19-Teens Day Dress: The Guts

Since so many people liked the post on the closures on my Gala dress, I thought I'd share how my polka dot 'teens day dress closes. I did do some research looking at extant dress to try and figure this one out and I'm pretty happy with it!

The front closes with a snap placket down the side of the inert. I did have to draft my own placket pieces but that's not hard. I hate sewing on snap so I sewed them on a bit far apart.

The skirt closure is on the side, so the extra waist (blouse) fabric is gathered onto a strip of twill tape. You could add snaps here to keep this in place but my waist band is tight enough to hold it in place so I skipped that part.

The waist band closes with two sets of hooks and eyes. I added a little strip of the polka dot fabric that snaps to the under skirt layer to camouflage the opening in the skirt.

I finished the waist band with another waist band piece that is slip stitched over wrong side of the waistband on the dress. Such a pretty way to finish this part of the dress!

The underskirt had a really interesting construction wear the bottom was a separate piece near wear you'd add on the ruffles. I think this is so the upper skirt could be out of something other than the fashion fabric. I just made both out of white since I was going to cover the bottom with ruffles anyways.

HSF #15: White

This is my last Historical Sew Fortnightly project before Costume College! The challenge is White. "White has carried many connotations as a colour, from defining culture and social boundaries, to denoting status, to implying purity, or simply cleanliness.  For this challenge ‘white’ is defined as anything in the white family – from brightest white, through to ivory and cream and all the shades between. Whether you make a simple chemise or an elaborate ballgown, your item should be predominantly white, though it may have touches of other colours."

Tada! This is my 1914-1915 day dress. If you missed the inspiration post, check it out here.



The Challenge: White
Fabric: 4 yds embroidered cotton ($7/yd), 2 yds white broadcloth ($3.50/yd), 2.5 yds yellow broadcloth ($3.50/yd)

Pattern: Past Patterns #8480

Year: 1914-1915

Notions: snaps and hooks and eyes ($3)
How historically accurate is it? Pretty, I think. I used a period pattern and it's all cotton! I used loads of french seams but did end up zig zaging some of them. Not sure if the construction is 100% period but the directions weren't exactly much to go on.

Hours to complete: Started in January but didn't get finished till July! Lots of time spent figuring out how to put the pieces together.
First worn: July '13
Total cost: ~$40

I got a hair piece and this was my first time playing around with it. I'm a bit urked as I ordered the dark brown color but it's chock full of coppery highlights! Thus most of it is not actually brown at all... Oh, well. I used American Duchess' 1912 hair tutorial. 

 Love this dress and can't wait to wear it to Costume College! :D And if you'd like to see more photos, there's a ton more over on my Flickr.

(Update: Also check out my construction details post)