Civil War Dress

 I had been vaguely wanting to make a Civil War dress for the longest time, but didn't seriously consider making one until we attended our first Civil War reenactment in the summer of 2004.  That was all it took.  I began making the undergarments that August.  I was also inspired to get going on my Victorian Corset, which had been waiting to be made for ever so long!  As time would have it, I didn't get going on the dress until December of 2004.  Here's how it came about: 

12/15 – I went to English Country (Regency) dancing tonight.  I met one of the ladies from the Sensibility message board there!  It was lots of fun.  We were talking about the next tea event I will be having, which is a Civil War Social.  While we were talking I said, “I’d better get going on my dress.”  When I got home, I decided to write down all the tasks I’d have to do to complete it.  I like to make the list backwards – I write down the last day and then go backwards, filling in what I would do in reverse order.  So I did that and realized – I should have bought my material yesterday!  When I calmed down, I realized that I might be able to condense some of the tasks, although with Christmas coming I don’t know.  But I’ll try!  That means I must buy fabric tomorrow.  I wanted to go to a quilt shop for the fabric, and I found one nearby after doing an online search. 

12/16 - I shopped for fashion fabric at Quilter’s Palette.  I found two very nice prints.  They were not “official” Civil War prints, but they looked right to me.  I ended up choosing the dark blue one.  I also got a small floral print for my pinner apron there.  I hope they are accurate enough!  The ladies were very helpful. 

Later, the kids and I shopped for our Christmas tree, and then I went to Hancock Fabrics for 10 Yards of muslin for the toile, lining, and petticoat.  I found some shell buttons to use for the button on my drawers.

       I tried on my corset again and found that there is a crease by the waist.  I don’t have the bones in yet – I can’t until the lining is stitched on and I make the channels.  I hope that crease will disappear once the boning is in.  I’ll post a question on the Sensibility Board about that.

After dinner I finished the waistband on my drawers.  All they need now is a button and a buttonhole!  I need to find some silk buttonhole twist.  I’m going to do a hand-worked buttonhole.  

12/17 – Today I pre-washed all of my fabric.  I found a way to make a fake boning channel to give it a try.  I just machine-basted the seam allowances and put bones in there.  It’s only about half the bones, but the crease is gone.  I like how it looks!  I started stitching the lining, but then it was dinnertime. 

In the evening after dinner, I started cutting my bodice muslin.  Hubby and I have been watching this DVD series that I am interested in, except that there is a lot of fight scenes (it's a spy series).  So before we started watching last night, I got my grid board, bodice pattern, muslin, tracing paper, and scissors all ready.  When a fight scene came on, I sat on the floor next to the grid board traced the pattern onto the muslin.  Then I stopped when that scene was over.  Since this spy series has lots of fight scenes, I was able to get a lot done.  I also did some knitting on my Civil War shawl! 

12/18 – I put together the first half of the lining of the corset. 

12/19 – Today I spent time cleaning the sitting room, and painting the walls (touch-up).  That took most of the evening.  I worked on the corset after that.  I realized I forgot to topstitch the gores.  Then I did that wrong!  Now it’s fixed.  I started the second side of the lining.  I didn’t do anything for my toile yet. 

12/20 – I basted the corset to the lining at the seam lines.  Then I was ready to sew the boning channels.  I had a small machine problem – I still don’t know what it was, but the needle was going haywire.  I think now that maybe a string was caught on the needle, making it go sideways.  But I re-threaded it and made a new bobbin, and cleaned the machine of lint.  Everything’s okay now, but it had me panicked.  I finished all of the boning channels.  Paul helped me to figure out how to put the tips on the spiral steels.  Then I realized I didn’t have enough tips to cover the total amount of bones I’d need.  So I ended up using some of the German plastic boning that came when I originally had ordered the kit.  I used the German boning on the bust gore channels.

          I tried on the corset.  It seemed so much tighter than when I tried it on two (or was it more?) days ago.  Surely I didn’t gain THAT much weight in two days!  Maybe the bones make it less stretchy or something?

          I also cut out my toile for the bodice.  I was exhausted and my fingers hurt from basting.  It’s so hard to get a needle through that thick fabric.   

12/21 - Tonight, we worked on a wallpaper border for the sitting room.  I started a diet!  No time for sewing.

12/22 - My corset is almost done!  I have sewn the binding to the top and bottom, and now just need to turn to the inside and hand stitch.   I made the toile.  Trouble – the armsyce is too small for the sleeve.  I posted a question on Sensibility.  I also asked about petticoats and how to fit the waist.  My bodice may need to be larger for the armsyce and to accommodate all the undergarments. 

12/23 - I altered the bodice according to the instructions Carolann wrote in answer to my question.  I needed to trim the armsyce a little bit at the lower front.  I got the petticoat done up to the waist treatment.  I planned on gathering the skirt (by hand), but the kids wanted to watch the movie in the dark.  Plus I was tired.

12/24 - Today, we spent the morning cleaning and baking.  I also helped Paul to hang the rest of the wallpaper border.  We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day, so Eve is spent preparing for this wonderful day.  Normally we go to relatives for dinner, but not this year.  So I worked on my petticoat.  I did the gathering a la Hank Trent, or so I thought.  I found out later when I re-read his instructions that I had it wrong!  This is what I did: Stitching onto the first needle, and while the fabric is bunched on the first needle, poking the second through the bunched fabric.  It did save loads of time.  Many of my second needle stitches were sloppy, because I as doing it wrong.

Once the petticoat was finished, it was time to try on all of my undergarments.  My drawers needed to be pinned, because I have to practice hand-worked buttonholes before I put one on the drawers.  (I may end up sewing an emergency hook and eye if I run out of time.)  Fortunately, my petticoat fit over the hoop nicely and the hem was fairly even.  When I had everything on, I took a look in the mirror.  What??  Is that a waist I see?!  It’s simply amazing, but with my custom corset and my billowing out skirts, I do have a waist!  I looked so Civil War!  I was so happy.  I showed Paul, who was wonderful about helping me measure for my skirt length and waistband measurement over everything.  He didn’t really understand what I was so happy about.  It’s just that I have the foundation for my dress, and it fits well.  With so many different articles of clothing involved in just the foundation, I wasn’t sure that would happen.  And I wasn’t sure (again, with all those undergarments) that I would appear to have a waistline.  I insisted that Paul dance with me.  He and I have had waltz lessons, and I simply could not resist dancing about in my new garments.  We also did a polka while I sang, “Shall We Dance” from The King and I.  (Yes, I know.  I’m crazy!  Poor Paul must think so too.)

Another reason why I was so happy is that because I have done the petticoat, made a toile of the bodice, and asked tons of questions at Sensibility, (which is the most fabulous resource for a historical sewer - every question I have asked has been answered), I feel that the bodice and skirt construction will be do-able for me.  The only thing I am worried about are the hooks and eyes on the bodice and the piping.  I have had a sewing class that included how to use the piping presser foot.  It’s the stitching it on that worries me.

12/25 - Today was Christmas.  We had presents under the tree with the kids in the morning.  In the afternoon, my sisters and my nephews came over.  It was lots of fun.  My one nephew proposed to his girlfriend!  It was lovely.  We left them alone in the parlor, with the tree and the fire blazing.  Afterwards we all had champagne. 

Once everyone left it was time to relax.  We watched more of the lord of the Rings, and I traced my bodice onto Pellon, so the changes I made to the pattern would have a permanent record.  Paul fell asleep after an hour or so, but I stayed up and cut out my bodice, skirt, and even a pinner apron from a floral fabric I found when I bought my dress fabric. 

The dress fabric had me befuddled, and I hope it won’t be a problem.  The pattern is a geometric one, with straight lines and these little figures where the lines intersect.  I cut everything straight across those lines, but when I put the sides of the fabric together, they don’t meet up, as they should.  It’s almost as though the pattern is off kilter, but it shouldn’t be, because it’s woven.  So I went ahead and cut, hoping it won’t be a problem on that huge skirt.  I was so tired when I was done – it was almost 3:00 a.m.!

12/26 - I stayed up late again.  I decided to work on the skirt first, since I was so worried about it.  Sewing the panels together was fine.  There was no trouble with the off-kilter pattern of the fabric.  The placket was easy.  I did it the way Elizabeth Stewart Clark suggests in her book, Skirting the Issue.  All one does is use the top of one seam, leaving it open about 10”, and then topstitching it.  Then I worked on the hem.  I made a hem facing of brown polished cotton from Needle and Thread in Gettysburg.  After seaming the dress hem and the facing, it was time to handstitch the hem facing down to complete the hem.  This took me two hours!  It wasn’t too bad.  I kept thinking, “Are we there yet?”!  I also gauged the skirt.  This time, I did the Hank Trent method of gauging correctly: I sewed the top line of stitching first, for about a foot.  Then I gathered it onto the thread – squished up, and then put the second needle through the squished up gathers.  That work just great, but it still took a long time.  (An hour and a half, I think).       

12/27 - After being up so late last night, I was beat.  But I really wanted to try and get the dress done for the tea tomorrow.  I sewed the bodice linings on and the bodice pieces together.  Then we went out for as family outing to the Planetarium, and then out to dinner.  By the time we got back, it was around 7:00. 

I got right to sewing.  I cut the pieces out for the piping.  Then to my horror, I realized that the cording I had was just too thin.  It did not look like piping at all.  I ran out first to Hancock fabrics.  Nothing.  Then I drove another 20 minutes to Joann’s, praying the entire way.  At first, I couldn’t find the right size in their cording section.  Then, in a bin across the aisle, I happened to see a bolt of cording that was tossed in there.  It was the right size! Talk about answered prayer!  The only trouble with it was that it was polyester (gasp!).  There was no cotton.  So this will have to be a small concession.  Just nobody tell anyone, okay?! 

Once home, I did the piping and attached it.  Here is where I ran into my first real nightmare of this project.  The piping on the wrists was so hard to manage.  It took me so long.  I finally got it, but by then it was already so late.  However, I was determined to get this done.

I had rented the movie Gettysburg.  I watched that while doing all of the hooks and eyes on the bodice, which also took forever.  Gettysburg was so sad.  It was a well-done movie.  There were no ladies in the whole movie, but I did like it.  Poor Major Armistead!  He was the most tragic character of the whole movie.  I got the hooks and eyes done. By then it was 5:30 a.m.  I went to bed and had a hard time falling asleep.

12/28 - I got up at around 10:00.  I was dragging, but I still wanted to try and finish the dress.  I sewed bodice together and the sleeves to the bodice.  Then I did the waistband.  I used some organdy for interfacing of the waistband.  By then it was so late, and I had to get ready for the tea.  My wonderful family had vacuumed and baked for me.  So I thought I’d get the piping sewn on, and then perhaps be able to stitch the rest during the tea (It was a craft tea, where most of the ladies were bringing their knitting or needle work).  Needless to say, with keeping the kettles boiling, there was not enough time to even do one stitch.  I did knit a little bit.  What I ended up doing was a Show and Tell of the undergarments I have and the dress in its unfinished state.  I showed the ladies how a Civil War lady was dressed from the skin – out.  Then I showed the bodice and gauged skirt and explained that it will be sewn together.  That worked really well!  The ladies enjoyed it.  That helped temper my disappointment at not having the dress finished in time.

12/29 - Today, my daughter wanted to go to a friend’s house to have an overnight visit.  It was about an hour away.  Since she drives, I had her drive us out there.  I hand sewed overcastting on the bodice seams on the way up.  After we arrived, I said goodbye, and then drove top the Red Cross to pick up the equipment for the Boy Scout First Aid badge that I am teaching tomorrow.  By the time I got back, my in-laws had arrived.  In the evening, there was no time to sew, because we were preparing for the badge day the next day.

12/30 - All day badge work.  Then we needed to pick up our daughter.  I overcastted one seam on the way there, while hubby drove.  I am completely exhausted.  I am starting a sore throat.  No sewing!

12/31 - I am ill.  I have a sore throat and muscle and joint pain.  Maybe later I can at least finish the overcastting.  What a week!  If I knew then what I knew now, I wouldn’t have almost killed myself staying up and pushing to finish.  However, given my tendency to procrastinate, I am glad.  Because I have gotten so far, and might not of if I didn’t have a reason to try and finish!

1/1 - I did some more overcastting.  I’m still very tired.  I also tried a bit of attaching to the bodice.  The trouble is – my lower gauging threads are showing.  Maybe I’m not attaching it high enough?  Or maybe the lower stitches are supposed to show?  I’ll ask on Sensibility.  I only did an inch of this.  I ripped it out in anticipation of the answer.

1/2 - I got the answer – it’s okay if the lower gauging shows.  That goes against everything I’ve ever been taught!  But I will “do what they did”!  I didn’t get to work on it today.  I was sorting papers and then we went to dinner with my sister and brother-in-law. 

1/3 - Still no work done!  I have been looking at men’s patterns for Paul though. 

1/9 -I finally attached the skirt to the bodice.  I was putting it off because I was afraid!  I also needed time to really think through that dog-leg closure and faux waistband deal.

Attaching the skirt was very pleasing! I love this sewing technique because it makes the tiny, gauged pleats all line up like little soldiers as they are stitched in place. I didn't realize that they would end up looking so uniform and tidy. It took me a while to do, but I think next time will go faster.

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