appearing at Droitwich Arts4All on Saturday 8 November.

You can hear us in a short taster ’show’ at 1-1:30pm or

7-12 year olds can take part in a workshop with us from 2:30-3pm.  This will be especially useful to get a feel for the great work we’ve been involved in with Pershore schools.

It’s all at the Norbury Theatre, Friar Street, Droitwich.   Find it here.

Come see our frocks, our anecdotes and other hijinks or come chat to us at our table, where,
when we’re not on the Main Stage, we’ll be (12-4pm).

Tags: 18th century, Abigail Seabrook, Arts4All Droitwich, eigtheenth century, frocks, Lady Georgianna, micaela schmitz, Music, Norbury Theatre, performances, Workshops

Ok, my patterns for undergarments seem to be ok. I’ll need one for chemises, but there are a couple of internet tutorials out there, and they don’t seem to be too hard.

Dresses..hmmm what do I like? Well it looks as though whatever I do, I’ll have to order from the States as that’s where most of the more historical patterns live. Here’s a good page which has lists of historical patterns.

I think I’ll go with the JP Ryan Robe a l’Anglaise and/or Robe a la Francaise. They seem to be highly recommended and designed for wearing stays. The also seem to be quite versatile. I’ll draw up a few designs and see what the lades think!

Tags: 18th century, Costume, History, Robe a l'Anglaise, Robe a la Francaise, sewing

I cracked the riddle of the princess seam on our Butterick pattern last night. For ages I wondered “Why do they include it at all?” To leave it out would make it much more accurate. Then I realised that this pattern was developed to fit and flatter a 21st century body without corsetry of any kind! It does a very good job of that, too.

But 18th century women wore stays all the time. More digging reveals that stays do not, as I thought, make you that much thinner. They do, however redistribute you to a more conical shape. Well, that’s good news for a singer. I wasn’t looking forward to puffing and panting during my songs. Less curvature means the seam in the front isn’t needed, hurrah!

Ok, so what do 18th century stays look like then? There are a few good sites on them and some pattern reviews. Here are a couple:

How to make a pair of 18th century stays

How to make an 18th century corset

Ok. These look scary..terrifying in fact.  there seems to be all kinds..front lacing, back lacing, strapless..but which is right? Eek!

I consult the book again. well they seemed to have all kinds. And why not?

Right, well, I don’t have time to draw out a pattern myself, even though there some instructions. I’m going to find a commercial pattern. I remember that I have one, butterick 4484, which I used for our pocket hoop panniers. Now the panniers seem to be reasonably in-period, not to mention practical, so I’ll stick with those. Woudn’t it be fab if the stays were too?

Well, as it happens, there is a pattern review on How to make a pair of 18th century stays, it’s for B4254, but my pattern is the same as the front lacing design. Joy of joys, it says it’s ok, with some adjustments. Well if it ain’t broke….

Tags: 18th century, corsets, Costume, dressmaking, Georgian, History, stays

I’ve spent some time this week knuckling down and doing some costume research. having had no internet access for most of the week, I thought I’d venture into the real world to do some fact finding. My first port of call was the library and its costume section. I picked out two books that looked as though they went into some detail and then set off to the art gallery next door.

Much as I love Birmingham Museum, it yielded little in the way of 18th century portraits. There were a couple of nice ones, but what I really wanted to see were the backs of some dresses. I have a fair idea of 18th century silhouettes, and I know the front of a robe d’anglaise has no princess-seam (unlike ours) and loads of seams at the back, but I want details, like how many! You see, I’ve done a bit of digging on the internet, and there seems to be lots of conflicting information. I figured that there would be no arguing with a contemporary source. I think I’ll focus on 1760’s-1780’s and see what turns up.

One of my books proved particularly useful, “Costume in detail” by Nancy Bradfield. It’s full of sketches and annotations from actual dresses. What really strikes me about the information here is the variety of styles of dress that were about in this period. And, I suppose that then, as now, people had their own idea of what styles they liked regardless of fashion. There also seems to be a lot of variation in the amount of seams/pleats in the back. I guess different dressmakers had their own ways of doing things. To my horror, many of the mid 18th century dresses seem to have the back bodice and skirt cut in one piece. I say horror when I think of the tiny amount of space that I have to work in!

As I work toward the 1780s, I see with some satisfaction that our faithful Butterick pattern actually isnt too bad. The book shows that bodices were cut separately to the skirt and boned, like ours. The biggest inaccuracy seems to be the princess seam at the front. So why does the pattern call for that when it would be so easy to make it more accurate? Then it hits me… stays.

Tags: 18th century, Costume, design, Georgian, nancy bradfield, polonaise, sewing

I am on a mission to design and make us all some new frocks. Although we love our current ones, and will continue to use them, we feel that the time is right to get something a little more authentic. But how far down the murky road of authenticity can we go?  Over my next few posts, you can join me as I voyage into the world of fashion in the 18th century.

Tags: 18th century, authenticity, baroque, Costume