Bliss Bennet. The passion of historical romance.

Bliss Bennet writes smart, edgy novels for readers who love history as much as they love romance.

  • HOME
  • BOOKS
  • BIO
  • BLOG
  • EXTRAS
  • CONTACT

Putting together a new cover, step by step

June 7, 2016 By BlissBennet Leave a Comment

np402fb_klI’m in the final stages of drafting Theo Pennington’s story, book #3 in The Penningtons series. And so I’m also working on putting together a cover for the new book, which will be titled A Lady without a Lord. Curious about how a cover gets designed? Step behind the curtain, and I’ll take you on a quick tour…

For me, step one is choosing a cover model, and then sewing her a historically-accurate dress to wear. Lucky for me, my daughter has a lot of friends who are eager to brag that they’ve been featured on the cover of a romance novel…

Step two is choosing a dress pattern. I like to use historical reproduction patterns so that the garments on my covers look authentic, rather than photoshopped wedding or prom gowns. For A Lady without a Lord, I chose a pattern from Nehelenia, a company in Germany. Nehelenia based their pattern on an actual dress from the period, which is in the holdings of Schloss Hohenlimburg in Westphalia, Germany. Rumor has it that the original dress belonged to Princess Agnes of Bentheim-Tecklenburg, who lived in the castle until 1830, although no actual historical documentation exists to back up the rumor. I was particularly drawn to the box pleats on the gown’s bodice—a little difficult to make, but oh, so beautiful when finished!

The actual dress, on display at Schloss Hohenlimburg

Princess Agnes’s dress, on display at Schloss Hohenlimburg

IMG_0189.JPGStep three is choosing fabric and trimmings. Silk is typically my preferred fabric, as it was widely used for evening gowns in the Regency period. There are some good fabric stores near where I live, but they often don’t stock 100% silk, so I usually end up ordering my fabric online. Given my model’s coloring, I decided upon a mustardy-gold color for her gown, and selected a gold/silver/copper braid to trim its bodice and sleeves.

IMG_0188.JPGCutting out the pattern pieces and sewing the dress comes next. The sewing for this gown presented a bit of a challenge, given that the pattern is from Germany, and had far more brief instructions than I’m used to following. Worst of all, it had no helpful illustrations! I decided to make a muslin mock-up of the bodice first, before cutting into my expensive silk, just to make sure I knew how to fold those complicated pleats.

If I were being completely historically accurate, I would have sewn the gown all by hand. But I have to admit my handy sewing machine is just a little too tempting, especially when it comes to those long skirt seams…

Finished dress in hand, I next had to schedule the photo shoot. Quite a feat, given the busy spring schedules of my model (a graduating high school senior who is also an internationally-ranked fencer), my photographer (who also works as a psychologist), and my hair designer (my daughter, another soon-to-be high school graduate). But this past weekend, we finally managed to all gather on a sunny afternoon in my backyard, where we shot multiple versions of the same two model positions, one that echoed those of the models on the covers of the first two books in the Penningtons series.

Both A Rebel without a Rogue and A Man without a Mistress show a lady holding something behind her back. Can you see what the heroine of A Lady without a Lord has in hand?

DSC_0088

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next week, I’ll show you what happens during the cover design process after you’ve selected your cover photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: A Lady without a Lord, Book Production

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

RSS Bliss Bennet. The passion of historical romance.

  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates January 1817
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates December 1816
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates November 1816
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates October 1816
  • Ackermann’s September 1816 Fashion Plates
  • Ackermann’s August 1816 Fashion Plates
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates July 1816
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates June 1816
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates May 1816
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates April 1816

Categories

  • A Lady without a Lord
  • A Man without a Mistress
  • Book Production
  • Guest Post lins
  • Rebel without a Rogue
  • Regency Curiosities
  • Regency History
  • Uncategorized
  • Writer's Life

Archives

  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
SITE NAVIGATION

Home
Books
Bio
Blog
Contact
Newsletter
Privacy Policy

TWITTERTweets by BlissBennet
SOCIAL
Bliss Bennet Facebook
Bliss Bennet Twitter
Bliss Bennet Pinterest
Bliss Bennet GoodReads