Hey, Whatever Happened To…[1840s-50s-whatever dress]

It’s one of the many other things I haven’t been showing you.  It’s not the Baroque gown, I know, but I had to get this one done for events tomorrow! Don’t hurt me!!!

I started this gown last December, when I decided I needed something new to wear to Dickens Fair in San Francisco.  It didn’t get done, of course, and I didn’t even look at it (except to toss it out of my way) until about two weeks ago, when I realised I did not have a Victorian daydress of any kind, and with the highly Victorian/Western calendar of events exploding upon me for the next couple months, this sort of mid-19th c. frippery has become, well, completely and totally necessary.

I think dresses have memories.  If you’ve tossed them about and not given them any attention and love, in their childhoods, they WILL come back and take REVENGE on you later!!!  How many times did I re-do the front closure for this freak of dress!?  And how many times did I say to myself, “Duchess, why the hell did you not just stick to the original pattern, you noob!?”

I still have snaps to sew onto the front placket, and the skirt to seam up the back.  I want to add a dark brown guard to the bottom of the skirt, but I’m so over it right now that I think I’ll wait until later, after Saturday, some other day, before some other Victorian event…

I will post photos after the event tomorrow (Mark Twain Western Days at Zephyr Cove, Lake Tahoe; then Carson Rendezvous in Carson City, NV), and tell you all about the coolest part of this costume, the part I did NOT make, the bonnet :-).