Civil War Dress

    The first period costume I made was a civil war era dress. 

I saw a style I really liked which had a gathered bodice, and after researching for several months I found that it was quite period accurate.

The dress with the gathered bodice is on the right

    Then the next problem came: where to get a pattern. The only one I could find was in America and they wouldn't ship to Australia so I was thrown into the deep end of making the pattern myself. Since then I have made most of my patterns, but this, being my first and with no help of a pattern drafter, definitely took a while! After about a week and a half of solid sewing I finally finish it just in time for my next reenactment.

Back Veiw

Button and gauging detail

Tucks!!

 I wrote up instructions here for a contest that a friend told me about, and was very blessed to win the grand prize for it!

Date: 1860's
Description: Day dress
Accuracy: Very close, according to my present knowledge of this era
Time: A solid week and a half
Cost: We managed to pick up the fabric for only $2 a metre! However after adding in the thread and overpriced buttons it cost about $30-40.


God Bless,
Hannah