1860s Yellow Print Dress!

Yesterday was the annual local reenactment. It's quite small, but quite fun. And we still haven't made it to see the battle! Oh well. I can quite honestly say I'm not a reenactor, but a costumer who wants to make things as accurate as possible and wear them whenever there's a chance.

With that, my yellow print dress! I'm wearing it with the embroidered collar I made ages ago, cuffs that are just rectangles of fabric tacked into place, and over my Eugenie dress underthings--same petticoat, hoop, corset, etc. I wore my green Regency boots because not only did I think they'd be pretty with it, but because they were sitting next to my desk and I didn't need to find them in my costume closet :)

The bonnet is the Eliza Corettta circle from Timely Tresses. More pictures below!



Pictures at the reenactment and Starbucks, before the reenactment. That one is the only picture I have without a bonnet--and the best of the tucks. And cameras pointing up? Never a good angle!


The lining of the dress is darted to fit, and then the yellow fabric is tucked above that. The tucks are sewn down until just under the bust, and then are open to the shoulders.

I always fit my darts in the dress itself--not the pattern--so to do this, I finished the back of the bodice and pinned the front lining in. Then I fitted the darts, removed the front, and pleated the front piece over the lining.





I unfortunately didn't take pictures of the yellow fabric before I pleated it on, but I just set my pattern down, cut part of it, scooted it over a few inches, and finished cutting. This gave the extra fabric for the tucks.

I had planned on doing a yoked bodice, but wasn't happy with how it was coming out. My fabric is slightly heavy and didn't want to sit correctly, and the narrow stripe looked rather sloppy--I think because the flowers were staggered and even even pleats created jagged yellow spots.

The sleeves are smoothly set into the top and full at the cuff. I found a rather sloped shape gave the best shape at the wrist. It needed to be quite a bit longer in back than front.



And as promised above, bonnet pictures! It's trimmed with tons of flowers and leaves from Timely Tresses, white cotton netting from Farmhouse Fabrics, blue silk leftover from my riding habit and ribbon from California Millinery. It's my favorite bonnet by far--and the first I didn't want to take off all the time as I was wearing it!