My First 1830s Dress

 Finally, we have a dress!  With all the shawls, bonnets, caps, petticoats, and other various 1830s dresses, I was wondering if we'd ever get to making the dresses!

The fabric is Andover's Chatham Hall collection, I'm not sure of the exact title.

The design is similar to several original 1830s dresses, which is why I chose it.

Kerry Taylor Auctions

Mode Muze

Philadelphia Museum

The only thing that I didn't like about the fabric was the monotone fabric (that fear was eased when I found the Philadelphia Museum dress above) and the fact that it has little dots all over it.  But according to the Mode Muze, that particular dress is described as "made of fine white cotton, printed background of purple dots and stripes in whimsical motifs in lilac, beige, red and green".  Also, this dress from the Metropolitan Museum of Art has dots as well.

For my dress, I decided to copy one that is for sale on Etsy right now.

It's a front closing gown (yay!) that's made from a cotton print.  The nice thing about for sale items is that you generally get really detailed pictures.  I could tell exactly where this gown was piped, how it was closed, what was cut on the bias vs on the straight, etc.  That was extremely helpful while I was planning out this dress!

The only thing I really changed from the original was to add more hooks and eyes for closures and skirt slits to access pockets.  There were no picture of the hem but I could tell that the skirt was not lined, so I opted for a very short facing to finish off the hem.

I also added a self fabric pelerine that is piped along the edge.  I used a Workwoman's Guide pattern for that, which was helpful.

Many more to come!

Enjoy!