Thursday, January 13, 2005

New Project: Civil War day dress



Here we go again!! It's been a while since I've started a project...and to be honest, I'm getting ready to move, so we probably won't see too much progress on this one for a while.

I bought a great cotton print on sale during those great after Thanksgiving sales. The picture above isn't exactly like my fabric, but it's a good representation of the colors and type of print. Sort of a reddish/brown. I'm scraping the Simplicity pattern (even though it was the inspiration that led to my learning to sew). The yardages on it are just ridiculous. No one wants to wear 18

I really wanted a dress with pagoda sleeves, but the pattern I wanted didn't come in my size, and as much as I love a good challenge, I don't think I'm ready to alter a pattern so drastically. So, I've compromised, and got this pattern from Harriet's patterns. I've heard mixed reviews about her patterns: many people say that the dresses have lousy directions. I'll hope that won't be the case, because I've searched high and low, and this was about the only one I was semi-happy with. Wish me luck! Posted by Hello

2 comments:

Anna said...

Horray for new projects! So - is this the kind of dress where you make sepperate sleaves to tie into the dress??

Costume Diva said...

Nope. That was more of a Tudor/Elizabethan thing. But I have a Tudor pattern where the sleeves would be detached!! :)

Some civil war dresses had 'sleeves' that are actually undersleeves. You tie them at your elbow so it looks like you have a pretty white blouse peaking out from under the main sleeves. I don't think this pattern has those (but since it hasn't arrived yet, I couldn't swear to it)