Wives and Daughters

Molly Gibson has grown up with only one parent to love, her devoted father (the towns doctor).
As he comes to realize she has become a woman, he feels she needs a mothers care and love. However Molly has very different idea's... when he announces his engagement to a Miss Claire she finds herself with a stepmother she can not love and a new sister.
Molly finds her dear friend Roger Hameley (that she has secretly come to love) falling in love with Cynthia her sister instead, and when Cynthia attracts more attention Molly is left in the corner with her hidden feelings and trials.
In a spin of events Molly's heart is broken (more than once), she finds herself in the middle of a love triangle that is not her own, and she is falsely accused by the whole town! Oh poor Molly?

Can this story end happily for Molly? After her life is turned upside down?

I found myself falling in love with most of the characters excepting Mrs. Gibson (Miss Claire) and Cynthia. No I could not love Cynthia even though some have done so, she is so selfish and full of herself and she puts Molly into the worst kind of situation. I felt bad for Preston (one of Cynthia's admirers) as she jilted him when I think he was truly in love with her... yet I could not find myself falling in love with such a man.

I fell in love with all of Rogers family and cried when the misfortune train hit them all. Her father was altogether to hasty in marrying Miss Claire, but if he did not we would not have a movie. It was very well done in terms of quality the sound was good and the picture was wonderful, the music was wonderfully romantic as it should be in movies like this. I think the cast worked together wonderfully well I could have believed that Cynthia and Mrs. Gibson were mother and daughter, and Molly and Mr. Gibson father and daughter.

It is one of my favorite period drama's... and now we get to the costumes!

This was one of Molly's day dresses... her hair is always put up so much more plainly than her sisters or mothers but I liked that. I love it when she is in blue... and would love to recreate this someday.

Jenny Chancey has a pattern for this dress (some of her patterns were created after this movie) And I think her dresses became a bit more 'grown up' through the film.

This is a dress she wears when they have the Hameley's over... a little 'Cynthia style', and I saw she adopted some more fashionable clothes when Cynthia came to stay.

Here is her green day dress again.

The yellow dress. (I think she only wears once) to her fathers wedding, and wears a plain green shawl over it... her bonnet has a large white ribbon around it. One of my favorite dresses on her.


She wears this dress throughout the film (I think they put her in it every time she is with her father alone?!? It has a worn look to it (but that might be because it's brown), and the plain brown bonnet she wears with it with a brown checkered ribbon. I noticed that with her day dresses she always wears dickeys under her collar or lace around the neckline.
Another of her plainer day dresses, next to Cynthia they look very plain. But alone I think they are very sweet. And her plain brown apron. This is my favorite dress on Molly, it gave her colour and made her look older. Again she has adopted Cynthia's fashion sense but keeping her own at the same time.

Molly's ball gown... this is the only time she wears her hair like this, I think Lady Harriet was petting her again. But she still looks very sweet. I truly like the dress.




Another of her day dresses.




Her simple white muslin dress that I adore. Jenny Chancey has a pattern for this as well.

A jumper she wears with a white blouse underneath.


I could not find any of Cynthia's dresses... maybe I'll try another time.

The Abduction Club
The name is misleading I know (I was warry at first) but after reading all the reviews I could find, and watching all the trailers I finally watched it and fell in love with the story. And the costumes of course.
The sad part of it is though... it happens to be a UK film and was not made in American format. The only thing you could do is buy a DVD player that plays UK films... or watch it in sections on YouTube!
If you want to watch it you can find it under this title: The Abduction Club 1/9.
Enjoy it... I found nothing offensive, and nothing sensual.
It'll steal your heart.

The Abduction Club is set up of a bunch of younger sons of gentleman, who when their older brothers get everything... they get nothing.

That is why this club has been made... so that these young men may find heiresses to fall in love with and marry, so that they may after all have some fortune.

Byrne and Strang set their sights on the beautiful yet feisty Kennedy sisters, Catherine (Alice Evans) and Anne (Sophia Myles), daughters to blustering nobleman Robert Kennedy (John Arthur).
Alas, the ladies are not impressed with the two friends' well-honed charm - indeed, both women could not be more disinterested - and one of Anne's other suitors, cold-hearted John Power (Liam Cunningham), doesn't take kindly to their kidnapping.
So Byrne and Strang go on the run with the ladies, hoping to change their minds as they gallop across the glorious Irish countryside.
Meanwhile, Powers implicates his love rivals in the murder of a Redcoat soldier, and duly enlists the help of good friend, Attorney General Lord Fermoy (Edward Woodward), to order the immediate arrest and execution of Byrne and Strang.
Soldiers are quickly deployed, and the two bachelors soon find themselves running for their lives, and protecting an increasingly smitten Catherine and Anne from harm.

And you must find out for yourself what happens in the end!

The costumes in this movie made my heart throb! And even though the girls are more richly dressed throughout most of the film I think that they wear these very well. And I must say I loved the guy's costumes as well.

These are some of the more elegant gowns, and the hair is quite lovely too.

I love Catherine Kennedy's dress here and the bonnet (on the left), and think Anne wears this again at some point.

I do not much care for the pink dress here, but Anne's dress make me want to sew!

I love this dress.

Here you can see Catherine's bonnet better, I love the dress pattern.

You can't see this very well but I think this is the one she wears at the races in the picture above.

And there you are! Of course anything (well perhaps not everything) with Sophia Myles in it is bound to make me watch the whole thing... more than once.

The Inheritance-

Written by Louisa May Alcott at seventeen years of age, the charming love story that emerged from the pages of that hardcover novel was so precious to me.
Louisa never had her first novel published, so it went on a shelf to collect dust... unknown to the world for many years.
But it was published when two historians found it in a library...

And then I myself found it in my library to enjoy.
The Book is different from the movie but both are to be enjoyed immensely.

Edith Adelon (Cari Shayne) has grown up in the magnificent estate of Evenswood the only home she has ever known. She works as a companion in this great house to Amy Hamilton (Brigitta Dau) who has become her best friend and sister. Seen more like family than servant Edith grows into a beautiful woman who tends to hide her true feelings from others.
Ida Glenshaw (Brigid Walsh Brannagh) arrives to find herself a suitor... yet when said suitor arrives on the scene Edith finds herself falling head over heals for him.
James Percy (Thomas Gibson) finds himself in love with Edith as well, but their difference in social class reminds them daily that they could never be.
Ida’s jealousy and hate for Edith begins to ruin her happy life at Evenswood, and the story takes a sudden turn.
For the better?
For the worse?
You shall have to find out for yourself.

I will say that The Inheritance becomes a sudden classic. And you can not help but fall in love with Edith’s purity and goodness.

This movie is not rated.
But my little 6 year old brother can see it.

A brilliant cast, stunning photography, a magnificent location and beautiful story.

These are only some of the costumes in The Inheritance sadly there are only a few pictures, but here they are just the same.
This is Edith's ball gown (oh agony! Such a small picture)
These are some of the everyday outfits they wear throughout the film... I would love to recreate so many of these costumes.

Sadly this picture is fuzzy, but you can still see the efort they put into all these costumes.

I love Edith's (far left) outfit, does'nt it make you want to sew! It looks like you could revise it a little from colonial Butterick pattern 3071? sadly it is out of print.

The same gown as the one she wears above, but in color.

Lady Ida's walking dress, for such a terrible character her gowns are wonderful.

The back of another of Edith's stunning gowns, I love the pattern.

Lady Ida and yet another of her breathtaking dresses.

I love Edith's riding outfit, but this is the only picture I was able to find (love the hat)

Edith's ball gown again.

One of Amy's MANY dresses. I would have chucked the bow's though.

A Period Drama Challenge

I am in a period drama challenge! I am in level 5 (Undoubtedly Obsessed) with 12 movies to review! I am doing Bonnets and Hessians (Regency era) and Victorian Mist (Victorian era.

These are the movies I hope to review over the next year (not that I have not seen them before.

The Inheritance

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001)

Persuasion (2007)

Emma (1996)

Cranford (2007)

Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Wives and Daughters (1999)

Little Dorrit (2008)

Northanger Abbey (2007)

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

Jane Eyre(2006)

this should be fun!

I think I will do a review of the movie, and then a quick costume review.