Fixing It - 1865 Edition

I'll be the first to admit that I'm often a procrastinator in getting my sewing done for events.  It is not at all uncommon to find me stitching instead of sleeping for the week before an event.  As such, occasionally, things get slapped together or basted together rather hastily and therefore do not last.  In an attempt to get my wardrobe ready for when events start back, I went through everything and put notes on every item that needed assistance.

This week, I worked on my late war wardrobe as there wasn't a lot to do and I felt I could get it all done in one fell swoop.  I had a petticoat that I wanted to fanc-i-fy, a bodice to bone, and a dress to refit and fix.  Not all that difficult.

First, the petticoat.  I made a plain over-the-hoop petticoat for the red dress several years ago.  Somehow, I managed to misplace it at one point and made a second plain petticoat.  After finding the first petticoat (I had left it at Liendo), and not needing two plain petticoats, I resolved to add some whitework to make one of them a little nicer.

The process was fairly simple.  I just took out the hem, and added the whitework and cover the raw edges.

As most petticoats were gathered with stoke gathers instead of pleating, I took out the waistband (while I was fixing things anyway) and re did that as well.

Then it was onto the dresses.  I currently have two 1865 dresses-both silk.  The green dress was nearly prefect, but needed a bit of boning in the bodice.  Easy fix!

The red dress needed a bit more work.  It was the first dress I ever hand stitched and I really did not know what I was doing when I stitched it!  I used a fairly large running stitch instead of tiny backstitches and I had seams ripping out.  Running through all the seams with a machine easily fixed that.

I also refit the bodice as it was a bit small.  It mostly included extending out the front a bit and repositioning and boning the darts.

Then it was on to the evening bodice, which just needed some reinforcement of the seams and boning in the darts

And lastly, the skirt, which had some problems.  I used a polyester ribbon for the waistband, so I took that out and made one out of polished cotton.  I also added a watch pocket while I was at it.

The skirt pocket was in rough shape as well so it was recut out of polished cotton and added in place of the self-fabric one.

I also found that I needed to add skirt lifters in twill tape to replace the polyester ribbon ones.

The red dress also needed new collar, undersleeves, and handkerchief.  I found a pattern for an embroidered butterfly for those exact accessories in Godey's Lady's Book, 1865.  There were lots of butterflies to choose from-it seems to be a popular motif!

And that was the end of my 1865 sewing adventures for the week.  Yay for a fully functioning late to post war wardrobe!

Enjoy!