Godeys 62 Catching birds with fresh salt
A Year of Images
This is a bit delayed… I am going to attempt to share an image for discusison a couple times each month for the year (or at least until the season kicks in and we all get busy.)
Petersons 62 January Bless its little heart
Taking a Closer Look – Skirt drop and hems
We wrap up this week looking at the bell shaped skirts and hems of recreated dresses.
Notice the hem tape.
This flounced skirt shows how the bell shape looks with the flounces. 
Taking a Closer Look – Skirt drop and hems
These two originals from Martin’s Mercantile are displayed with a nice bell shape. The skirts drape nicely over the support of a cage and petticoats creating the nice, soft bell that comes out and drops from about the lower calf down.
This is technically a 30s dress but it shows how the skirt backing construction process was well in place. 
Taking a Closer Look – Skirt drop and hems
After looking at the top of the skirt last week, let us look at the bottom this week. This includes both the shape and the construction.
This skirt, which is a 3/4 turn view meaning she is slightly turned to the side, shows the bell shape through the bottom of the skirt. In the front, left, you can see a hint of what might be the hem tape.
This working class mom (those are the feet of her sons on either side of her) has a solid color skirt, likely wool, which shows the hem tape nicely. 
This well tucked wool skirt shows the hem tape. The bell shape is nicely defined. See how the skirt’s bell shapes from about her lower calf down?
This skirt shows more of the bell on the left hand side than the right. But, what I find interesting (in addition to the panel seams) is the wear evident at the bottom. 
This image is harder to see due the the coloring and scan. The skirt does have a nice bell shape. 
Taking a Closer Look – the waist
On the Fridays of this series we look at how seamstresses and reenactors recreate the look of the area we are discussing. Today comes an additional observation. While looking through my images for those to show the waist area, I discovered we must be standing differently in our modern photos because I couldn’t find as many clear shots of the waist as I wanted. In most photos, our arms are covering the area. When pulling CDVs, it wasn’t difficult at all to find clear views of the waist. That is something to think about.
Here is Colleen who has a nice transition off her bodice into her skirts. The poof is developed from her skirt construction and the layering/positioning of her petticoats underneath. 
Here is Samantha in her sheer dress which transitions fully off of her waistband with less poof developed from a solid petticoat foundation and the gauging in the sheer fabric. 
If I Had My Own Blue Box: 