Brown Plaid 1830s Dress (Finished!)

I'm finally getting around to posting the dress. Sorry for the delay!

Sorry for the covered face; I didn't like what my face was doing

The classic mirror picture

The entire dress is hand sewn, along with most of my undergarments. The bodice is flat-lined with tan cotton, and the skirt has a 10-inch hem facing of the same cotton.

I was working with about 5.5 yards of silk, and the pattern called for 7.5, so I had to piece a bit. Both sleeves are pieced, one in 2 pieces and the other in 5 pieces. Two bodice pieces are pieced, one side and one back. It was tricky to match up the patterns, as I've never done with before, but I think I did a pretty good job. 

The skirt looks longer than it is, because of the angle the pictures were taken, but the skirt hits right above my ankle bone. This length seems to be pretty common of the period. I could probably even go a bit shorter because I'm still a teen. 

I ended up buying a different pair of shoes to wear. The shape of the shoe is rather close to period shoes, or at least as close as you can find in a department store. The ankle straps aren't quite right, but they're close-ish (very real word). I'll probably end up taking them off and adding some silk ribbon, but I wear the shoes with modern clothes and like them as-is. I think I'll be able to use them for other decades too.

"Precious" flat