Thursday, April 24, 2014

1825 Evening Dress

I saw this dress yesterday and I think I just died. Why are all the dresses I absolutely adore from before the 1860's?
Anyway, I haven't seen a dress from this era that I actually liked. So remember, Regency era was all high-waisted dresses (think Jane Austen films), which was 1800-1820. This particular dress was of the style were waistlines were dropping (by waistline, I mean where the skirt begins); somewhere just in between below the bust and the actual natural waistline, more towards the waistline. Here is the link to the original Metropolitan Museum article, so you can zoom in a little.
So it looks like the skirt is box pleated; I can't figure out why they hemmed the skirt like that, it looks kind of sloppy.
I don't normally like tight sleeves with puffs at the top, but I love this particular one. When you zoom in on the side view, you can see how there is a small band of some kind of pleating just above it. It looks like there is quite a bit of piping around the armhole, and on those side seams on the bodice front.
 The back looks like it closes with hooks and eyes, with a velvet ribbon covering the area where the stitching was made.
I would totally love to make this dress some day! I wouldn't take all that much fabric, because during this era, I think two petticoats was the style to provide only a little fullness.

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