this dress makes me sad. nothing on it turned out right for me. the dress itself I think turned out beautiful, but for some reason when I put it on with the hoop its too short. I tried to make it the same length as my pink 1860’s skirt, but since I apparently I can’t do math, it turned out 1/2” shorter. which shouldn’t really make that big of a difference but for some reason on this skirt it did. its just way short! the length is okay if I’m barefooted and the shoes I generally wear have a 1 1/2” heal on them. and the waist on the skirt turned out to big, but that can be remedied by simply moving the buttons over.
I made this dress to wear in a memorial day parade. a friend invited me to walk with her re-enacting group, since most of the group lives hours away from here not many like to come for a short walk and no battle. so when they do something here my friend will ask me to join in.
so this year I wanted to surprise her and make a new dress! I didn’t say anything to her about it, in case I didn’t finish the dress. I worked hard all month and finally four days before the parade I was done! I have no idea why I wanted a new dress to wear for thirty minutes but I did, I thought it would be fun.
the day before the parade though I was talking to my friend, who I still had not told I had made the dress I was just going to show up wearing it. I was so excited and had decided even though it was a bit short,if I wore my flatest shoes it should be okay, even if the shoes are not period, I didn’t care. but as we were talking she started telling me about what dress she was going to wear. of which we had talked about when she invited me, at that time she was going to wear her black dress, which is one reason I made a black dress. but then as we were talking the day before the parade she told me, she was going to wear something different. reasoning because the man who is in charge of getting the re-enactors in this parade asked her not to wear black. he said that we are not mourning the soldiers but rather celebrating them and remembering them fondly.
so did I say anything about the black dress I made? Not a chance! I didn’t want her telling me it was okay to wear it when obviously it wasn’t. and I didn’t want to start anything between ...well anybody, so I just kept my mouth shut. and wore my pink dress, the one I wear to everything I have ever been too.
and in the end it turns out it was probably better to wear because, even though I rolled the dress and used a entire roller on it, not just one little paper, the whole entire thing. the dress was still covered in cat heir. in the house it was hardly visible, but when I took the dress outside it was glaring at me! stupid black fabric picks up every last piece of dust, thread and cat hair in the universe! but I should have known that. black is notorious for that type of thing. especially black cotton, and the dress is a 100% cotton after all.
the skirt was all my design, it has three tucks near the bottom, with a layer of cluny lace at the bottom tuck. the hem is a 3” wide band of black fabric.
the waist band closes with two black buttons. and all seams are sewn in french seams
the bodice is kind of sort of made from the pattern i used to make my pink 1860’s dress, since I was planning to make the bodice to be tucked in I didn’t make the fancy tail at the back but rather just made it a lot more simple. I did all the seams in french seams in the bodice as well. the sleeves obviously didn’t come from that pattern I can not tell you where they came from. I had a sleeve from another dress, not one I made. I used that sleeve to make a pattern, which yes I had to put the sleeves in three times to get it right, since I had no idea what the placement should be I just eyeballed it the first time then adjusted it from there till I got it right. and I made up the the collar with the offset button, no pattern for that.
Will I ever wear this dress ? probably not. so really it was a waste of time to make.
I don’t even really like the dress. it doesn’t fit right and the cat hair is never going to go away.
here's how it looks with no hoop.
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