Make a Regency Reticule or a Modern Evening Bag Out of a Doily in 5 Minutes

Make a Regency Reticule or a Modern Evening Bag Out of a Doily in 5 Minutes

In the early 1800’s the fashion of Regency skirts were considerably narrower than the skirts of previous decades. Ladies were no longer able to hide a pocket “purse” under the folds of their voluminous skirts. This led to women carrying petite fabric purses on their arm. They were called reticules. You can Make a Regency Reticule or a Modern Evening Bag Out of a Doily in 5 Minutes.

Reticules were made of a variety of fabrics such as cotton, silk or velvet. They often matched the lady’s dress.

Some reticules featured elaborate embroidery or beading. The drawstrings were made of a fabric cording or ribbon.

I found a few tutorials on how to make a reticule. But it was this reticule below that gave me an idea.

I started with 12-inch doily my cousin Lynn had given me. I also had some vintage silky rayon ribbon in my stash that I thought would work as a drawstring for the reticule. Both items had gone into the same dye bath as the fabric I used to make my Regency dress. They were line dried then pressed with a hot iron.

You will want to cut the ribbon into two equal parts.  Then simply thread one of the ribbons through the side edges of the doily halfway.

Repeat the same process on the other half of the doily. On each side of the doily knot, the ends of the ribbon together to prevent the ribbon from fraying as well as slipping through the doily.

Then gently pull on the drawstrings evenly to close the reticule.

 It’s that quick and easy!

Since I had the doily and ribbon on hand the cost of the bag was FREE!

Laura