Alright, this post is a little different than my previous sewing posts as it is in two parts. The first part I wrote almost a year ago, when I finished making the dress the first time. And the second part I wrote not long before publishing this post which happened to be that same day that I finished remaking the dress.
Part 1: The Original Construction
Disclaimer: For all you history buffs – This is not at all a historically accurate outfit. I merely borrowed inspiration from the Civil War era. This dress was not made for reenacting or anything that requires 100% historically accurate reproduction, so I didn’t worry too much about making it ‘authentic’. It is just a Civil War inspired sewing project that I decided to share here on the blog. I do hope to re-do this dress at some point to make it more ‘historically accurate’. In the meantime, however, I enjoy wearing it as it is.
Origin and Inspiration
For quite some time, I wanted to sew an 1860’s camp dress, but I didn’t have the proper undergarments or the right material. However after finding Atlanta’s blog (which is full of Civil War sewing projects and fun stuff!) and reading the Battle for Heritage Series, I knew I had to go ahead and make a vaguely-1860s-inspired dress anyway.
Originally, I was going to use Rebecca’s dress here (Rebecca is on the left) and this pattern as my inspiration, but I knew that I needed to change it a bit to fit my tastes. I wanted it to button up in the front. So I did some looking and found this dress of Atlanta’s.
The fabric wasn’t hard to pick. I had a length of blue cotton plaid I had been saving up to make a shirt, but when searching for fabric for this project, I knew it would be perfect for the job.
Drafting a Pattern
I did not have a pattern, however, so I needed to draft that myself. By looking at the pattern piece shapes here, I was able to get a rough idea of what I needed. I also had the help of several of my sewing books and a Civil War costume dress pattern in my pattern collection.
I used some ugly old grey fabric for the bodice toile. The first toile was a disaster. The second wasn’t much better. I kept tweaking it, but I knew there were some major problems that tweaking couldn’t even fix. So I went back to looking at patterns and found my mistakes. One more toile and it was near enough to use.
Then an unexpected challenge came up. A surprise vacation was announced for the next weekend. We had only a few days to pack for it. During those few days, I nearly drove myself crazy trying to do all the packing, plan the trip, write several blog posts, and get my dress pieced together. It was hectic!
Sewing the Final Dress
Before we left, I cut the bodice pieces out of the fabric, figured out the sleeves and cut them out, sewed some of the bodice seams and the skirt seam. After that I packed all the sewing stuff I might need and we headed out on our trip.
During the drive, I was able to hem the sleeves and sew the waistband onto the bodice. Not a terrible amount of work. After arriving at our cabin, however, (and while eating supper and watching a movie), I was able to pleat the skirt.
Day two we were planning on going to a pioneer village, and I very much wanted to wear my dress there. But it needed a lot of work done on it. I was able to sew the buttons on, hem the neckline, and sew the skirt and bodice together while we drove to our destination. Hmm… still not the most wearable outfit.
But I wore it anyway. (With the front pinned closed with sewing pins!)
That night, back at the cabin, I was able to cut and sew the button holes which was the last needed touch to make it a wearable dress. And I wore it all the next day which included a hike up the mountains and a visit to another pioneer village. It was fun and I was so happy to be wearing my own handmade dress. (Plus I got some photos while I was there.)
Conclusion
Since then, I have worn my blue plaid dress a lot. I’ve also found quite a few little problems with it. Nothing that can’t be fixed, however. Needless to say, I am still quite happy with how it turned out, though I do plan on improving it when I get a chance.
Part 2: Reconstruction
Okay, so that’s were the original post ended. I did wear the dress a lot after I first made it, but the more I wore it, the more I realized that I really needed to fix those “few little problems” that were all beginning to look not so little and not so few.
So I started reconstruction on it.
Bodice
First, I pulled the bodice and the skirt apart. They both needed worked on, but I decided to tackle the bodice first. The most obvious problem with it was that it was an inch or two too long. Since the waistband (which was attached to the bodice) was about an inch wide, I just folded it up once and stitched it in place. Easy fix!
Skirt
For the skirt, I had to undo all of the pleats, but since it had been pleated by hand, that wasn’t too tedious of a task. With all of the pleats out, I gave it a good press then set to work cartridge pleating it. The pleats didn’t turn out 100% even. But I was using the plaid as a guideline, so it wasn’t too bad either.
With the skirt pleated, I attached it to the bodice again, then set my focus on the closure. A quick clasp took care of the waistband. I left an opening in the center front of the skirt long enough to fit it over my hips, and three sets of hooks & eyes were added to keep it closed
Finish
Then, as an unnecessary but fun addition, I stitched a small bit of lace around the neckline. And with that, I was done!
I would still like to do something with the sleeves. Maybe add ruffles since they are commonly seen on original, 1860s, short-sleeved frocks. But I’m not sure that I have enough matching fabric to do that. I still need to look into my options. 😉
Have you ever tried sewing a historic inspired dress?
Do you like visiting pioneer villages?
Have you ever redone a sewing project?
P.S. You can also follow me at my other blog, Kenmore Pines 1, here.
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