The Laura Ingalls Dress Re-Created

I've always been intrigued by the dresses Laura and Mary Ingalls were wearing in this picture of Laura, Mary, and Carrie from the late 1870's.

Growing up, I loved the "Little House" books, and read them all more than once. The dresses the girls wore in this photograph fascinated me, as they weren't what I pictured in my head when I thought "pioneer dresses".

As a teenager, sewing doll clothes, I got really into combining different patterns and altering them to match the vision I had in my head, rather than the picture on the pattern envelope. I decided the Laura Ingalls dress would be a fun challenge to recreate, so I found some black polyester gingham in my stash, mashed together several patterns, and made it. For an 18" doll. I was very proud of that doll dress as it was the most complicated pattern I'd ever semi-drafted myself, and it turned out exactly as I'd hoped it would.

Fast forward several years and I decided it would be fun to make the dress again, this time for my little sister. Fast forward a few more years and I bought 4 yards of green plaid cotton homespun for the project. It was November at the time, and I was determined to make the dress as a Christmas present for my sister. I prewashed the fabric, found the perfect pattern in my stash, and then ran out of time to make the dress before Christmas. The fabric got abandoned in one corner of my sewing room, and I moved on to other projects.

Thus, the fabric has sat, waiting in my sewing room to be turned into this dress, for over three years. Finally, a few weeks ago, I decided I would make my sister the dress for her birthday this year. It was absolutely going to happen. Finally. Really.

So, a week before my sister's birthday I pulled out the fabric and ironed it. Then I set about finding a pattern. (My sister has long since outgrown the pattern I originally planned to use.) But first I had to figure out how this dress was actually constructed. The skirt of the dress in the picture is clearly two layers. Now was the under layer a seperate under skirt or somehow attached to the main dress itself?

To answer this question, I found a very similar extant dress on the Augusta Auctions website, and read the description of it. "Two piece dress" the description read. Ok, that answered my question. The underskirt was separate. I studied the pictures of the extant dress to get answers to a few more of my questions (What might the back of the dress look like? What shape were the pockets?), then proceeded to compile a pattern for my reproduction.

After a look through my pattern stash I pulled out Burda 7880 and Past Patterns 904 and combined the two, to make something resembling neither of them. I traced the relevant pieces from each pattern onto clear plastic, mashed them together and added my own spin on things. When I was done, here's what the dress front pattern pieces looked like, all taped together so I could even out the hemline.

With my pattern done, I was ready to cut into the long-hoarded fabric and actually make the dress! At this point I cursed myself for choosing to make this dress out of a plaid fabric. As much as I love the look of plaid, I really hate plaid matching across seamlines. However, I wanted the finished dress to actually look nice, so I gave this plaid matching thing a go.

I started by cutting out the center back panels, one at a time from a single layer of fabric so I could be sure to cut both pieces with a perfectly matching plaid pattern  From there I worked my way around to the front of the dress, cutting all my pieces from a single layer of fabric, rather than folding my material in half like normal.. After I'd cut out one identical matching set of panels (right and left side back, right and left side front, etc) I'd lay the pattern piece for the next set of panels over the newly cut panel, match up my seam lines, and mark the plaid pattern directly on the edge of my next pattern piece. 

I would then take my plastic pattern piece with the plaid pattern marked on it, and lay it out on my fabric, matching my markings with the plaid before pinning the piece in place and cutting it out of the fabric.

The finished plaid matching isn't perfect, but it's decent. And I'm satisfied with it. Plaid matching on curved seams is hard!

Once I finished cutting out the main dress panels and sleeves, I ran into a problem. I was out of fabric, and I still had the ruffles and underskirt to cut out!  Three years ago, when I bought the fabric for this dress, 4 yards would easily make a full historical dress for my sister! However, she's grown since then, and 4 yards is no longer sufficient. I needed more fabric. Thankfully, Joann's still stocks the same homespun as they did 3 years ago. So, I ran into town and bought another 4 yards of the fabric. Unfortunately, yet unsurprisingly, it was from a different dye lot than the 3 year old fabric.  So yes, the ruffle and the underskirt are slightly different colors than the main dress is. Oh well - at least it's the same plaid pattern!

To somewhat disguise the color difference, I sewed a row of lace around the bottom of the dress, where the ruffle was attached. I used a net lace I picked up at Hobby Lobby a while back. It's not perfectly historically accurate, but it gives a good effect.

I used the same lace on the sleeve cuffs and around the neckline to tie the whole look together. The pockets got a little bit of lace as well.

Once I had the dress all cut out, it wasn't particularly hard to make - just time consuming! My sister's birthday was on a Tuesday, and it took me most of a weekend preceding that to make the main dress.

On Monday, while the kid I nanny napped, I sewed on all the buttons and hemmed the main dress.

And on Tuesday, I made the underskirt - thankfully that was a really quick project! I sewed the ruffle in place and hemed it during nap time again. Then I pleated the skirt onto the waistband, and added a placket and hooks and eyes, as soon as I got home from work that evening. I finished the dress just in time to wrap it up and have it ready to give my sister at her birthday dinner!

As she's recently read all the "Little House" books herself, she was very excited when she unwrapped the dress and I explained it was a copy of one of Laura Ingalls' dresses!

She immediately ran to put it on, and I breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that it did indeed fit her! This girl is growing so fast now that I'm always concerned she'll outgrow things between the time I measure her for a project and actually finish the project - even if that's only a week long timespan like this dress was!

Once my sister had the dress on, the first thing she did was check to see if our new kitten would fit in the large patch pockets - it did! You know a dress is a good one if it has large, kitten-sized pockets!

Pockets aside, I think my favorite thing about this dress is the back - it has such an elegant shape!

The back pleats at the bottom of the button placket are such a pretty detail, taken from the extant Augusta Auctions dress.

The side silhouette is just as it should be for a late 1870's/early 1880's natural form era bustle dress. This is thanks to both the cut of the dress and the petticoats my sister is wearing underneath.

My sister is thrilled to have a new historical dress that fits her well, and I'm very excited to have finally made this dress! It's really been 10 years in the making, and the finished garment turned out just as I'd hoped - and better than it would have had I made it 3 years ago as I'd planned.

And as a bonus, this dress fits the Historical Sew Monthly challenge for August -  Re-create an extant garment!

August 2018 - Extant Originals

What the item is: 1870's girl's dress

Which extant original did you copy: My goal was to copy the dress that Laura Ingalls Wilder wore in a photo of Laura, Mary, and Carrie Ingalls. To do this I found a very similar extant dress on the Augusta Auctions website and referenced it for construction details.
Material: "Homespun" cotton plaid
Pattern: A mashup of Past Patterns 904, Burda 7880, and a fair bit of my own drafting.
Year: Late 1870's
Notions: All purpose thread, coconut shell buttons, net lace 
How historically accurate is it? About 60%. As I made this for my fast growing little sister, I wasn't overly worried about historical accuracy - she'll have it out grown in a couple months! The pattern is good. The construction is a mixture of accurate and modern. The materials are a mix of accurate and modern. The overall look is good.
Hours to complete: Around 20
First worn: August 21st, when I gave it to her for her birthday and she immediately tried it on!
Total cost: Under $30 - Thank you Joann's 60% off coupons and Hobby Lobby discount trims! 

If you'd like to see some more similar extant dresses, check out the Pinterest Board I made for the project. This was actually a relatively common dress style in the late 1870's!

Summer Came to an End, School Began

Two weeks ago, my little sister began her last year of Jr. High. How can that be?? How can it be that summer's already over? And, crazier still, how can it be that my little sister is this grown up? Almost done with her pre-highschool years? These things have snuck up on me!

The calendar isn't lying, August is almost over and school really is in full swing. The school bus rumbling down the road at 6:30 am is proof of that. And my little sister's wardrobe of outgrown clothing isn't lying either. The girl is growing up - and it's time to make her some new school clothes! Cute, comfortable, and easy to wear clothes, perfect for throwing on quickly those mornings she has to leave the house earlier than she'd prefer. Welcome to my slot on the Winter Wear Designs Back 2 School blog tour!

I set out to clothe my fast growing little sister for the new school year, armed with an old knit maxi skirt and a stack of Winter Wear Designs patterns. Oh, and some rayon fabric from Walmart, but I'll get to that later. First up, let me tell you about the skirt that became a fabulous pair of comfy, cute, sister approved, pants!

I spotted it back in the spring. Back when I was making myself jeans. Denim, and denim-look, fabric was on my mind. I saw it, abandoned on that thrift store rack, and I just knew it was destined to become a pair of pants for my sister. A pair of pants that looked like jeans but were actually sweatpants. Ultra fashionable and ultra comfortable. My sister needed pants like this and the XL faux denim maxi skirt just couldn't be anything else. Thus, the skirt came home with me, and I began searching for the perfect pants pattern.

The Aviator Pants pattern by WWD was just the pattern I needed for this skirt to pants transformation. First I prepared the skirt by removing the waistband.

Then I removed the back pockets, and the skirt became a viable piece of fabric - ready for the pattern!

It took a bit of finagling to get the entire pants pattern on to the skirt! The skirt was cut at a slight A-line with the hem being slightly wider than the waist. As the widest part of any pants pattern is at the top, the crotch curve, I basically had to lay my pattern out "upside down", with the top edge of the pants at the hem of the skirt, for the pants pattern to fit onto the width of the skirt. In order for the pattern to fit on the length of the skirt, I took advantage of the angled lower leg seam option included in the Aviator pattern. Since I was able to offset the upper and lower leg pieces while cutting out, I was able to fit the entire length of the pattern onto the skirt. That wouldn't have been possible if I'd cut the legs as solid pieces from waist to hem. Angled pattern pieces are great when using limited amounts of fabric! And angled seams look pretty awesome on finished garments as well - especially when they're top stitched!

Even with the angled seams and the topstitching, the pants went together ridiculously easily, as knit pants are apt to do. At the bottom of the leg in the front you can see top stitching from what used to be the back yoke of the faux jean skirt. And at the bottom of the back of the leg there's a lovely topstitched curve. That used to be the faux front pocket of the skirt. With the angled seams and the evidence of the fabric's former life, the lower legs are my favorite part of these pants!

The cuffs and waistband are made from a navy cotton/poly/Lycra blend I found in my stash. And to add a bit of jean-ness to the pants I re-used the back pockets from the original skirt.

To up the range of motion, and the comfort level, I added a crotch gusset to the pants. This isn't actually included in the pattern, but it's a very easy addition. You can just use the gusset piece from any gusseted leggings pattern. The range of motion a crotch gusset allows just can't be beat!

I finished the pants in one evening, gave them to my sister, and she's worn them pretty much constantly since then. 

Apparently they're comfortable. And she likes them. 

So, with the pants done, and approved and accepted by the sister, it was time for me to move on to the top half of her wardrobe. She needed some nice, new, well-fitting, shirts to wear to class. I picked two different Winter Wear patterns for this particular task - the Refined Raglan and the Omega Blouse. Both patterns are for woven fabrics, which was perfect as I'd scored some lovely, drapey, woven apparel fabrics while on vacation earlier this month.

First I made the Refined Raglan, out of a pink, orange, white, and black rayon challis.

For a little extra sass, I cut the sleeves to elbow length (halfway in between the 3/4 and short sleeve lengths on the pattern piece), and added gathered sleeve flounces.

The founces are just rectangles, cut several inches wide (maybe about 5"?) and approximately twice as long as the bottom of the sleeve was wide. The bottom edge of the flounce is actually the selvage edge of my fabric, so I didn't bother hemming it. Thankfully this fabric had neat, pretty, selvages!

Even with the added sleeve ruffles, the Refined Raglan was a quick, gratifying, one evening after work sew. Thus, the following evening I was able to whip up the second shirt I'd picked out for my sister (and I believe this one is my favorite of the two shirts). The Omega Blouse!

This softly gathered yoked blouse looks incredibly sweet and grown up all at once, and it's just perfect for my sister! This tree climbing monkey, whose growing up faster than I'd like sometimes, while still being the same ornery little sister she's always been.

I made up the short gathered sleeve, and shirt tail hem option of the Omega blouse in an amazing blue floral synthetic crepe. I'd contemplated saving this fabric for a dress I plan to make my sister eventually, but fabric was really perfect for the design, and I have no regrets.

For a little extra something, I added lime green piping to the front yoke seam.

The finished shirt looks both elegant and playful, with very little effort. Perfect for school, church, or anything else! I think this pattern is a repeater!

In fact, I'd say all three patterns can be made again for my sister - and soon if she gets her way! The pants, raglan shirt, and blouse make a great beginning to her back to school wardrobe. Now I just need to make more! 

She's already picked out fabric from my stash for a second pair of aviator pants, and requested a tunic-length Omega blouse to wear with leggings, so I guess I need to get on that!

She's back in school, and I get to clothe her for the occasion!

Don't miss out on any of the stops on the 

Back 2 School Blog Tour 2018

Monday 8/27

Larissa of Connected by a Thread

Tuesday 8/28

Rachel of Violet and Jewels

Wednesday 8/29

Laura of Custom Made by Laura

Carrie of BeriBee Designs

Livia of  Liviality

Thursday 8/30

Alyssa of The Sewing Goatherd

Diane of Sewing With D

Jackie ofJaxx of All Trades

Friday 8/31

Jessica of Jot Designs

Laurie Roberts of Make it Sew withThe Bear and Pea Atelier

Patricia of Sew Far North

A Most Cute and Comfortable MuuMuu

I've tested a heck of a lot of patterns this summer. An awful lot of patterns. At least one a week throughout June and July. There's been a time or two I've considered the idea that maybe I signed up to test a few *too* many patterns this summer - but my summer wardrobe is now well stocked with all the things made during testing! And those garments have been worn, worn, and worn again over the last few months, so they were well worth making. That said, among all the patterns I've tested recently, one stands out as being, hands down, the most comfortable thing I have sewn in the last few  months - the Montavilla MuuMuu by Sew House Seven.

Now, by definition, a MuuMuu is a relatively shapeless garment, hanging straight down from shoulder to floor, and shapeless garments have never really been my thing. Until last year in Africa. It was hot! Loose-fitting, long, "MuuMuus" were seriously the most comfortable thing to wear in that heat! My friends and I bought MuuMuus upon arriving in Africa, and I wore my two in constant rotation for the next three months. They were a definite departure from my usual style, but have a mentioned they were comfortable!? And, when worn with a belt, they had just enough shape to make me happy. All this is what went through my mind when I was sent a line drawing and an invitation to test the Montevilla MuuMuu.

The Montavilla MuuMuu reminded me of my Africa dresses, but with a bit more detail. When I saw the line drawing I immediately knew this dress would have a place in my closet, and it would be a dress I'd wear all summer long. I was right. This dress is incredibly comfortable, light and airy to combat the intense heat we've had this summer, and it has huge pockets. What more could I ask for?

When it came time to fabric shop for this project, I totally lucked out. Hobby Lobby had just marked all their spring fabrics down to half price. Thus I had a lovely selection of lightweight cottons to choose from - all within my budget!  After hemming and hawing for a few minutes, I picked out a rose printed cotton cambrey. It was breathable, lightweight, had just enough drape for the design, and was very opaque (so I wouldn't have to worry about a slip or lining, when would defeat the point of this cool and comfortable dress.). Plus, the print was pretty and I knew I would enjoy wearing it.

Once my fabric was acquired, I set right to making my Montavilla MuuMuu, well, almost. During the two weeks this pattern test ran, I also happened to be testing the Casey Skirt and 10k Tank patterns, and I was costuming the Mulan children's play. It was the craziest two weeks of my summer! I began this dress little bit by little bit between all my other sewing commitments (Those were the two weeks I barely slept and lived off coffee.). My fabric got ironed at work, while the youngest child was napping and the older two were watching a movie. The PDF pattern got taped together under the same set of circumstances a few days later. The dress got cut out late one night at home - after I'd finished the costume pieces that absolutely had to get done that night. Then the dress got all sewn up the day after the play opened (Once my time was actually my own again.). As soon as the hem was sewn, I threw my new dress on and it was everything I'd hoped it would be.

With my MuuMuu done, I could really appreciate the details of the design.

The ruffled cap sleeves, made by gathering the outer leg of the shoulder dart, adds some texture and interest to the bodice of the MuuMuu. 

These ruffles are probably my favorite detail on this dress.

There is elastic under the arms, gathering up the side panes of the dress, allowing for a comfortable and flattering fit.

There are huge, and when I say huge, I mean huge, patch pockets in the side panels at hip level. And who doesn't love having fabulous pockets to store stuff in? Especially when those are ginormous pockets don't that disturb the style lines of the garment!

And finally, to modernize the MuuMuu a bit, and allow for extra ventilation on those miserably hot summer days, there are two knee-high slits in the front skirt of the dress.

Cool and comfortable, I've worn my dress countless times this summer. At home, you can't beat the comfort of it when worn loose without a belt. Then, for a quick trip into town, or even for church on a Sunday morning, an added brown belt gives the MuuMuu a bit of shape, which makes me feel pretty.

And feeling pretty, in your most comfortable dress, is definitely amazing. 

If you're interested in the Montevilla MuuMuu pattern, it can be found here.

*I received this pattern for free in exchange for testing, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.