Jane Seymour knows the perfect recipe for a love story: an elegant turn-of-the-century hotel, plenty of horse-drawn carriages, all mixed with generous dashes of lush gardens and deep front porches.

It's a formula that's worked in the past for the British actress. Take the cult classic "Somewhere in Time," the 1980 movie co-starring Seymour and Christopher Reeve and filmed on Michigan's quaint Mackinac Island, where cars are banned and people still travel by horse, carriage and bicycle.

Nearly a quarter century after the movie was shot, Seymour is using the island and its famous Grand Hotel as the inspiration for her newest line of linens and home accessories.

And like the movie, the Grand Hotel-Mackinac Island collection is heavy on the romance. The collection includes ultra-feminine quilts, comforters, sheets, pillows and accessories in pastels, whites and ecru.

"It just feels so clean and modern and timeless. It's got a slight turn-of-the-century feel to it. When you put it together, it looks like it could be a wedding bed," said Seymour, perhaps best known as the star of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."

"I think there's nothing more exciting than a beautiful bedset. Your bedroom really is the core of your home. It's a place you wake up in the morning and a place you go to get away from the world at night."

Seymour will be at Proffitt's at the Riverchase Galleria today to promote the collection, which features bedding and accessories that capture the spirit of the Victorian-era hotel and the resort island.

She expects the line to sell well in Birmingham, which was chosen as the first market for the line because it's the hometown of Proffitt's parent company, Saks Inc.

"I think people from the South are really into elegant living," she said. "I think they'll like it because it's really different from what else is out there. It looks really rich, but it's very affordable, surprisingly so."

Seymour, also an author and a painter, has designed two other home collections: St. Catherine's Court, inspired by her 14th century manor home in England, and Coral Canyon, based on her Malibu home.

The debut of the Grand Hotel-Mackinac Island collection is particularly poignant because of the recent death of Reeve, a close friend. She plans to fly from Birmingham to New York for his memorial service on Friday.

"It's been hard for the past week or so," she said in a phone interview. "It was such a shock to everyone. For me, it's been alternating crying because I'm upset about it, and at the same time, being unbelievably proud of him."

Seymour said Reeve knew she was designing a home collection inspired by the Grand Hotel, but he never saw it. In fact, she planned to call him earlier this month and tell him about the project.

But Reeve, who was paralyzed nine years ago in a horse-riding accident, died of complications from an infection from a bedsore the day before Seymour planned to call him.

Seymour said the pair had a "special connection, a special chemistry." While filming "Somewhere in Time," they became fast friends, riding bikes and sailing together on Mackinac Island. Reeve even taught her to fly an airplane.

"Of all the people I've worked with in my career, he's the one person I've maintained very close contact with," she said. She and her husband named one of their twin sons after Reeve.

"Somehow the one we called Kris has turned out to be very much like Chris (Reeve). He's an unbelievable athlete, very bright, very strong, solidly built, much bigger than his twin," she said.