Dressing for Summer

I know you want to know about the clothing from this weekend. As the event approached, the week of high temps, humidity and scorching sun the concern over keeping cool was rising. Luckily, the temperature dropped Friday night as an enormous storm rolled through.

Here is my little sister, Lily, in her well worn dress. This is a light weight plaid cotton shirting. Her short sleeves and shallow V neckline work very well in the Village kitchens. As this dress is several years old, it has survived both growth spurts and cooking classes. It is time for a new dress, making this her wash dress. Her cage was pieced together the week prior from my old work cage. It is designed with a good back shift for the later part of the war. (I anticipate by the time the new cycle comes around, the cage will need to be remade for her mid to later teens.) The cage does need another petti with the fullness in the back. Her new dress will also be set with more fullness in the back.

Here is my Saturday dress. This is the green plaid I made in May. This is also a light weight cotton shirting. For accessories, I’m wearing a reproduction gutta-percha buckle from Elizabeth Aldridge and a repro gutta-percha mourning broach from The Civil War Lady. This dress is made with my favorite gathered V neck bodice and open sleeves with a funnel shape. There is self fabric trim around the neckline and down the front of the bodice as well as around the sleeves. The trim on this dress is evolving as I have several ideas for it. While May was just two months ago, fitting issues have developed with this dress. My corset now closes closer to how it used to close, meaning I’ve lost a couple inches around my ribcage. (The bust has done some odd fluffing on the other hand) As my ribcage has shrunk, the length of the bodice has dropped in the front. In a side photo, I can see how bottom edge, and thus the waistband, angles down from the back to the front. This half inch to inch in the bodice has resulted in a drop in my hem, the hem that I stepped on over and over and over again. Solution? The front of the bodice will come off, be shortened and reattached. At the same time, it will be brought in as well. I’m hoping the latter part will not require a complete skirt reset.

This is Sunday’s dress. This is the knock me right over fabric that was gifted to me from a dear friend. I wanted a white fabric with a floral print in just this size for so long. The fabric is incredibly light weight with a green block print. I just love how this turned out. It feels amazing to wear. I used the gathered bodice with V neckline bodice that I love so much. The sleeves are simple open sleeves with a slight funnel shape. These are a tad shorter than those for Saturday’s dress. A self fabric box pleated circles the neckline. I left the sleeves without trim for now because the fabric is so light, I don’t want to hinder the soft, airy feel the sleeves have when I wear it. I have the same belt on as a the day before and a small jet broach.

Ignore the vacant stare in this photo. Each of this set came out that way while I was attempting to go for serene. This is the veil Bevin made me when I first got to New Mexico. It was very helpful with the sun on Saturday when it was overcast. It wasn’t as helpful on Sunday when the sun was brighter. The white made the sun glare. I am thinking about dying this veil green since I know the green veil I wore for the Museum’s travel program helped nicely with the sun.