1830's Black Cotton Dress

A lot of us have talked about making the ridiculous sleeved dresses of the Romantic era for ages.   Some were actually starting on theirs so I joined in the fun, in secret.  :-)  The pictures aren't the best - I'll try to get better photos later-  but you get the idea of the dress.   All my inspiration is here on my pinterest board.  Some of the dresses are from my website, some are from museums.  

I saw the black floral cotton in Joanns and knew it had to be my new dress - of course this was Thursday and the dress was to be done today!   So, I dragged out my old 1840's pattern and made a few changes to it.  First, I shortened it.  Then, I change the curved seamed front to a darted front.   The rest was pretty easy.

The sleeves of the 1830's are really pretty simple - the bottom half is relatively normal, it's just that the top half blooms out.  I just pleated the top of the sleeves - as you can see in the close up photo- and sewed that to the dress.

The dress is a mix of handsewing and machine sewing.   The piping is just bias tape (no cording. in the original ones I have, there isn't any.  It's just bias tape rolled over the edge).   There is piping on the shoulders, neckline, sleeve cuffs, and along the edges of the "belt".   I wanted to bring out the pink as much as possible.

I might add some ruffles or take in the sleeves - as they did with the late 1830's styles- but the dress is wearable as is right now.