My 4-yard dress

Okay, here is what I managed to get out of 4.16 yds of 60" wide fabric. Sorry if the pics are a little blurry.

I haven't worked on it in the last week because I felt too lazy to run the 2 rows of gathering stitches for the gauging. But doing that and attaching the skirt to the bodice only took 3 hours. :) It still needs a collar and undercuffs, as well as a couple hook & eyes on the waistband (which is currently being held closed with a safety pin).

Oh, forgot to mention... I used the now out-of-print Simplicity 4551, with the coat sleeves (but I left off the sleeve cap and cuffs).

4 yards... can I do it?

About two and a half years ago I ordered several lengths of fabric from a website that was selling out (changing ownership to another company). I don't remember what I paid for it, but it must have been a good price for me to order so many lenghts of fabric... seven!!

Last night I dug into my fabric stash with the intent of making a couple dresses from this fabric. (I'm losing weight right now... currently between a pattern size 18/20- modern size 14/16- and I want to make a dress in each size between my current size and my goal size of a 12- modern 4/6... okay, so that's only two dresses, in sizes 14 and 16). One of the fabrics I pulled out is a plaid shirting that has a cream background with a plaid design of blue and green with a teensy stripe of yellow... almost reminiscent of a Stewart Dress Plaid, except for the blue & green instead of red & black, and the plaid design is identical both vertically and horizontally. I'm too lazy to take a pic but here is a picture of the fabrics from when I bought them... the one I'm talking about is the one in the upper left corner.

I was very sad to discover a label on the fabric, from the online retailer, that said it was 4 yards long. Four yards??? It's 60" wide fabric... but why did I order only 4 yards? I can get a good dress out of 5 yards and I can squeeze one out of 4.5 yards, but 4? Ouch. I pre-washed it in hot water and threw it in the dryer on high (to shrink it) and then I ironed it out... when I measured it I saw that it was 4 yards and 6 inches. Yikes. After a lot of careful thinking, I decided that I will make the dress with narrow coat sleeves, which can be cut vertically (one above the other) out of the side of one of the skirt panels. I can cut the waistband that way too. I cut out the bodice pieces (front bodice and back bodice) and that took 20" of fabric. That leaves me with 130" of fabric. That'll give me three panels that are about 43" long each. I then took half of one of the skirt panels and cut the sleeves out of it, which left me a strip of fabric 4" wide by 43" long, that I can use for a waistband. Two 60" panels and one 30" panel will of course leave me with a skirt that is 150" wide. And if I use my last roll of hoopsteel to make a 90" cage, I can get away with skirts that are 43" long (I need 45" long panels to fit over my 108" cage). I could make it a dress for active work situations, which means I'd need to be 40" or maybe even less than that... but it's such a pretty fabric that I'd rather use it for an "everyday" dress.

Out of all the fabrics I bought, only one of them ended up being more than 4 yards... and that's the teal blue one in the center bottom in the photo. It's 5 yards. And it's my least favorite, LOL. I'm not even sure if it's suitable for 1860's use... it's an uneven plaid with a large repeat. I have no idea what else I'd use it for, though.

The plaid I'm using right now, other than the color, isn't too terribly different from the extant dress at the top of this page... though that one is wool barege, and mine is cotton shirting (very fine herringbone/twilled weave... I'm not exactly sure what type of fabric it is. I just know it's cotton and pretty).

Grant... that's just too funny!

I am working on my husband's shirts now. Today's tasks involve making the collar and the front facing, and attaching them.

The collar pieces are cut lengthwise, so the stripes of the collar are pretty much horizontal (shirt stripes themselves are vertical). I paid attention when cutting out the pockets to make sure they would line up with the stripes on the shirt, and I didn't pay much attention to the collar... I only checked that the pattern piece was straight with the stripes on the fabric.

So I just got done making the collar, and was getting ready to attach it to the neckline of the shirt. Then I noticed that Ulysses S. Grant's image is on the end of the collar... so when my husband wears the shirt, Grant is going to be sitting just above the lapel on the right-hand side!

Should've paid better attention, I guess. I don't have any more fabric to cut it out again! Maybe he won't notice, or maybe he'll like the shirt so much he won't care. Maybe he'll find a nice Bonnie Blue Flag pin to stick right in the middle of Grant's face (he doesn't like Grant, for no good reason other than his anti-Union bias... but if he was living up north instead of here in Texas, he'd probably like Grant).



UPDATE

I'm mostly done with the shirt now (just hemming and buttonholes/buttons left to do) and it looks both interesting and odd with Mr. Grant's face there on the corner of the collar. It looks deliberate!

Looking at silk fabrics

I'm not seriously thinking about buying any of these, as it'd be about $100 worth of silk for a dress, and I don't have a reason for a dress right now. But, they're fun to look at anyway, and I'm comparing them to original gowns.

First up, a gold and red "vintage" style plaid taffeta. Compare it to this original 1860's green plaid dress. Close-up view of the fabric is here.

Next is a beautiful gold plaid and satin stripe taffeta I found. Wow! Then I came across this this original blue and brown plaid/stripe dress... they're not the same, but I can see some similarities. Original fabric close-up is here. And here is another original dress that reminds me of this silk. Oh, here is another lovely silk. They're both gold, and I have no idea how that would look with my strawberry-blonde hair and ruddy complexion!!

One of my favorite silks so far is this red/brown/gray/black/white plaid taffeta I found, which sort of reminds me of this dress. View the close-up here.

I found a lot of checkered fabrics on the Pure Silks site, too, mostly in lighter shades of gold, green, blue, gray. Here is one, and it reminds me of this original dress, which looks more like a horizontal stripe until you see a closer view. I like the trim on the sleeves, it looks military-inspired.

They have a couple of pinstripe taffetas too, comparable to this original bodice. I wish more detailed pics were available of that dress.

I absolutely love this multi-colored plaid but I'm not sure if the plaid is too big... and I can't quite tell if that is green or gray. If it's green I might look very Christmas-y. I also love, love, love this black & white plaid from their eBay store, but it does seem a bit big. Or does it? This plaid dress and this one have very large patterns. Oh, why don't they make silks like that last one anymore? (DROOL!!!!)

Oh, and I just found one more, a that looks ever-so-slightly like this circa 1865 gown.

Maybe I can treat myself to a length or two of silk when I reach my weight-loss goal. 45 lbs down, only 60 more to go! (Sigh)