An 1860's Gathered-Front Day Dress: Part Four

Part Four: The Completed Dress

I am very pleased with the results:

Please excuse my awful hair. It needs a trim very badly… Look at the dress not me haha :P

Here I am wearing it over my cage crinoline and two petticoats, and my corset of course. I love the way the skirt hinges out from the waist to help create the bell shape. 

An 1860's Gathered-Front Day Dress: Part Three

Part Three: The Skirt

I knew I wanted a very full skirt for this dress, so I used roughly 5 and half yards of fabric. There are two seams, one on each side. I also took advantage of the selvedges and used them as the waist and hem edges. It makes the print go the "wrong" way (Horizontal instead of vertical to match the bodice), but I'm not overly concerned about it. I faced the hem with a wide strip of fabric instead of lining the whole skirt. I decided to cartridge pleat (or gauge) the skirt to a waistband and then sew the skirt and bodice together. I wanted a dogleg closure, so the bodice closes up the center front and the skirt closes on the right.

Here's the skirt pinned to the bodice. I didn't take pictures of the whole construction process, unfortunately. It was all a huge mass of fabric, anyways, and would have been difficult to photograph.

An 1860's Gathered-Front Day Dress: Part Two

Part Two: Bodice Construction

The bodice is coming along nicely. I decided to sew this dress mostly by hand. The fabric is a reproduction cotton print from Maggie May Clothing. I snapped up 8 yards on sale for $6 a yard! It's a fun little print in a color I don't have. I tend to like the color blue…

Here are the two completed front pieces. The bodice closes at the center front with hooks and eyes.

I've been sewing by hand whilst sitting in front of my lowered ironing board. It makes for a handy table  :)

An 1860's Gathered-Front Day Dress: Part One

Part One: Bodice Mock-Up

After much deliberation, I decided I wanted to make a less formal day dress for the 1860's. My current blue striped dress is still wearable and serviceable, but it's a bit fancier than what would have been worn day to day for working around the house.

I did a bit of research to find extant, gathered-front dresses from the 1860's. There were plenty to base my dress on, so I got to work modifying my darted bodice pattern to turn it into a gathered bodice with a darted lining. I also wanted the sleeves to be full, but cuffed, similar to a bishop sleeve. So I used the bottom portion of the sleeve from my 1837 day dress, lengthened by a couple inches.

 As I was fiddling around with the sleeves, I realized I could use the top portion of the 1837 sleeve as an epaulet for this dress.

A Frankenstein Corset Cover

This was my first attempt as a corset cover. It's not very attractive, but really quite useful now that I finally finished it. I padded the area above the bust to fill in the gap that occurs there between bodice and the body.

Front View

Obviously, Miss Busty here doesn't need the padding, but I do :P

The neck and waist close with drawstrings and the rest of the opening fastens with large hooks and bars.

An Under-Petticoat

To go along with my split crotch drawers, I made a simple under-petticoat to wear over the drawers and under my hoops. It's just two 45 inch panels of fabric gathered onto an adjustable, drawstring waistband. A simple garment, but useful, as I can use it for any time period and with any corset.

Front View

Really, this petticoat could tie in the front or back, depending on the bulk already present from other ties