Dear Gentle Reader, we’re back for round 2!

It is time to celebrate season three of the show I am still obsessed with, Bridgerton on Netflix. I’ve loved the show since season 1 and have even read all the books so although I know all the juicy gossip and secrets, I get so excited for a new season to grace my television screen. For season two, I decided to celebrate by sewing a gown inspired by Bridgerton house and although I loved it, it was quite the learning curve and I knew I could improve if I were to try again. With Season three just about to be released later this week, I figured there was no better time to sew another regency era gown but this time using a different pattern and for a different family. Let’s sew a gown worthy of the Featherington family.

From what we know of the Featheringtons, they represent “new money” as their taste and style isn’t as refined in comparison to “old money” families such as the Bridgertons. Throughout both the books and the show, their style is mocked, heavily judged and used as a tool to show how they don’t blend into society and stand out for all the wrong reasons. Everything is just a little too much; be it the bright bold colours, the exaggerated hair do’s and even the makeup. Hands down, the best Featherington character is Penelope and she, unfortunately, is purposefully put into ill-fitting gowns, bright gaudy colours that don’t suit her, such as yellows – but it’s all for good reason. When the first season came out, many viewers criticised Penelope’s dresses as they were cut wrongly along the bust line as opposed to under her bust and looked really tacky. In the books however, there is a logical explanation as to why this was done. It is mentioned that her dresses do not fit her and aren’t flattering because it’s her mother who decides what she wears, styles and designs her gowns and even chooses the colours she wears. I always saw this as her being under complete control of her mother who doesn’t pay attention to Penelope or her wishes (she expresses her love of pink and only wears it to events her mother does not attend). For this project, I wanted to sew a dress inspired by Penelope and give her a little more justice, but also show her progression throughout the seasons.

Throughout each season, you may have noticed that generally the female love interest starts off predominantly wearing one colour (daphne wore blues and Kate wore darker purples), as both protagonists fell in love with their male love interests, the colours their partners prefered (Simon wore red and Anthony wore blue), melded together to show the characters falling in love and becoming one, (Daphne ends the season wearing lilacs and soft purples, and Kate does the same). We know that the Bridgerton house colour is blue and the Featheringtons always put Penelope in yellow so, with her love interest being Collin Bridgerton, I would say that Penelope will end up wearing a fair amount of green tones. So, I have picked out some gorgeous fabrics which illustrate the yellow of the Featheringtons and the blues of the Bridgerton’s coming together.

Part of the fun of the Bridgerton costuming is the lavish and outlandish fabric choices. Although absolutely in no way shape or form historically accurate, they do make for fun fictional fantasy costumes. As I predict Penelope to end up in shades of green, I wanted to choose some soft green fabrics to get her away from the bright and garish tones her mother put her in. At my local Homecraft Textile, I ended up finding the same sage green satin I used for my 1950’s cupcake prom dress. I still love this shade of sage green, the sheen of the fabric and the overall softness it gives. I’m definitely in my sage green era and it’s currently my comfort colour so I purchased about 4 meters and then set about finding an embellished fabric to put over the top.

I was very lucky that Homecraft Textiles had a stunning array of embroidered and embellished fabrics. With several options available that would work with my sage green under fabric I eventually decided on a heavily embroidered floral tulle and although it was well above budget, I could not find a more perfect match. Due to the price tag, I opted for only 3 meters of the fancy fabric but I was very kindly gifted an extra half a meter from the end of the roll, which I really appreciated. Armed with 4 meters of satin, 3 meters of embroidered tulle, I grabbed an invisible zip and I set about heading home to start my sewing but first I had to decide on a pattern.

In my last Bridgerton gown sewing attempt, I used Butterick 6074 and although I think my gown turned out alright, there were a few issues I ran into that caused me to feel like I could have done better. Looking at the dress now, I figured this sewing project gave me a chance to try a different pattern which would give us all a new outcome and a chance to compare patterns. After browsing my pattern stash, I came across Simplicity 9434 which is a pattern released by Simplicity specifically for a Bridgerton styled gown. The pattern has a few gown options inspired by various season 1 characters which gives way to a range of gown options. For my Featherington gown, I decided to go for gown C which included a square neckline, empire waist bodice, flutter sleeves and allows for overlay fabric. In terms of size, I will be sewing size 12 which is my normal for a Simplicity pattern but I’m a little worried about having a slightly larger bosom than the pattern allows for. However, we will see how we go.

Sew, let’s get started. As always I began by cutting out my pattern pieces. I started with my sage green satin fabric and added about 2 inches of extra length to the bottom of the skirt pieces as I was worried my height would mean that the dress was too short. Once my satin was cut, I laid out my embroidered tulle fabric and started studying the pattern. I realised that the tulle had a border pattern meaning that the bottom of the fabric had a greater concentration of florals than the top of the fabric; I also made a note that the fabric was only just long enough for me to sew it under my bust and have it still reach the bottom hem. I started by cutting out the skirt pieces and added a few inches of extra width as I’d rather use as much of the fancy tulle as I could as opposed to wasting it. I then moved onto cutting out the bodice pieces making sure that the embroidery looked cohesive regardless of if it was at the front or back of the dress. As for the sleeves, I opted to use the edge of the tulle as I wanted to keep the sealed embroidered edge and scalloping. With all my pieces cut, I was ready to start sewing.

The first thing I did was baste all my bodice pieces together by using a wide stitch and attaching the tulle fabric to the satin along the edges. This means that as I sew my bodice together, my tulle and satin pieces stay together and sew as one. The bodice was really simple to sew together as it just involved attaching the front to the back and then adding the lining. One issue I came across was that some of the embroidery was very thick along the seam line which caused some puckering. To try to combat this issue I made sure to iron between each step and even used sewing clips to keep the fabric down and flat. Along the lower bodice edge, the pattern asked for gathering under the bust.

The biggest issue I had with my bodice, and probably the pattern overall was that along the gather sections, my embroidered tulle was very thick to the point it would weirdly pucker and bubble. When I tried to baste the gathers, it was too thick for my machine and I knew once I added the skirt with even more embroidered tulle, this issue would be even worse. After weighing up my options, I decided I’d just add a small tuck dart which isn’t the best option but it worked just fine. I ended up clipping the dart in place and waited until my skirt was ready before I sewed it all together. Speaking of, let’s move onto the skirt.

My skirt came to life by sewing all the satin pieces together making sure to overlock the edges as I went for extra support. With my underskirt complete, I moved onto the tulle/outer layer. Due to the nature of tulle being see through, I made sure to use French seams down the sides. Funnily enough, the last time I used French seams was my Bridgerton gown, so it was nice to revisit this skill two years later (wow has it really been that long?). With my two skirt pieces, the under and over, it was now time to combine them together. As I had made the tulle layer wider, I ended up creating little pleats along the centre front of the skirt and then basted the two skirt layers together. Once the outer and inner skirt were connected, I used the dental floss gathering method along the waistline so when I went to gather my skirt and attach it to the bodice, it was all one piece. This worked really well and as the pattern instructed, I kept the front of the dress mostly gather free and concentrated the gathers from the sides and back.

With the dress in one piece, I moved onto adding the sleeves. As mentioned above, I cut out the tulle along the top edge of the fabric which resulted in my sleeves having their edges already bound and scalloped. I also used French seams on the sleeve seams and I don’t know how it happened, but I did one of them backwards so the seam is on the outside and I didn’t notice until I was shooting the dress a few days later. Although not obvious, the mistake makes me laugh and it’s just a sign that I need to keep practicing my French seams. Despite this, the sleeves sat really nicely on the bodice and although the pattern called for adding elastic to the sleeve hole, I omitted this as I didn’t want the elastic visible and I thought it looked fine without it.

The final things I needed to do to complete my dress were overlock a few more seams, add my invisible zip and then finish hemming the inner skirt. I was really happy with how my invisible zip came out and although it gets a bit stuck on the waist seams, it turned out pretty good. Although zips were not historically accurate during the Regency Era, for this sewing pattern, I think it was more about the overall look of the dress as opposed to trying to be historically accurate such as our first attempt using Butterick 6074. After my first attempt, I took a lot of the comments and listened to the fact that most people were more interested in the overall look of the dress as opposed to how historically accurate it was. This made me more confident in trying this new pattern and adding things such as zips and elastic which are relatively modern things. Regardless, my dress was finished and it was finally time to pop her on and take her out for a spin.

If I had had more time, I would have loved to have made a mock up of the bodice because I think going up a size would have made the fit of the bodice more flattering. The gown ended up giving me a pancake boob and if I had the time, adjustments would have been better. It took me a few tries to find an appropriate bra to wear with the gown and I ended up using an old strapless that has definitely seen better days but it gave the best outcome despite the pancaking of the bosom.

I think I may have made the skirt a touch too long as without heels, it drags along the ground and with small heels it just touches which isn’t too big of an issue but I’m worried about the tulle getting damaged (I noticed this happened to the train of my first attempt). I could have brought up the skirt a little bit more but I think trying it on and working out the skirt length on my own resulted in me overcompensating for my heels which resulted in this issue.

There’s no way I can’t mention the zip fiasco. Right as we were about to start shooting and taking photos, before we had even tested our lighting, the zip broke. I just felt a pop and was told my zip had a hole in it. After trying hard to move the zip it became clear that the zipper was stuck, I had two big holes along my zipper and for all intents and purposes, I was stuck and trapped in my dress. We decided to keep shooting as there was nothing we could do, plus we were on a time crunch, so it is what it is. I will get around to fixing my dress soon but unfortunately for these photos, my dress is a bit busted.

Despite these little factors, I honestly love the dress and think it looks lovely. I’m really happy to have my new orange hair colour as I was able to embrace the full Penelope Featherington cosplay vibe. I think Simplicity 9434 is a great pattern for those wanting to sew a simple Regency Era dress. Although not historically accurate, it’s really easy and simple to follow and I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to sew their own Bridgerton inspired dress. This pattern, judging from the cover art on the envelope, is certainly designed to be a Bridgerton pattern so I thought it was a good opportunity to give it a try. When compared to Butterick 6074, the Simplicity 9434 isn’t as forgiving in its fit but it is simpler to sew. The Butterick 6074 gown has 2 gathered channels, one of which is visible under the underbust whilst the Simplicity 9434 has no gathered channels and is all pre-gathered and altered to fit the wearer and isn’t adjustable at all. Both are good patterns but it really depends on what final look you are wanting to go for and how much you care about historical accuracy.

Although it’s not really a fit issue, I was a little disappointed with the tulle that I bought from Homecraft Textiles. Although I’m sure it’s not their fault, the tulle had a curved cut along the top edge of the pattern which appeared several times. It seems that when the fabric was folded or on the original roll, it was accidentally cut and although it’s a small cut, about half an inch, for fabric this pricey, I was a little disappointed that my dress has cuts in the tulle which can create weak points. The cut appears throughout my skirt, once on my bodice and on my sleeves. Although it’s not a big deal, I did want to mention it; it is the first time such an incident has occurred on any fabric I have purchased from Homecraft Textiles and I’ve been shopping there for well over a decade.

Creating a dress inspired by Penelope Featherington was actually a lot of fun. I sewed it over 3 afternoons and it came together quite smoothly despite some procrastination on my end. I really enjoyed working with Simplicity 9434 and I’d certainly recommend it to others wanting to create a Regency Era gown. Despite some pancake boobing, it’s a lovely gown and I love my fabric choices. The sage green is soft and romantic which was exactly the vibe I was going for. Although I don’t think I’ll wear this gown very often, it’s a fun thing to keep on hand for a costume party or ball. I know I’ll certainly be wearing it as I watch season 3 of Bridgerton on Netflix; I am so excited for this season and have been looking forward to it immensely. I wish you all happy viewing and of course, sewing.

Sewing a Bridgerton Inspired Gown using Butterick 6074

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way. There are no affiliate links and I do not benefit from any link clicks or purchases made.