Hems (l - r) 1795, 1800, 1805-1810, 1816
Its all in the details Making a Regency Ballgown is a useful site for people who are interested in studying regency costumes or making a regency ballgown. The site is arranged in year order and makes the evolving styles clear. The evening or ballgowns are arranged by year and described in detail by bodices, sleeves, skirts, hair and hats. The information can also be downloaded as a PDF document. This is the clearest description of the changes in hemline that I have seen on a site. Trains, simple hems and long skirst gave way to fancy hems and skirts that revealed slippers and ankles.
Jane Austen's World 
Great details! thank you!
When making a dress from an “authentic” 1830’s pattern, I ran across several discussions of “false hems” which were a strip sewn onto the bottom of a gown – which I am sure took a real beating – the “false hem” allowed removal and replacement of same, without remaking the entire skirt – I am sure for the likes of Lizzie Bennet and her traipsing hither and thither across muddy fields…..I wondered whether they had to wash the entire gown every time they went on those unpaved roads and paths – this answered my question circa 1830, but did they also use the false hem for Regency era gowns?
This sort of thing was used as long as gowns were long and had trains and/or hems that brushed the ground. My grandmother, who was born in 1883, told me about them.
Cool! Thanks for the heads up. Maybe patterns can be made available for sales. After that, I just need to learn to dance, Regency style.
Really Angelic
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