Fixing It - The Pink Silk Dress

Next 'to do' in fixing all the wonderful incomplete garments in the closet is a pink silk dress.  I apparently never wrote up a blog post for it at all, which may be because I just made the skirt and a very plain evening bodice.  I wore the skirt with a white waist and silk jacket to Welbourne in 2018 but that was the only time the dress has come out.

I really had no inspiration for the dress-pink is NOT my favorite color, however, when you find a solid silk taffeta at $8/yard, you snap it up regardless of color.  You typically find plaids and the occasional stripe for such a price-almost never a solid.

Taking out the dress, I was quick to figure out that very little needed done to the skirt-it had an appropriate waist treatment for my target year (1862-1864), a self-fabric waistband, watch pocket and skirt ties.  The only thing I did with the skirt is to replace the self-fabric pocket with one of polished cotton, as is most typical of the period.

Next, I took out the excess fabric from the stash and started on a day bodice.  I found this lovely painting that spoke to me in regards to trim:

Le rendez-vous galant, 1865 by Auguste Toulmouche.
I don't know what that young man is telling her, but I do know
that she is not buying any of it!

I had never seen a pink silk gown that I liked before finding this painting.  The painting itself has become one of my favorites just because of her facial expression!  Now this painting is a little later than I was going for, so a few changes needed to be made.  First, the little stand up collar with trim around the neckline had to go.  In its place, I placed a flat collar embroidered with black silk.  I got the idea from Godey's Lady's Book, which occasionally talks about embroidering collars and cuffs in colors (particularly in blue or red-both color fast cotton dyes in the period) but this particular article discussed embroidering the collar and cuffs in black silk (silk was apparently more color fast than cotton).  I had plenty of silk buttonhole twist so I went to town and did a chicken foot stitch (which I like to call the coral stitch) around the edge of the collar and cuffs.

Other than that, I kept true to the design.  The skirt was already pleated in knife pleats, which look like the painting.  I made up a high bodice with narrow coat sleeves, although I did add undersleeves to mine and put the cuffs on the undersleeves.  I can't quite tell if the painting put cuffs directly on the sleeve or if she has undersleeves as well.  I also broke out some gorgeous black buttons from the Button Baron.  They have this lovely gold flower design in the center and I think they look great with the pink on the gown!

The top of the bodice is meant to close with a brooch, so no button there-this is the same treatment we see on my 1860s original black silk bodice.  I opted to not put a button on the bottom so that a belt will sit better.   The last two buttons were used to close the cuffs.

As of right now, I am wearing my normal black velvet belt with a wheat belt buckle done by Beth Miller Hall on Etsy.  I do plan eventually to make a pointed belt similar to the painting-you do see those types of belts earlier.  That's a project for another day!

And with that, the day bodice was done.  It was time to move onto the evening bodice.  The bodice itself was basically done-but as I intended this to be a ball gown, I did take out the neckline piping and lower the front neckline about an inch or so to make it more appropriate for a period ball room.  But nothing else really needed to be done to the bodice itself.  It was time to move onto decorating.

I had a former set of undersleeves and bertha that no longer fit but had this gorgeous original Maltese lace embellishing it.  I picked the old bertha apart to make a new one and used the lace on the undersleeves to finish out the gown's double puff sleeves.

The bertha was modeled after several originals-it's a style that shows up frequently.

This is actually the same gown as directly above.

The original bertha that I made was modeled after this original, sans the lapel type things at the end.

My bertha has a base of white silk taffeta, over which is laid a shirring of white silk organza.  Little strips of pink silk were put over the seams that shirred the organza and my original lace was put on top of that.  The bottom of the bertha was finished with more lace and it has hooks and eyes that close it over the left shoulder.

The only other thing the ball bodice needed at that point was a tucker.  Tuckers are little bits of netting and lace that function much like a collar-they protect the edge of the dress and are meant to be disposable.  It also helps snug up the top of the neckline to prevent any gaps.  For my tucker, I chose some cotton netting with some lace beading and a tiny scant 1/4" lace edging.  I found some pink silk ribbon in my stash to lace it up with.

And that was that.  Another dress done.  Technically this is my only true ball gown that I own, which I suppose is helpful even though I don't often attend balls.  At least now I have one.  The day dress will certainly get some use when we start having events again.

Enjoy!