Letter #4

Tuesday 3 January 2012
To Cassandra, from Rowling, "I have had my new gown made up, and it really makes a very superb surplice. I am sorry to say that my new coloured gown is very much washed out, though I charged everybody to take great care of it. I hope yours is so too." - Jane Austen, Thursday 1 September 1796

From what I can gather a surplice is a dress with a cross-over neckline.

Wit again, hoping Cassandra's dress would be just as washed out as hers.

Just for fun this is a link to a web site: Sensibility.com. This lady designs patterns for different era clothing. I have used her Simplicity pattern. I enjoyed making the dresses from it very much. I was actually able to make them fit. I bought the pattern to crochet the stole this morning while I was searching the world-wide-web for information about regency dresses. I will let you know how it comes along.

http://sensibility.com/patterns/the-elegant-ladys-closet/






This is an example of a crossover dress from one of her patterns.