A Time in History: Recreating an 1850s Silk Dress

So remember a few months ago when I did a post about a new original I added to the collection? And I said I would recreate it? Well, I finally had the time to sit down and do it.

Since I already recreated a black silk dress, I decided to do a different color than the original for this gown. Since the original gown was more of a tissue taffeta than a normal taffeta, that limited my color choices somewhat. Two of my three other 1850s gowns were blue so that ruled that out-I decided that a little variety was in order. Purple, I felt, was too close to blue and since the cotton candy silk already had some pink, I ruled that color out as well. There were some really pretty shot taffetas and a few greens I considered, but I ended up going with red.

The dress was easy to make up-gauged skirt (to which I added a watch pocket), skirt pocket, and facing done in polished cotton. I did attempt hem braid for the first time-I think I may go with a slightly wider wool braid next time.

The bodice features absolutely no boning, but instead is gathered both in the front and the back-even the lining is gathered. The bodice closes with hooks and eyes, spaced a rather whopping 1.5" apart. The bodice also featured a self-fabric waistband that is piped along the bottom (along with the neckline and armscye). The only real changes I had to make to my normal bodice pattern was to cut it 1.5" shorter to accommodate the waistband and to add width to the back bodice to allow for the gathering.

The sleeves are bishop-not ever my first (or second) choice in sleeves, but I think they turned out nice. They have a self-fabric cuff that is trimmed with a ruching of self fabric. The cuffs close with hooks and eyes and I also added some small white linen cuffs.

For the collar, I chose an 1854 Godey's Lady's Book pattern for a crochet collar. I used size 30 crochet cotton, which in hindsight was still probably a bit thick for what I needed it to do. I used a crochet hook that is itty bitty but labeled size 7.

I made up the collar mostly similar to the original pattern, making some changes to the leaves to make it lay better. Here is my version of the pattern, with modern crochet language.
Chain 180 stitches.
Row 1: Work a sc in every chain across (180 stitches).
Row 2: *3 dc, ch 3, miss 3. Repeat from * across. You should end on a 3 dc.
Row 3: *3sc, ch 3, miss 3. Repeat from * across. You should end on a 3 sc.
Row 4: *Sl st on the 1st sc, ch 6, skip 5 stitches. Repeat from * across. I think I added a little chain of 3 at the end to make it since it didn't match up perfectly.
Row 5: *Ch 7, sl st on the center of the loop. Repeat from * across.
Row 6: Sl st until you get to the center of the 1st loop, *ch 6, sl st on the center of the next loop. Repeat from * across.
Row 7: Sc on every chain, miss every sl st.
Row 8: Sl st the 1st 6 stitches. *Ch 9, sl st in same stitch, ch 12, sl st in same stitch, ch 9, sl st in same stitch. Turn work, work a sc in every ch across, missing the sl st. Turn work. Sl st in 1st 3 sc, then attach your leaf to the ground by taking the 4th sc to your right that is on the ground. Work both stitches as 1 (sc). Sc on the remaining sc, sl st once you reach the end of the leaf. Sl st on the next stitch, ch 2, work a sc in the next 10 stitches. Work a sl st in the 11th stitch. Repeat from * across. You should end with 6 sc stitches. On the last stitch, work the 1st point of the last leaf in with the last stitch to attach them.
Row 9: *Ch 7, sl st in the center of the 2nd point of the leaf, ch 12, sl st in the center of the 1st point of the next leaf. Repeat from * across.
Row 10: Sc in every stitch across.
Row 11: 2 sc, *3ch, sc in the next 3 stitches. Repeat from * until you get to the big (middle) point of the 1st leaf. Sl st in the middle stitch, ch 6, sl st back in the same stitch. Repeat with the 3 ch, sc in the next 3 stitches until you get to the next leaf's middle point. Repeat across.
Row 12: Sc in all of the previous sc on the last row but work the chains as such: 1 sl st, 4 sc, 1 sl st.

Row 13: Sc in 1st stitch, *ch 3, skip 2, sc 1. Repeat from * across. When you reach the end, start working up the side of the collar the same way. I slip stitched across the neckline to do the same on the other side of the collar.

I also made a linen handkerchief to match the cuffs.

The only thing that was left was to make up the pelerine. I added a bit at the shoulders to give myself some more wiggle room and added a bit more across the fronts as well to make it meet in the front. Other than that, I made it up exactly as the original. The pelerine is trimmed in antique silk fringe I found online.