Back to 1812

I will be sharing some of my Paris pictures with you, but today it's back to work on 1812 dresses. I have two lovely ones to make for Fort Wellington.

The fabric is a lovely woven stripe, the fabric very sheer cotton. To show off the stripe, a darker blue sateen was chosen as the petticoat fabric. The bodice is very high under the bust. I'm re-cutting it following the fitting. The straps need to be wider, to hide a tattoo!! The modern meets the old. No self-respecting woman of the 1812 would have had a tattoo, I'm sure!! Unless she had a certain reputation...

Here you can see the back view. How to attach the petticoat to either the dress or petticoat is the next puzzle.

There will be two separate under sleeves. The dress has a short puff sleeve. The lining holds the snap tape, which is on the top edge of the blue under sleeves. An easy way to change sleeves and have them snap back in when required. The second set of under sleeves are white, but I'm still working on those.

It's working our these puzzles that keeps it interesting. The new meeting the old, but cleverly disguised.