Sew Grateful

I could not find a pattern to fit the mold of what I figured a revolutionary war dress should be, so I had to modify a "Little House on the Prairie" style dress and make it a 1776 era dress.

The pattern I went by had the dress with a high collar attached to the bodice, so instead of adding the yoke, I simply left it out and sewed the bodice front to the lining and left the yoke off. I then had to make an over-skirt and figure out "where" to put it so that it would lay straight in the front center. I added the lace to the edging of the over-skirt and bottom. I then took a scrap piece of white material I had and measured it to fit over the shoulders. At first I was going to sew this in to the bodice, but after contemplating for a little while, I decided that it would be better to just keep it separate.

The girl I made this dress for will be doing a Civil War report next year that she will need a dress for. She wanted to know if we could use the same dress. Therefor, I left enough material at the hem to let it out up to 2 inches, and I made the dress a size bigger and then fit it to her (without trimming the excess) so that next year I can let out the hem and the bodice as necessary. I plan on making a lace yoke to fit under the bodice and maybe taking the over-skirt off and simply turning it opposite, cutting length off of it to make it a bow in the back with a draping in the front. I want to make a big hoop skirt to really bring the skirt around like Civil war era dresses. I might have to add some trimmings too.