Cranberry Check Cotton Day Dress
This is another mid-to-late 1820’s style dress. It has a dart fitted bodice with a scoop neckline and my usual dog leg closure. The sleeves are a variation from the ubiquitous gigot sleeve of the period, and are cut slightly wider and gathered at the wrist into a fitted cuff, following a period diagram. 
The skirt makes thrifty use of fabric and is cut as three gores in the front at the sides with a rectangular panel in the back. The gores were constructed of a straight panel folded in half. The front gore was marked out and cut, with the leftover pieces, after the gore was cut away, being turned and used as side gores. You can use this technique with any fabric that is not a one-way print. The skirt is lightly gathered in the front and is more tightly gathered in the back. 
To dress up this gown a bit more than the others I have made, I added a gathered ruffle or flounce to the bottom of the skirt. The join is covered with a bias band. I also made a cranberry taffeta sash to wear around my waist and two cranberry taffeta bows to pin at the shoulders for a bit of a dressier look. The sash and bows are not worn for everyday wear. 
This dress is made from a dull green cotton print that I found at Wal Mart. The base color is a lighter dull green with tiny dark green rectangles printed on it. I made the dress up in an early 1830’s style, with puff sleeves gathered to a fitted under sleeve, a V-neck and a full, evenly gathered skirt. 
All the bodice seams and the sleeve seams are piped with self fabric piping. The front closes with hook and eyes and the skirt is set with a dogleg closure. Dresses of this period usually closed in the back but I have chosen this method of closing because it is much easier to put on oneself (I find it hard to hook up back-fastening dresses on myself!) and I need a front opening to nurse my baby. It is a historical way of closing a dress but not necessarily correct to the 1830’s era.
Drawers were usually not worn in this period but since I feel a bit indecent without them I am wearing modern knit leggings in place of drawers. I ought to be wearing a collar or chemisette but usually do not use these for every day wear. The pin is an antique copper brooch, given to be my aunt, set with a green stone. I don’t know how old it is or what kind of stone it is but I like how it looks. I love green. 
The skirt is made of three 60" panels and is pleated to a brown cotton fabric waistband and whip stitched on. The skirt is basted to the bodice around most of the bodice, leaving the point in the front hanging free.
I have worn this dress quite often since I made it. I need to bone the center front point and the darts to make the fit more smooth but now that my figure has changed after having the baby, I think I may just remake the whole bodice anyway with leftover wool to get a better fit.
I have worn this dress to dances, a birthday party for Abraham Lincoln as well as to colder events where the wool keeps me cozy. I'm so glad I made it. It has definitely become a wardrobe staple! Now I understand why black dresses, either silk or wool, were so common in the period. They are nice basic canvases to dress up with different accessories and are appropriate for almost all occasions in almost all types of weather. I am not crazy about the color of the silk I used to trim it with but suprisingly I have received more compliments on the combination of this color and black than any of the other dresses I've ever made. So I'm starting to think it might be all right, too. :) 
This is another dress made with $1.50/yard fabric from Wal Mart. I really found some great deals at Wal Mart this past year, I tell you what. I love this print and despite only having five yards of it, was able to (barely) squeak out this dress with a few inch square pieces left over in case I ever need to patch or repair this dress.
The trim on this dress is of dark red braid and is applied with large basting stitches - just enough to hold it in place but easy to take off if I ever need to. The trim is inspired by similar trim on an original wool dress of the period. The original dress had narrower braid but this was the best I find in my local stores. It is a rayon braid but for now, until I can afford to purchase more accurate trim, it works. 
The dress is accessorized with a small gold brooch and a baste-in white collar made of one layer of muslin with lace trim whipped to the edges. 
The sleeves I had to get creative with. I had very little fabric to work with so chose a very slim fitting coat sleeve with a small puff at the top. The puff is sewn directly to the coat sleeve beneath it - the inner sleeve fits fairly closely to the arm. The puff had to be pieced but it is not noticeable and piecing is accurate for dresses of this period anyway.
This dress was my first attempt at an 1820's style dress. I made it in the fall of 2008 when I was pregnant with Malachi, so therefore this dress has some non-characteristic features to better accomodate my growing tummy and for nursing after the baby was born. I made my own pattern for the dress based on diagrams in Janet Arnolds Patterns of Fashion 1 and seeing pictures of original dresses online, especially ones from 
The skirt is made of three gores in the front and sides and a rectangular panel in the back. The front of the skirt is very lightly gathered so the skirt would drape well over my tummy. The back is more heavily gathered. The skirt has a wide hem and two tucks and has a dogleg opening - another deviation from the more common straight back opening, or less common apron front opening that were options of the period. I took the dogleg concept from the 1860's since it works well for a skirt that does not open in the front, but an attached bodice that does. This is so I could unfasten the bodice to nurse the baby. I don't know if original 1820's dresses ever used this method of fastening. So far, I have not seen one that does. 
I made a detchable ruffled collar to wear with this dress but usually do not wear it. It can be basted into the neckline if I wish. I took this idea from the detchable baste-in collars of the 1860's. A more period option would have been to attach the collar to a full chemisette that is worn under the dress and tied round the waist.