An 1840 Smocked Day Dress

When I made my smocked 1840s ball gown, I knew I wanted to do a day version as well. All of that smocking deserved a little more wear! It was an incredibly easy update--just add long sleeves. The long sleeves are just the lower half of my sleeve block and are basted into the short sleeve. During the 1840s, day dresses could have low necklines, so I left that unaltered.


Another alteration that I should've made was to shorten the waist a bit--the cause of the wrinkling here. (The front wrinkling is a bias wrinkle. Evil bias.) I knew from wearing this before that it was slightly long waisted, so I moved the buttons on my petticoat to give me a little more room. That helped, but not quite enough! Still though, I love the dress. Wearing it again, I probably would shorten it properly, but reattaching the skirt just isn't appealing! The wrinkling is less noticeable in person--silk taffeta has a tendency to make wrinkles stand out in photographs.

I'm wearing a Regency chemise from the Kannik's Korner pattern, my hand sewn corded petticoat, Past Patterns 1840 corset (also seen in the petticoat link), and a plain petticoat underneath the dress. All of these were made very long ago, but still work quite well! The shoes are Robert Land dancing slippers.


And a good picture of my sleeve and the little ruffle, and my attitude towards the very loud Sunday pool party at the Costume College hotel.

The Finished 1840 Ball Gown :)

I've been putting off posting pictures since I don't have very good pictures, but since I won't have a chance to take better pictures until Costume College if plans don't change, I thought I may as well!

Before I wear it again, I'm going to make it into a day version--detatchable long sleeves and a big collar cape thing--and put new buttons on my petticoats so they'll sit lower on my waist. The corset I wear with this dress is properly long waisted, but I didn't take into consideration that my petticoats would still sit at my natural waist. Oops. I did get a little length wrinkling because of that. There was also a little bias wrinkling that I may or may not deal with (I really wish I had cut this on the straight--I know many bodices were cut on the bias, which is why I did it, but this wouldn't have been an issue). It was barely noticeable in person, but in some pictures? It was rather, um, frightening. In spite of that (and quickly falling out hair), I don't think I've ever felt quite so pretty in a dress! This one was just so delicate and simple. Unfortunately, balls just aren't the best place for pictures--it's dark when you go, and you're so busy once you're there!

So enough of that, pictures, right?



I just love the sleeves (I normally don't like to gush about my own work, but I can't help it with these sleeves!). Instead of doing pleating like my inspiration dress, I just let the smocking loose and sewed the base to the lining (which is peeking out in this picture). Then I sewed a band around. I got the idea from the pleats on this dress.

The lace around the neckline I bought in probably 2002 at JoAnn for my first chemise. I dipped it in coffee for a bit to make it less polyester white, but even if it is polyester, it's a very pretty lace and reminds me of the lace around the neckline of my original c. 1840 bodice.

I used this excellent honeycomb smocking tutorial. I found that the smocking wasn't deep enough with a half inch square dot grid though. On the skirt, I put the horizontal dots one inch apart, and on the sleeves, I put them three-quarters of an inch apart. The vertical distance was still half an inch. Basically, I drew my grid as rectangles instead of squares.



I'm wearing it over my underhoop petticoat, corded petticoat, and a plain petticoat, my Regency chemise and Past Patterns 1840-1880 corset. The corset does open in front with the style busk that was patented in the 1850s, but apparently there was one front opening busk patented earlier, even if it didn't catch on. That, and mentioning the 1830s fashion plate that shows this style is all the documentation I'll give for that (if I were less lazy, I'd try to find where I read about the busk and a copy of the fashion plate, but I'm lucky I'm just posting!). I did think about my 1820s corset, since that style was still in use in the 40s, but with the straps and very little support, I just didn't see it working under this dress!



And a picture at the ball--a much better angle than the ironing board as tripod angle :)

A Sneak Peek!

I've been busy lately as I have a ball coming up this weekend. So exciting! Minutes ago, I finished my ball gown, and I thought I'd share a sneak peek of it. Full pictures and details to come soon!