1860s Turquoise Teen Dress

Before I found out about the new baby and slowed down on sewing this summer, I was doing quite a few dress commissions. 

This was a fun one - an 1860s young lady's sheer cotton dress in turquoise. Meant to be a nicer day or party dress - cute and pretty for dances at reenactments without being something you have to worry about ruining (like a silk ballgown!). It has a wide neckline, piped, short sleeves accented with tiny self fabric ruffles, a very full gauged skirt with a few decorative tucks around the hem. All visible seams are hand done - it fastens up the back with hooks and eyes. The fabric is a semi sheer cotton. The website I ordered the fabric from listed the cotton as 'voile' which normally is *very* sheer, this turned out to be less so than I had hoped, but still made up into a lovely dress. I really adore the design - the lightly gathered bodice and rounded is such a flattering style for teens. I very much regret that I didn't know enough about period fashions when I was a teenager reenacting to really take advantage of all the fun youthful styles that were age-appropriate then.

I've been collecting pictures of girls and teens dresses of the 19th century here if you are interested in seeing more of this style.

 

 

This original c. 1850 dress was our inspiration picture:

The young lady who commissioned the dress sent me some really fun pictures where she used the dress during her graduation photo shoot!