A few weeks before our last reenactment my sister wanted a dress of her own to wear, so I knuckled down to do some rushed research before starting on the pattern.
We found several dresses she liked, and finally decided on the bodice of the one on the left with the sleeves of the one on the right.
I copied the skirt pattern off an original 1815 dress (digram shown above), using straight front and back panels and triangular side panels. It wasn't until after I had cut out the skirt that I read some dresses had front panels that flared into a slight triangle-shape instead of a perfect rectangle. This would have given my sister more of the look she prefers, but alas, there was nothing to do about it now!
All in all, I'm pretty happy with how the dress turned out, although it definitely has its fair share of mistakes. We intended the waist line to be slightly lower and the skirt to be slightly longer, but something happened in construction and somehow it went wrong.
Date: 1815
Description: Day dress
Accuracy: I wouldn't say this dress is completely accurate in that, because of not having done much research of the era before hand, I continually made little mistakes and short-cuts which were far from authentic.
Time: Two weeks, on and off
Cost: About $30
God Bless!
Hannah
