The fabric is a lovely large scale blue checked silk taffeta fabric I bought at Fabric Mart Fabrics at one of their $8/yard or $12/yard sales. I can't remember exactly how much I paid for it.
It very much reminds me of the fabric this beautiful lady is wearing:
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| Unknown source |
The basic design of the day dress was based off that photograph and also this original:
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| Ebay |
First of all, the day bodice needed boning put in. I also added some cute little glass buttons as decoration (more on the buttons later). Afterwards, the only thing to do was to attach a real collar and undersleeves. This set I hand embroidered from an 1853 Godey's Lady's Book pattern.
The Book only had the collar pattern so I modified the same design for the undersleeves. I also have plans for a matching handkerchief but that is still getting embroidered. For the undersleeves, I chose a design that seems to be quite popular among surviving originals.
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| Ebay |
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| Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
I think they turned out cute!
The trim idea I got from a few different originals. Now that I have made this dress, I don't think I'll ever put velvet ribbon on top of fringe again, but you do see originals with this treatment so it is by no means incorrect.
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| Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Ebay |
The main part of this project was making an evening bodice. The design was a somewhat simplified version of these two originals:
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| Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Ebay |
The button idea came from a multitude of sources, but here is a dress with lace surrounded buttons.
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| Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Overall, I'm happy with the result!
Enjoy!
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