A Time in History: Peacock Dress

I love my new peacock dress so much that I decided it needed its own post. So, here it goes!

The fabric is a tissue taffeta from Puresilks.us. I believe they call it 'mary ann' silk. It's super thin but not sheer at all. The peacock fabric came out a little more slubby than I would otherwise like, but my other length, a sky blue, was perfect. I believe this is the fabric: http://www.puresilks.us/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=7386&search=mary+ann&page=2. It says green shot blue, but it is really purple not blue.

I cut my skirt as usual and knife pleated it. I faced it with cotton sateen from Joann's. With how thin it was, I really should have lined it, but I did not. Perhaps a fix for later. Finding polished cotton in Texas is impossible, so I opted for a light brown sateen in the same shade as period linings instead. The entire dress is completely hand sewn, something I'm trying to do more of. Yes, machine sewing is period correct; but I have found that it is actually quite relaxing to hand stitch a gown. The skirt wasn't the hard part, though.

I cut the bodice as a low body on my normal bodice pattern. I piped the armholes, neckline, and waistline as normal. Hand sewing piping isn't my favorite thing to do, but I did it. It's done.

For the fichu, I used my bodice pattern then just cut it across the front and made it long like a fichu shape... I know that doesn't make any sense but I can't think of any other way to explain it. I wish I had fixed the neckline before hand, as it is a little low in the back, but that's okay. I put velvet trim on the seam that connected the van dykes to the fichu to hide the seam, since I did not make it in one piece, but my original idea was not to trim this dress at all... I wanted the fabric and design to shine through, not any trims.

Original dress from Ebay with a fichu like mine

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The sleeves are Van Dyke, such as these CDVs.

CDV, Etsy

CDV, unknown

CDV, Ebay

I don't know what originally drew me to this, except that it looked fairly easy, and I thought it would be cool to see the white undersleeves under the sleeves. The first few attempts at the sleeves were awful. Finally, I went back to the originals and realized I was making my v's too deep and they were super long and funky looking. So I cut more that were a little shorter, and I like them much better. I put a pagoda underneath them for day wear since I am a little bit older. I can also take the pagodas off and have a very nice evening/ball gown with short sleeves. I thought this gown would look really nice with my white bertha with all the original Maltese lace. I could also put the matching undersleeves on it and make it look really nice.

I wore the dress with my chemisette and a brooch/earring set I made myself. All the supplies were from Fire Mountain Gems and I like how these turned out. The red really looks good with the peacock dress and is a nice contrast.