The East Room

A few weeks ago I bought the Becoming Jane DVD. As a fictional film it was enjoyable enough, but there was a lot of character assassination. And the ending doesn't quite make sense - Pride and Prejudice was published in January 1813 and Eliza died in April after illness so it's hard to see when that scene would have occurred (plus Tom Lefroy's daughter would only have been 11 in 1813). But anyway. One thing I like is the costuming, even though Jane seemed to be at least 5-10 years ahead of fashion. For example this dress of Eliza's (2nd from right) reminds me a little of this c. 1790 jacket from the Kyoto Costume Institute (just more widely spaced stripes and a narrower collar).

One thing that is missing from the region 4 DVD is subtitles. And I've heard that the region 1 DVD is going to have The Real Jane Austen as a special feature. If it's the same thing as I think it is it's a documentary narrated by Anna Chancellor (Miss Bingley in P&P2 and several times great niece of JA) with interludes of Jane and her family talking about herself or of things happening as they are described. Gillian Kearney plays Jane, Lucy Cohu is Cassandra (she's Eliza de Feuillide in Becoming Jane) and Jack Davenport plays Henry Austen. I may have to look into getting the region 1 version.

Our afternoon tute was cancelled today, so I made an expedition to Spotlight in South Melbourne. Unfortunately it is closing down, which is a pity because it seems closer than the one in Brunswick. I ended up purchasing the Kwik Sew 3294 pattern and a nice embroidered habutae in coral.

Just wondering how careful I would have to be about matching the embroidery? It's floral/leafy pattern in green/cream/fawn that goes across the fabric in lines almost.

Not sure whether you noticed, but yesterday I deleted the post I'd made the day before, partly because it was a bit of a ramble and partly because I made some purchases that made most of it irrelevant. I was going to add this to yesterday's post but in the end I felt so tired that I just went to bed.

Spotlight was a little bit cheaper than Lincraft, as I had the feeling it would be and joining the VIP club made it cheaper still. I managed to pick up the Simplicity pattern and 4.3m of rose-coloured chiffon for less than $25 in total.

I've had a look at the pattern instructions, and guess what? View C is the skirt of view A. The only difference between them is that view C uses the extra fabric for elastic casing and view A uses it for the bodice. And for my size it's exactly the same yardage.

So I'm thinking that I may as well make view A, which I quite like. It actually reminds me of the balcony pas de deux in Romeo and Juliet, although none of the photos I've seen of that have the flounces on the shoulders so I might leave them off (not sure).

Whilst I'm talking about what they could be used for, it struck me last night that perhaps view B is supposed to be Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream. At least there's this photo in one of the studios at the VCA of a girl in a mauve dress with coral pink underskirt dancing with a guy with a donkey's head that I'm assuming to be Bottom. It could always be one of Titania's fairies, I guess?

I also got The Very Thought of You (or Martha Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence) on DVD for $9.90. Along with the Spirited Away DVD that I purchased earlier in the year it brings the balance of my nana's gift card down to $1.50. What could I get with that?