Hello Everyone!
I'm delighted to share with you this creation of many years, my *first* Civil War Dress! For as long as I can remember, I have loved and admired the beautiful gowns of the 1860s, but it has taken me until this September to get it fully finished.
I started it about two years ago. I made a chemise, a corset, drawers, and the dress. The biggest problem that I didn't have a hoop skirt...and since I've always wanted one, I decided that this summer was the time to make one!
This isn't a post about my undergarments, so I won't get into to much detail about the corset and hoop skirt and petticoats. But I just have to mention my hoop skirt, because I love it so much! If I was a woman who lived in that day, I would see it as something "liberating", since it frees you from all those layers of petticoats and is so much cooler for summer and indoor events. I made the hoop skirt this September. After searching around on the internet for the cheapest option, I finally decided to draft my own hoop. I ended up making the entire thing for about $45 dollars, which I think is a pretty good deal! The circumference of the bottom hoop ended up to be about 120", though the finished product may have grown a little.
So, now, onto the dress...
I used the Laughing Moon 1860's Dress Pattern. The pattern went together really well. It fit almost prefect, and I hardly had to make any adjustments to the pattern. I originally made the dress with the pagoda sleeve option, but after doing some more research and looking at more period pictures, I decided that the pagoda sleeves needed to go. There were also some other adjustments that needed to be made.
So this summer, I "re-made" the dress, almost from the beginning. I took off the sleeves and the skirt, then fit the bodice a little better. Before, it had been slightly crooked and the binding fit very strangely. Once the bodice was finished, I re-pleated the skirt, this time with a dog-leg closure, sort of complicated, but pretty common in these mid-victorian gowns.
The skirt is fitted to the waistband in three different ways. The back has cartridge pleats, the sides are two big box pleats, and the front is knife pleated. I love the way how these pleats all flow out over the hoops.
Cartridge pleats just make me so happy:)
The sleeves are probably my favorite part of the finished dress! I based them off of several pictures I'd seen, and I'm totally in love with them! For the sleeves, I just drafted them on the bias, and sewed them until the fit. The puffs were made by following the tutorial on Romantic History, and they turned out great! The cuffs are just basted on, and I based them off a period photograph.
Every material I used in making this dress is from Hobby Lobby, I think. The fabric is some blue and tan small plaid that I have always admired. The dress is entirely flatlined with plain cream cotton, which makes it sit really nice, but also makes it really hot. Especially when its 75 degrees in full sun...:) But anyway...
Even though a lot of people think that clothes from this time were really restricting and hard to live in, I've found that I can function pretty well in them! In the afternoon that we took these pictures, I went walking for a mile in the corset and hoop skirt, and went walking through corn fields! And it was all comfortable and easy.
Fall leaves and civil war dresses...two of my favorite things. Especially when they're together:)
Photos by my sister.
