1860s Day Dress and Evening Bodice

Happy Easter to everyone!

I have finished third Victorian dress from the book Making Victorian Costumes for Women by Heather Audin. This one is from 1860s aka American Civil War era. I used dark mauve taffeta as main fabric, mauve ornamented velvet as complementary fabric and white cotton as lining. Again I didn´t scale the pattern from the book, I drafted the pattern myself and made proper adjustments for the period. 

Pinning the trim in place on day bodice. The trim is entirely sewed on by hand.

I used spiral boning and boning casing for both bodices.

Hemming the day bodice by hand.

Pleating the skirt into the waistband.

Making the pleated section for evening bodice. 

One of four sections pleated with curved bottom edge.

All four sections sewed together.

And there was a snag attaching the pleated section to evening bodice just as I suspected. Curved neckline was too small for top edge of pleated section, bottom edge fitted just perfectly. So I made 2 darts in front and 2 in back.

Wrong side of pleated section, 

Front and side view of finished 1860s Day Dress. Apologies for the round crinoline underneath instead of elliptical crinoline. I have not yet made the elliptical crinoline for the dress but it´s definitely on the "To do" list ;) 

Back and side view of finished 1860s Day Dress.

Day bodice.

Detail of the peplum and corded piping on the back of day bodice. I used velvet for the piping.

Detail of the peplum waistband. I used viscose machine embroidery thread and decorative stitch (on the machine) over satin ribbon.

Inside of day bodice.

Front and side view of finished 1860s Evening dress. The dress uses same skirt and peplum as day version. 

Details of decorative stitching on evening bodice. These stitches were sewed on Henrietta. 

Top view of evening bodice.

Miniskirt with layered side-godets made from velvet scraps from the 1860s Day Dress. The pattern is from Burda 1/2015 magazine. 

1860s evening and day bodices with velvet miniskirt for contemporary wear. The peplum could have been added to these outfits as well. I intend to bring Victorian fashion back ;)

1850s Printed Cotton Day Dress

Hello again!

My second replica dress is finished! :) This one is from 1850s and is made of printed cotton. Pattern is from the book Making Victorian Costumes for Women by Heather Audin. I made some alterations and I drafted the pattern myself again. 

I did some hand embroidery using Cotton Perle thread over the smocking. This provides embellishment as well as it strengthens the smocking against coming apart.

Instead of boning I used horsebraid on side-seams and center back. Attached by hand using overcasting stitch.

Both collar and hem on the bodice have corded piping which can be tricky to work with. Here´s how I did the corners: allow about 2 cm extra length for piping, fold facing over. Pull piping downwards and sew over. Trim excess piping and corner.

Finished corner.

Inside of the bodice.

Facing attached by hand using cat stitch.

I did the sleeve-caps differently. The pattern suggests only one layer and edge folded under. I made them double, joined at the bottom edge.

Finished sleeve-caps with double row of lace trimming.

Sleeves fit in the armhole beautifully! How happy that makes me. :)

Sewing bodice to skirt with my dear assistant Basil. Skirt is cartridge-pleated to waistband and then sewn to bodice forming an overlap.

 Front view of finished 1850s dress. Photographed with a crinoline underneath.

Side views of the finished dress.

Detail of the bodice and sleeve.

Closures. I didn´t use hooks all the way down the bodice, instead I used 4 snap fasteners for greater security since, due to smocking, the dress is very snug fit. Second picture shows overlap of the skirt and skirt fastening. Again I used 3 snap fasteners for the skirt so the seam is fully closed.

Detail of skirt´s attachment.