Finished Priscilla Dress

Yesterday I experimented with drafting my own pattern for the 1910's pink dress from the magazine "the Modern Priscilla".  After staring at patterns from the CoPA for forever,  and then going through my patterns I decided to start with using Butterick 6093. Which is a little bit early for the dress, but it generally looked pretty close to the house dress I was aiming for. 

The Modern Priscilla dress is the dress I was aiming to re-create but since it's only a side view I needed to do some research on dresses common around 1917 and due to the nature of the picture (sitting at her grandmother's feet while she sews) and the 'poofy-ness' of the bodice, I concluded it's most likely a house dress.

Via

This was my main inspiration for the dress, though I looked at many other patterns. From this I mostly took the idea of what seems to be an elasticized waist. I tried to research if this was used for house dresses but I couldn't find anything. I can't think of anything else that would give that same look in the pattern drawing as elastic though. Plus, the Butterick pattern wanted to put a zipper in the side and I knew that wouldn't be accurate. 

With the elastic, the blouse ends up more poofy then the pattern intended which means taking pictures of it doesn't work out well. It looks kind of messy, but there will be better pictures later of it actually on me. 

I used the top slanted skirt panel from the Butterick pattern but I probably shouldn't have. It is supposed to have three pleats at the top right but they just got lost in the fabric somehow, so the top skirt just ends up looking crumpled. 

The pattern had a rounded collar but I easily changed that to a square collar like the dress on the magazine has. I considered lace on the collar and cuffs too but I didn't want to stray too far from the magazine dress. 

I didn't think to have some kind of panel in the front until I saw it in the Butterick pattern. I went ahead and made one with some lace on it because I like the panel with the dress. I haven't really been able to tell if this is accurate or not. Many of the dress patterns I looked at didn't have them but the neckline was also higher on them. I saw some examples that did but they were earlier around 1914-1915. 

Fabric: Pink and white cotton. 

Pattern: Butterick 6093

Year: Mid 1910's 

Accuracy: I believe the pattern is from an original Butterick pattern but obviously the instructions were re-written for modern use. I tried to be accurate where I could but I just don't know much about eras outside 1860 and the 18th century! It was machine sewn since by mid 1910's, I believe it would be conceivable for women to sew their dresses from a machine and not by hand anymore(?). 

Time Spent: about an afternoon and evening to sew it together. 

1915-1917 House Dress

I'm attempting a copy of this dress from "The Modern Priscilla" needlework magazine that was on the cover of February 1917. 

I'm pretty sure it's a house dress and I've found a couple of original patterns that look like they were elasticized at the waist? 

via CoPA

My main inspiration is this 1914 "Ladies house Dress with sleeve in wrist or elbow length" Syndicate Pattern #47978. Unfortunately it doesn't have the diagram of pattern pieces to go off of. But it has the elbow length sleeves and collar I want. 

via CoPA

There is also this 1916 Bungalow Apron (apron and house dresses seemed to have been similar? interchangeable?), which does show the pattern pieces and has that same type of waist, and the way the pattern pieces are, it must be elasticized. 

Here are two others that have the shorter sleeves and similar collars. They also have what looks to be a similar waistband. No pattern pieces but, some information about house dresses. Both pictures and info found at Witness 2 Fashion Blog

Finished 1837 Dress

A year after I started planning it, I finally finished the 1837 dress.

I started with the 1837 Day dress from Museum of Costume at Bath which is the book, "The Cut of Women's Clothes 1600-1930" by Norah Waugh. The dress pattern is shown at the bottom of the post. 

I changed the gathered bodice to pleating at the front and split the back pieces so I could have more shape in it, and put piping in. 

Unfortunately, it's hard to see these details in this fabric print.

The fabric is a reproduction fabric from Reproduction Fabrics  

I really wanted a dark blue silk ribbon or maybe velvet to go with the dress, but I ran out of time and this was the closest I could find. In real life, it didn't look so shiny.... 

I also changed the sleeves a bit and don't have the gathered section. I did keep the skirt style of pleats in the front and gathered in the back.  I didn't gather the sleeves, I used pleats because I love the crisp look of that a lot better. 

Details:

Fabric: Cotton reproduction print from Reproduction Fabrics

Pattern: Started with an original pattern from The Cut of Women's Clothes and tweaked to fit in details from the period that I preferred 

Year: 1837 because the pattern I started with was, but it could pass for any of the later 1830 years I think

Historical Accuracy: It was completely hand-sewn, and the fabric print is accurate along with the fabric type since cotton was frequently used for day dresses in this time

Time Spent: Including the planning and procrastinating, a year. Not including the time it took to size the pattern up and tweak it, the actual sewing only took about three or four days of working on it.