Black cotton dress

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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petticoat

I finished my petticoat back in September. and thought I had posted about the finished product, but. apparently I didn’t. I am not completely satisfied with the finished product. its a bit uneven. what I need is a bigger place to lay things out. I tired to make it all even, but in the end it just wasn’t to be. its not too bad though when its all in place, with my hoop and everything underneath it. aside from wrestling with so much fabric it wasn’t too hard to make. I just made a bunch of eleven inch strips, sewed them together. hemmed the edges with a tiny topstitch hem. on both sides, then ruffled the entire thing with my ruffling foot (best purchase ever!). next I made a simple skirt that was a hundred sixty inches wide at the bottom tapering up to I think I did sixty inches, now I can’t remember but it was something like that. I got my finished length by measuring both my hoop and the Skirt I was wearing this with. I then hemmed it, and pinned the ruffles on, which took forever. and had to be done one at a time. after each ruffle was pinned I sewed it on. somewhere along the way though things must have shifted slightly while I was sewing and that’s why its not entirely even. I have been considering redoing the uneven part, and seeing if I can fix it up a bit. but then I keep thinking its for underneath so do I really need too? the answer is probably not, I will just see how much it bugs me. if its driving me too crazy then who knows perhaps I will.

the petticoat without the hoop.

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not the happiest with my 1860's bodice.

I was talking to my coworker today about my 1860’s dress. she has been into civil war reenacting for years now and I could tell she wanted to give me pointers on the dress but didn’t want to hurt my feelings since I took so long on it.. but really I wasn’t that thrilled with the way the bodice turned out anyway. she told me I probably need to shorten my hoop a bit. which I agree. its a bit too long. she said I should do it from the top so the hoop is higher and fills in the bodice better. that is the part that was bothering me so much is the fact the bodice points flip out. but then I started thinking about another dilemma and that is even if I shorten the hoop I think the bodice itself is too short. I forget sometimes I have a rather long torso. for now I’m not going to do anything but if I get real ambitious I might remake the bodice. I love the sleeves so I don’ t need to redo those. I had some fabric left over and I’m pretty sure without the sleeves is should be plenty. I’m also leaning more to a square back as opposed to the pointed one. I think it would fall nicer. this is something I need to think on for a while before deciding.

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parade

the parade yesterday went swimmingly well. I was the last one to get there in the group but I was still there before the stated time so I figure it was alright. I didn’t really know any of the other people there other then my coworker. I had met most of them, last year. but meeting someone for a few minutes doesn’t mean you know them. and even know after being introduced to everyone I have no idea what most of their names are. everyone liked my dress and one of the ladies kept asking me about putting the design on it. she said she wanted to learn how to do it so I explained to her how I had just used a cotten yarn and zigzaged it on by machine. she was suprised how easy it was. it does look daunting. but really the hardest thing about it is the time it takes becasue it does take a long time to go all the way around the dresss.

1860's dress

I finished my 1860’s dress today. a coworker invited me to be in a parade on saturday. she does civil war reenactments. and since I was nearly done with this dress I went ahead and finished it. what better incentive then a place to wear it. I have seen the details on this dress on several differnt dressses and fell in love with it. as time consuming as it was to aplique the details it was actually easier then I thought. I knew I could do it I just had to figure it out. which meant studying pictures of the design till I figured it out. I used cotten yarn and zigzaged it on. I like the way it turned out. which is good considering the hours it took. I do have to admit to getting frustrated on the sleeves I was going to try something slightly differnt on them, but what I wanted proved to be impossible, litteraly . it could not be done without rewriting physics or somthing. so I settled on what I did, and am happy with it.

what decade shall I tackle next? I’m leaning towrds 1960’s as I have the fabric. but at the same time I’m thinking 1940’s. I have some really neat buttons that came from my grandmothers house and I do believe they are from then.

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1860's skirt

finished my 1860's skirt yesterday, the double pleats worked, yea! double pleats equal putting one pleat directly on top of the other so there is more fabric in the front. I also went ahead and did the flat part an inch smaller. it took three tries to get it right. I don’t know how women did it back then. the skirt by itself is rather heavy, then adding all the petticoats and other undergarments. how did they not faint from the heat? now I need to figure out the top.

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pleats and such

currently I am frustrated with my 1860’s dress. I have not even started on the bodice , I had to put it off as the pattern was missing a few pieces. but the company sent me a new one so I don't have that excuse anymore. I need to get working on it. while the design on the bottom of the skirt turned out pretty good, I probably could have made it more even but I think it will be alright. I highly doubt anyone is going to be measuring them. the thing though that is frustrating me is the pleats in the front were pulling weird when I put the hoop on, so I pulled them all out and am currently trying to figure out how to make it work the way I want it. the pattern isn’t going to help with this, as I am going for a slightly different look then on the pattern. I was looking at pictures of the dress I am using for inspiration, AKA nearly copying, and realized that that the front pleats appeared to be double pleated. so I am going to try that. because it seems there is not enough fabric in the front of the skirt. I am trying to make it flat in the front. I may need to make the flat part not so wide, but I am going to try the double pleats. if it doesn’t work I will try making the flat part smaller. if that doesn’t work.... well I will try something else.

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1860's dress

sometimes when I start a big project I find myself wondering why in the world did I chose something so complicated. then when it all starts coming together I look at it and think oh yeah that is why! I am currently working on a 1860’s style dress. mauve in color with a back design at the bottom. I am putting the design on myself using a cotton yarn, its turning out really well. I have seen the pattern on several dresses from the period. I wanted something a little more detailed then a plain dress, but I didn’t want to go with the over used calico. I already have a calico dress form the period that a coworker gave me last year. it was one of her old dresses I had to resize it, but I wanted something that I made completely on my own so I am making this one. I finished the design on the bottom. and while no its not completely uniform I think it came out well. I want to finish the skirt this week. its a two piece pattern. then I will start on the bodice. so far for my through the decades project I have 1920’s and 1970’s I need to take some pictures to post. but for now I will do a preview of my 1860’s skirt. my little kitty Cole helping me sew. whenever I sew she thinks she needs to help.

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