Inspiration:

The Civil War has always been one of my favorite time periods, so when my friends and I started to get into historical costuming, immediately I wanted a CW dress. Some of my friends got there own dresses before I did, so I was really eager to get going by the time I finally started my dress.

One web site that has been a huge source of inspiration is The Graceful Lady.

Materials:

Butterick pattern 6694, 12 3/4 yards of checked cotton, 12 black buttons, 1 (horribly inaccurate) zipper, hooks and eyes.

When I chose my fabric, I had a hard time deciding between a blue check and a maroon check. How I wish they had mirrors at JoAnn's! I ended up choosing the maroon and my sister Rebekah ended up getting the blue fabric!

Construction:

The only major change I made to the dress was that I used the under sleeves for the real sleeves. I thought that the dress would be more comfortable and practical if I changed the design (and it is).

This dress was unbelievable! I didn't realize it would be so complicated! First of all, it took me an entire day to cut out the pattern pieces! Second, I didn't have enough material and to go back to the store and purchase more. I don't know if it was my cutting error or the pattern had a boo-boo. I lined the entire dress (which I will never do again. It made the dress much hotter and doubled my expenses on material). I made some mistakes and had more problems than with any other dress (but nothing noticeable).

I wasn't going to include the zipper on the skirt but finally decided to because I didn't want to fiddle around too much with the pattern. The hem was a real job (I didn't even think of slipstiching it), and I had to take the back up more than the front because the dress had a sort of train that dragged on the floor. I sewed loops on the dress instead of buttonholes not only because that's the way the pattern said to do it, but because our buttonhole maker on our sewing machine doesn't work (and I don't make the greatest buttonholes :).

Probably the worst part of the dress was doing all the lining, and the best was when I sewed the buttons on at the end :) !

The Finished Dress:

Overall, I am very pleased with the way the dress came out!

To see more pictures of me wearing my (altered) dress view the First Ladies Tea Pictures !

Updates:

I have altered the bodice of this outfit to make it look more accurate (I am also planning to remove the zipper :). To see the altered dress, click the link above.