A New 1840s Dress and Accessorizing the 1840s

I've actually quite enjoyed getting into the 1840s.  I have grown to like the plain, understated look-even though I hated it when I first got into living history.  Since December, I've only had one 1840s dress and even though I only have attended single day 1840s events, I knew I wanted a 'back-up' dress just in case.

I purchased this fabric from Thousands of Bolts.  This website is awesome for cotton prints.  They have great reproduction fabric at 1/2 the cost of other sites.  Of course, not every fabric is good for just any time period, but I've had reasonable success finding fabric for what I need here.

It reminded me of a few 1840s chevron prints I had seen before.

National Gallery of Victoria

Unknown collection, accessed through Pinterest

Private collection, accessed through Etsy

I used my 1840s dress base, which I made off Truly Victorian's 1845 German day dress pattern.  I didn't have to change a whole lot-just shorten the waist by a LOT (a common complaint of TV's patterns, I hear), take up a little under the bust, and take up a little at the shoulder seams.  Other than that, the size I chose fit me pretty well.

Of course the gown is entirely hand stitched, since this is the early 1840s we're talking about.  Most of the skirt is done with a running stitch but the bodice is done with a back stitch.  I worked really hard on getting my stitches tiny.  There are even some spots where I managed 18 stitches per inch, though mostly it was about 15 stitches per inch.

I lined the bodice and faced the skirt with brown cotton and piped the neckline, armscyes, waistline, and center front seam.  The bodice closes up the back with hooks and eyes and I chose to pleat the skirt in 1/2" pleats instead of gauging.

After finishing the dress, I took a hard look at my 1840s wardrobe and decided I really needed to work on some linens.  I had one chemisette, but no handkerchiefs or cuffs for either dress.  So I started with the green dress.

Since I had a plain chemisette (no lace, ruffles, or frills) that I had been using for the green dress, I made a pair of plain cuffs to go with it.  A simple 18" handkerchief done up with a narrow hem completed the set.

For the chevron dress, I knew I wanted something a little fancier. Looking through 1840s photographs had me set my heart on ruffles.

Accessed through Flickr

Although this portrait shows lace cuffs, I did find a photograph of a woman with ruffled cuffs (although her ruffles are probably lace and not plain).

Uncredited

I also wanted a ruffled handkerchief.  I found one in the MET that is similar to my design, only it used netting for the ruffle and I kept with the lawn I used for the collar and cuffs and skipped the lace insertion.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1825-1850

For my set, I used some cotton lawn I had in the stash. At first, I was unsure how to finish the ruffles but I found an 1830s double collar in the MET that clearly showed that the ruffle hem was narrow hemmed and where the ruffle met the base collar had been felled.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1830s

I made the chemisette the same way I made the plain one, but added an 1" wide ruffle to the edge of the collar.  This one also closes with buttons and ties at the sides.

The cuffs again were simple-just measured the wrist of the sleeve, cut a 2" strip and added a 1" ruffle to each.

And finally the handkerchief.  I knew the finished size of the handkerchief should be somewhere in the 18"-20" range.  In my mind, I saw the original handkerchief to be 2/3 handkerchief and 1/3 ruffle as a whole.  Shooting for 18", I knew the handkerchief would need to be a finished (read:hemmed) 12" (I cut 12.5") and the ruffle 3" (I cut 3.5").  The ruffle is set on with not a lot of extra fabric so I chose a little over 1.25 times the amount of handkerchief, or roughly 17" for each side for a total ruffle length of 60".

I also decided to make two pairs of 'tidy cuffs' from The Workwoman's Guide.  These are to be used in the kitchen or anywhere one is concerned with dirtying the sleeves of a gown.  They are made from holland (polished cotton) and the WWG says they can be braided as well.

I made a pair of brown polished cotton tidy cuffs with no braiding and a pair of blue polished cotton cuffs with red braiding.

The cuffs lace up with silk ribbons through hand-bound eyelets (one of my first times actually doing eyelets-at least successfully).  I think they turned out great!

I now feel like I have a functioning 1840s wardrobe.  I have underpinnings, two dresses, linens, a few shawls, and a bonnet.  It's basic, but very functional.  I can't wait to get to wear them again!

Enjoy!