Dressing Downton Sew-Along

Hello blog! It feels like I have been gone so long! School has gotten to that part of the semester where it's craziness. I was going to keep this project under wraps until after finals were over, but I think I need some more excitement to get me through it. So, without further ado, I present Dressing Downton.

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Dressing Downton

If you've been following my blog for even a little bit, you probably have some inkling of my Downton Abbey obsession. (If not, do see here, here, and here.) With gorgeous costumes, a fabulous plot and a fabulous old English house that serves as a backdrop, what's not to love? I don't think I'd even heard of of Edwardian anything before this show but now I'm head over heals.

I've been wanting start sewing Edwardian garments for a while now and have been spending entirely too much time trolling the net for pictures of the costumes from Downton Abbey. Surprisingly, there are some beauties that I've not been able to find at all! Out of these two desires, the idea for Dressing Downton was born.

Dressing Downton has two goals. The first is to sew up all of those beautiful costumes! Secondly, I want to create a library of all of the outfits from the show so there's a resource for all of us who want to replicate them. And I'm inviting all of you to join in!

Here's how you can participate.

1) Grab one of these snazy buttons to put on your blog.

<a border="0" href="http://star-spangledheart.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6036/6336376624_cd5918f190_m.jpg" /></a>

<a border="0" href="http://star-spangledheart.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6230/6335619857_bf5c33b3c8_m.jpg" /></a>

<a border="0" href="http://star-spangledheart.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6092/6335619593_16ed7d0c35_m.jpg" /></a>

2) Sew your own Downton Abbey inspired projects. Feel free to be as historically accurate or not as you'd like. I'm going to focus on replicating pieces from the show but adapting them to work in everyday life. I've come up with three basic categories for sewing projects.

• Straight from the Show- Your best attempt at replicating pieces from the show.
• Raid their Closet- Create a piece that you think could easily be found in the closet of a character from Downton Abbey but just didn't make it on camera.
  
• Get Inspired- Have a more modern style? Feel free to get inspired by a character, a textile or anything else from the show and make a more modern piece.

3) Provide pictures to help build the costume library. I have a whole stash of pictures on my computer already but I'll definitely be needing your help finding some and taking screen shots.

4) Join the flickr group even if you just want to be a spectator.

Here's a sneak peak of my upcoming projects.

These are some of the pieces that are on the top of my to sew list! Also check out my two Downton Abbey inspired color palettes here and here.

I plan on using Colette Pattern's Sorbetto as a basic blouse base but I also picked up these two Sense and Sensibility patterns which arrived in the mail today!

Feel free to email me with any questions! If you'd like to participate, let me know and I can add you to the blog list!