The gown is complete in essentials but in particulars it needs help.  The armholes need binding, the placket needs stiching, it needs buttonholes, buttons, and a jolly good pressing!

A teaser though…

I can’t wait to start on the bonnet!

First, I must remind you to pronounce the name properly.  This is the eighteenth and nineteenth century British pronunciation.  Eventually the Spanish influence demanded a different spelling with an H.  Today we’d call her Mariah.

Maria Lucas is one of my favorite characters in the 1995 A&E version of Pride and Prejudice.  I always feel a little cheated because we don’t get to see just who she is and what happens in her life.  She’s just young enough to be delightfully childlike but old enough to be “out.”  Lizzy Bennett would say “there is something open and artless about her.”  Some day, I might write a “continuing story” of Maria and let the world know what I think happened to this delightful but undeveloped character.

So what does Maria have to do with sewing, smocking, crocheting, card making, or dolls?  Everything! 

I was in JoAnn’s just before July 4th and happened to catch a marvelous sale on some lovely sheer embroidered and scalloped overlay.  The minute I found it I knew I wanted to make a period costume but I wasn’t sure what era at first.  I’ve been dying to make somthing more “Margaret-like” but this fabric didn’t lend itself to the northern English town in Gaskell’s North and South.

But, I saw this pattern and I remembered how long I’d waited to find just the right fabrics.  I’d found them.  YES!  As I was sewing it, I kept floundering between seeing it as Margaret Dashwood’s coming out dress or if it was best suited to Maria Lucas.  Mariah won.  Somehow I’m afraid that society might have spoilt our little Margaret Dashwood so I think I’ll keep her a fun and delightful twelve year old indefinitely.  At least in my own mind!

The Ingredients:

Pattern:  Simplicity 4055

Fabric:  Unnamed but gorgemous stuff from JoAnns in Redlands, California

Isn’t it beautiful?  Presenting, the bodice of Maria- The Debutante

I can’t wait to do the skirt!

Oh an the bonnet I have planned.  It looks like Emma Woodhouse’s!