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. 

Plans for the 1830 Lovina Barber Dress

I'm about to start work on an 1830's dress to submit for a DAR contest due in January 2015. It sounds super far away, but I want to focus on details for this. So here is my general plan.

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1. Under things: 

Chemise, made of linen. I'd like to go with one similar to this below. Another example of this is seen at Frolicking Frocks and it comes from the Workwomen's guide which you can read online on Google books! The book is from 1840 but I am aiming for a later 1830's dress so I'm okay with that. 

Corset, or are they still called stays at this time? I still need to do more research on the style I want, but I do think I want it to be corded instead of bone if that will work for a later 1830's style. I also want to go all out on embroidery for it!

Petticoats: a corded one or a quilted one, plus 2 or three plain ones similar to the layers of skirts seen here. I would really love to do a quilted satin one, but that would be so much work and time and wouldn't be shown. 

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2. The Dress

Initially my first thought was to go with a day time dress made of something like cotton. I'm really leaning towards this because I love the late 1830's sleeves but... an evening dress just usually is more stunning. 

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This dress above is my all time favorite day time late 1830's dress, but I wonder if it's somewhat plain compared to what you could do with a ballgown. I've spent so much time looking at all sorts of 1830's dresses but I really just love this one so much. 

If I do end up on this, I do want to do some kind of printed cotton. While I don't want to replicate this exactly I still want accuracy, so I am thinking of finding an 1840 print I like and trying to make it on Spoonflower.

Williamsburg also has these three absolutely beautiful fabrics, here, here, and here; but they're for the 18th century. They look sort of similar to 1830 cotton print designs perhaps, maybe?? 

3. Everything else

Shoes, hair, jewelry. I've pinned some things to my pinterest board for this project but I can't even begin to think much about what I'll do till I get further into this project.