1870s Dress for an 8-year-old

A few months ago I made a new 1870s dress for my 8-year-old for our Victorian summer picnic.

First, The Foundation Garments. I made her a new very plain and simple chemise and drawers. I made up the chemise with a small cut-on sleeve. The drawers I made following Elizabeth Stuart Clark's instructions, but I sewed the crotch seam completely closed and also added a little elastic in back so they wouldn't slide down. She wore white, knee-high modern stockings with this.

Next I made the foundation bodice. I made it from cotton twill, stiffened with cords and a little boning. It has adjustable straps and laces closed in back. There are buttons along the lower edge to attach the petticoats and skirts. 

Here are a couple examples I used for reference. I omitted the front buttons on mine because it was a little quicker and I was on a deadline!

To make the pattern, I wrapped her up in tape, over an old t-shirt, then (carefully!) cut the tape away at CB, marked my desired seamlines, and cut on each to make pattern pieces. I removed a little from the CB for a lacing gap, traced them onto paper, and added seam allowances.

Onto The Dress. Here's a few images I used for reference. The white blouse under a sleeveless dress seemed to be a pretty popular look.

Here's another, with short cap sleeves instead of a sleeveless overdress.

One more, hiding between these two ladies. Similar blouse/bodice look.

This catalog page from 1873 specifically calls these sleeveless, low-neck dresses "overdresses," implying they go over something else, like one of the waists on the previous page, or another dress.

For simplicity's sake I decided to make the blouse/overdress fake, and sewed the white sleeves and yoke right to the purple dress.

The dress has buttons all the way down the front, white on top and grey mother-of-pearl on the purple part. The bottom 5 or 6 buttons are non-functional.

The sides of the overskirt are pleated up a bit to make it more bustle-y. I tied a dark purple petersham ribbon around the waist at the last minute.

The purple linen fabric has a small white stripe. The faux-neckline and hem are trimmed with pleats made of bias strips of the linen. The neckline and wrists are trimmed with lace and there is a little white ribbon around the faux-neckline also.

The underskirt is white muslin trimmed with wide knife pleats. A little of the pleats stick up above a trimming of white petersham. This underskirt came out far too long initially, so I sewed a tuck to the inside to take up a little length, The tuck is hidden behind the upper part of the pleats.

I liked this dress a lot, and so did she! The bustling at the sides and back didn't come out perfect, but what ever does? She really enjoyed wearing it and my only regret is I couldn't get her to stand still long enough for a few nice, serious pictures. Hopefully she will still fit into this one next year!