So, I really wasn't planning on making another 1850's dress for a while. I had the fabric set aside in my stash to one day become an 1850's dress, but I most certainly wasn't rushing to work on it. This was in mid-July and I was busy working on 1830's things and looking towards what I will be bringing to Welbourne in October. I wasn't thinking 1850's because I had no need to-not until November at Landmark Inn!
Well... a week and a half before Corsets and Cravats, I changed my mind. I had written out exactly what I would be bringing with me and trying to consolidate to bring as little as possible as we were flying. I knew I would be bringing my green wool sheer but I wanted something different for dinner. Nothing seemed right. I went through my closet probably a dozen times just thinking, "no," or "well, that doesn't fit right now". I finally resigned myself to just wearing my green wool sheer for dinner. But it's me. I can't function only wearing one for a whole weekend-even if most of the weekend is not in period dress. I need options!
I have a document on my computer that lists all the fabrics in my stash and what they are destined to be. I kept an eye out for evening or dinner gown, while still remembering which hoop it would have to fit as I was only bringing one hoop. The fabric that caught my eye was a apricot colored jacquard silk. I know I got it at Fabric Mart Fabrics for like $8 or $12/yard but I don't remember exactly when. I know it was after buying the green and blue shot jacquards but before I bought another 'sugar cookie' colored silk from Fabric Mart Fabrics last January. I think I ordered 8 yards and at 55"/yard, I had plenty to work with.
My pinterest board for my dress plans had a single original as the inspiration for this gown:
I knew I wanted something a little different from the original. My original ideas were for a solidly very frilly over the top 1850's dress. While several of my dresses are 1850's, I have decidedly few where I embrace the more 'froo-froo' look of the 1850's.
As I was getting out the fabric, playing with it, and solidifying my plans, I realized that I did not want fringe. Not only had I recently made an 1850's dress with fringe but I did not relish the idea of all that work again. I did, however, like the general design idea. I liked the pointed low body, pelerine, and detachable lower sleeves. Nice, easy transition from day to evening. So, back to the drawing board with trim.
I started to look at 1850's dresses with small checks. Mine is a checked fabric, but appears striped because the vertical stripes are nearly the same color. I came across this:
Perfect for the over-the-top frilly layered look of the 1850's. With a skirt design to yet be decided, I went ahead and cut and sewed the bodice. I took a critical eye to my back closing bodices because, although the pattern is exactly the same as my front closing patterns, none of the bodices I have sewn with back closures ever fit. They were always several inches off. I never could figure out why as they were exactly the same pattern that I made for day wear. I did have one evening bodice that fit-the lilac silk that Paula gave me. She had made up the bodice and it fit very well even despite not being made for me. For this dress, I ended up keeping my front and side bodice pattern as they were very similar to the lilac silk's shape but the back piece, although matching at the top, was over an inch larger than my pattern's at the waist. So I meshed the two and came up with something that ended up fitting (yay!). The upper sleeve pattern is Simplicity 2881-I used the lining pattern and added an inch on either side to make it not so tight around my upper arm. The lower sleeve is Simplicity 3727 (the 'lower sleeve' piece) cut about 3" from the length so it wouldn't be quite so full.
Sewing it, of course, was simple. It took most of a Saturday, but that's only because I hand sew everything as I think it gives a neater look to the finished garment. The sleeves took the longest because of the ruffles that had to be hemmed, gathered, then attached.
I ended up cutting my ruffles at 4" with a 1/2" seam allowance on either end giving me a 3" ruffle. I think it looks about the right size as the original. For evening, I took some antique Chantilly lace that I found on Ebay for lace undersleeves.
Then for the skirt. Oh, the dreaded tiered skirt that I have yet to successfully make. I could not decide exactly what I wanted. I knew I didn't want plain as most of my skirts were plain and the 1850's is a time for fun and silliness and I wanted to capitalize on that! I could not decide between three tiers or two tiers. I really wanted three tiers but could not decide if it would look odd with three tiers but two ruffles on everything else. I asked Paula and she suggested two tiers. I almost did that, but decided to go back to originals and see what I could see. Turns out, two ruffles on sleeves and three tiered skirts were not uncommon in the 1850's. Here are some examples.
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| Unknown collection, ca. 1855. |
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| Whitaker Auction Site, ca. 1856. |
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| Thierry de Maigret sheer cotton voile day dress, circa 1855. |
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| Kyoto Costume Institute, 1855. |
So, as I already had a double layer skirt (Greek key dress) and I could find evidence for what I was thinking, I ended up going with three. I mean, this is the 1850's-it's go big or go home!
I spent most of Sunday afternoon trying to figure out how to properly do a tiered skirt. I can do math but with this project, I was having a hard time figuring out exactly what math to do!
I read in the "Dressmaker's Guide" on how to make a tiered or ruffled skirt. They were generally set on a base skirt and the fashion fabric was set on a cord to draw it up to fit the base skirt. Figuring out how long to cut the panels was difficult. I ended up just cutting the bottom two panels at 20" in length-my finished skirt length is generally 42" so I figured this would be plenty big with several inches of overlap in case a panel flew up for some reason. The top tier ended up as 18". The 20" tiers had several inches overlap-the shown length on all of my tiers was in the 13.5-14" range.
I used 3.5 panels of a 45" fabric for the base. I used a high quality white cotton for my base as I didn't have any extra organdy on hand. You want something that is not heavier than the fashion fabric and since silk taffeta is very light, I was limited in choices. The silk taffeta was 55" wide and I cut 3 panels per tier.
A cotton pocket was put in on one side and then a watch pocket near the center front. The waist is knife pleated towards the back and has a self fabric waistband that closes in the back with hooks and eyes.
Four days later, the skirt was finally finished. Seriously. I can make up a whole dress in a day-a day and a half if I'm doing some heavy trimming. But this one took six days for some reason. Granted, one of those whole days was devoted to figuring out how to do a tiered skirt, but still. It took so. much. time. All that dang hemming of those tiers took at least a day as well. I won't be doing another tiered skirt for a while, that's for sure!
For dinner at Corsets and Cravats, I wore the gown without the pelerine and lower sleeves. As it was a dinner, I covered my shoulders with an organdy fichu (more on that later). This is the picture taken by the Corsets and Cravats photographer at the dinner.
The next planned outing for this dress is the TLHA conference. Pelerine and lower sleeves still aren't done, and probably won't be for a while.
Enjoy!
