Pictures
1850s Cranberry Day Dress
This project comes with an story.
Someone came to me already firmly in love with the dress in the painting but needed a dress for Dickens' Fair. The painting is about 20 years post Dickens's so this presented a continuity problem. I spent several hours going over Dickensian dresses picking out details I felt where complatable with the later dress. I found a dress that included a apron detail on the front, I found a dress with pleating on the bottom and the bodice is cut off an authentic1850s pattern. Putting all these details together in one dress gave her something very similar to the dress she loved but that is very much Dickensian in every detail.
The dress is made of a cranberry velveteen with faux persian lamb trim and vintage lace inset. The apron is self fabric accented with frogs that I modified to not look like frogs. The dress came in under budget and looks ever so lovely on her.