A Time in History: A New Sheer Dress

This is a dress started over a year ago. I had meant to have it done for Corsets and Cravats but never finished it and decided to wear my semi-sheer wool instead. So into the closet went the floral wreath dress.

I purchased the fabric from puresilks.us-they have several colorways. The actual fabric is an exact reproduction of an original gown in Glenna Jo Christen (there is actually a Past Patterns pattern of the original). The original gown was in the brown colorway, but it is reproduced not only in brown but also in white, pink, and blue. I choose white. I liked the idea of being able to change up the look quite a bit by just using accessories.

For the skirt, I made a skirt pocket and a watch pocket and gauged the waist. The bodice has a boned, darted lining with a gathered fashion fabric. It closes with hooks and eyes and features a lace-edged collar. I used the same lace on the (short) undersleeves as well as the handkerchief that goes with the ensemble.

Inspiration sleeves for my dress. The short sleeved bit is most likely an underbodice (corset cover type garment) over which the long sleeved, v-neck bodice would have been worn.

The Swedish Singer Jenny Lind, C.1852 by Louis Lang

After the dress was done, it was on to accessories. This painting caught my eye for colors:

Portrait of Mademoiselle Mathilde de Nédonchel by Alexis Joseph Pérignon, 1869

The blue against the white was just so stunning! So I purchased several yards of morning glory blue silk satin ribbon from Timely Tresses and got to work.

I opted not to do the rosette belt as I can't find evidence of rosette belts pre 1864 so I instead used a belt buckle with my blue belt.

The hairnet was trickier. I liked the two layers of ribbon but also knew I'd have to document it to earlier if I wanted it to work with a ca. 1860 dress. I started with fashion magazines and photographs but couldn't quite find what I wanted.

Frank Leslie's Magazine, 1864

Unknown image

So I went back to paintings. One can often see better views of the sides and backs of a subject in paintings than in photographs. After all, it is not often that someone takes a side or back image of their hair. I did find a few paintings of double hair-thingies but they often seemed resigned to evening wear.

Young Woman Reading, 1856 by Alfred Stevens

So, back at the drawing board, I went looking just for 1860s hairnets to see some variation. At last, I found a few CDVs that struck my fancy. Instead of having a full ribbon 'headband' bit, there were just bows at the side of an invisible hairnet.

Bow just on one side-plus a cute baby!

Bows on both sides. You can just see the other bow poking out from the side of her face.

One sided. Look at the pretty bows on her bodice, too!

I opted for bows on each side and went with a four-looped bow instead of the traditional two-looped bow. The only thing I didn't copy from the center portrait was that it looks like her bows may have a sort of button in the center but I left that out.

I think the result is cute! And certainly a variation that doesn't get seen in living history so much. Ribbon hairnets, I will admit, are somewhat overdone in living history but I'm happy to provide a different style that was seen back then but not so much now. Of course, not wearing a hairnet is perfectly correct as well!

I also made a ribbon neck tie I could wear with a brooch. I think neck ties are vastly under represented in the hobby right now. I can't imagine why-there is so much variation and they are so cute!