1868 Day Dress

Yep. It's another red dress. But when you find 100% silk satin on sale for 90% off, it's pretty much a moral imperative that you buy it and use it for something. This stuff is actually shot satin with small emerald green squares all across the surface. At first I wasn't sure how period that would be, but then I saw this dress for sale on ebay, and I was amazed by how close of a match the fabric was. And since the red and green color scheme was crying out to be used for a Christmas dress, I decided to do a style from Charles Dickens' lifetime so I could wear it to Victorian Christmas festivals without too much guilt. 1868 is at the tail end of the Dickens era, but I really loved this brief fashion fad from the late 60's where smooth, gored skirts became the rage. For the design, I tried to make a faithful copy of a fashion plate from Modetijdschrift De Gracieuse. You can read more details about the construction below the pictures.

The skirt is made from the 1866-67 gored skirt diagram in Patterns of Fashion. At the hem, there are three rows of bias silk trim, just like the inspiration picture. I used one of the Simplicity Civil War patterns to get started on the bodice, but I re-drafted the center-back piece to make it narrower, and the sleeves are from the De Gracieuse pattern diagrams. There are double rows of silk trim at the shoulders and cuffs, and the long silk sash has a contrasting piping of the red fabric next to the edges. I decided to include the weird little peplum as well, since that is the only piece that had a pattern included in the original magazine. But to be honest, I think it looks a bit stupid, and I will probably take it off before I wear the outfit again. The front of the belt is closed with an antique cut steel buckle, and I am wearing modern silver and marcasite earrings that just happened to look very similar to real Victorian styles. I also made the Laughing Moon elliptical hoop skirt to wear with this dress, and it does make the shape of the skirt match the illustration much better. The hoops are a bit unwieldy in crowded places though, so I've just been wearing the dress with multiple petticoats so far (as seen here).

I apologize for not having better pictures of this dress, but I was tired from spending all afternoon at an event, and I couldn't wait to get out of my corset. This really is a pretty "subtle" outfit (even with the high-contrast color scheme!) and it has proved to be very difficult to photograph. I think it is much prettier in person. Anyway, I'll try to take some more detail pictures the next time I wear it.