1830 here we come!

The cast from "Wives & Daughters". Don't they look lovely?

I'm not sure if I've always loved 1830s fashion. I remember as a child my mother telling me about Tasha Tudor and how she loved the 1830s and felt that she had lived in the 1830s before. Hmmm...I think it wasn't until I saw "Wives & Daughters" did I really fall for the 1830s (and I'd say that "Wives & Daughters" is late 1820s early 1830s). But I have fallen, and hard.

It has been a lifelong goal of mine to recreate dresses from my favourite periods in costume history. I hope that this is the first step in realising that goal. I mentioned last year to the missionary couple that was currently serving in Glasgow that I wanted to learn how to sew, but that I didn't really want to learn on something modern, because I didn't want to wear modern clothes, I wanted to wear historical clothes. Sister Hicks assured me that she could teach me how to sew. So somehow it happened that my sister Heather discovered that she had started sewing a circa 1830 dress years ago and wasn't liable to finish it any time soon, so she sent it to me in the post, and Sister Hicks and I set to work.

Working hard with Sister Hicks

Or rather, Sister Hicks set to work. Apparently the bodice was wrong. The lining was supposed to be sewn separately, but it had been sewn directly to the bodice. Sister Hicks said we must unpick it. It was touch and go for quite awhile, but miraculously it was saved. When the Hicks transferred to Ireland the dress was still not finished. The bodice was complete - sleeves and all, but the skirt needed to be pleated and sewn on. And it took a long time, but at last it is complete!

Since it has been such an interesting journey for me, I am sharing that journey with you, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Pinning in the skirt, before hemming and before sewing down the waist-band.

 Of course, I had to make sleeve puffs as well, as the loose sleeves of the 1830s needed support. Luckily I found a pattern online (Many thanks to Emily: http://zeitverweil.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/tutorial-1830s-sleeve-puffs1830er.html )

Sleeve puffs from the Victoria & Albert

Sewing up the sleeve-puffs.

A completed sleeve-puff!

 I wanted to get the hem right, and talked to Heather about it, and she reminded me that they sewed the hem high up on the skirt. She also told me that her dress (she has a replica of a gorgeous 1840s dress) had muslin sewn inside the hem to give the skirt a bit of extra body.

This is a good example of how high up the hem was sewn. And isn't it a lovely 1830s dress?

The inside of the hem.

The stitches on the hem that would show I did by hand.

The dress completed!

My underclothes (gasp!) My sleeve puffs kept slipping (I'll have to fix that), and my petticoat that I bought at the charity shop - it was made for use in the opening ceremonies of the  London Olympics. It has an official tag and evereything!

My hair is in curlers because not only did I want to wear an authentic dress, I wanted to have authentic hair as well. My hair didn't cooperate exactly as I wanted it to, but I think I did pretty well in the end.

This gives you an idea of the becurled, befeathered beribboned hairstyles popular in the 1830s. 

The complete ensemble! I even found a shawl that works as a sort-of pellerine. 

The back. See how my lovely underdress has come in handy!

My hair just did NOT want to go in ringlets this morning!

Church cat! Uncannily like the cat that used to hang out at the church building in New York.

Taking pictures in the Botanic Gardens on the way home was too big a temptation!

Can you see the difference wearing stays (corset) makes?! You have that authentic figure. When they don't have proper underclothing in films, you can always tell, and it is SO maddening.

What do you think - would I fit in with the ladies of Cranford?
For a link to the pattern for my dress, by-the-way, go here:
http://www.pastpatterns.com/806.html