1860s Dress finished

My 1860s dress is finished! It still feels a bit weird, I’ve been working on this since June last year so it’s been a long project, but completely worth it as I still get giddy every time I see the finished thing. Because I’ve already shown the bodice, here’s a photo which shows off the skirt:

 

Some information:

Fabric: Black velvet for the dress, belt and bodice, black cotton for the lining. Only the underside of the skirt and the bodice were lined.

Patterns: TV400 for the bodice, the 1866-7 Day dress pattern from Janet Arnold for the skirt. The belt was made without pattern.

Foundation: This project started with a corset, hoopskirt and petticoat. 

Originally I didn’t want to make a train for practical reasons, but when I was hemming the skirt I loved the little train it had so much that I kept it. Instead, I sewed some small ribbons to the inside of the skirt so I could tie it up inside and make the train disappear. I’m planning of wearing it to an event where they have a lot of gravel and dirt paths, and I didn’t want to kill the skirt on the first outing. I have no clue if this is historically accurate, but it looks pretty good.

Some more pictures. The first one is the dress which inspired the entire project, from the met museum:

And the side/back of the inspiration

And some more photos of the finished dress. The front:

 

The side (with the train tied up)

 

 

The back : (train tied up)

 

And some details: