1840s Day Dress, Part VII: Finished!

Let me just start by saying that Dickens Fair was tons of fun– I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve attended! As always, I think that being in costume contributes immeasurably to my enjoyment of events. Here’s me posing in a bookshop at the Fair:

I accessorized the dress with a shawl, pair of brown vintage gloves, and a bonnet (next post!).

To provide the necessary dome-shaped skirt silhouette, I wore the dress over a crinoline/hoop combination skirt from eBay— it came with three hoops and a layer of stiff nylon netting over them. While actual 1840s dresses would’ve had multiple petticoats to get the right shape, I figured that I could lighten the load by using small hoops (I tightened down the circumference of the hoops by simply pushing them in and taping the loose ends down) with the netting on top– that way I didn’t need all of the layers. I’d have made a cotton petticoat to go over it all if I’d had time, but it just didn’t happen. Besides, I think that the netting softened the outline of the hoops enough that extra petticoats weren’t really necessary.