The Attire of a lady in the 1860's

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posts latey! But there are so many tasks, family activites, projects, and school work to get done that it has been hard to post. I am very grateful for a full plate of activities that will allow myself and my family to minister to others as well as each other. I am also thankful for the privledge of being home educated and being able to get in lots of other acitivites and projects I otherwise would not have time for in a public or private school setting. I am loving learning about the civil war and the war of 1812 along with my government studies. I just love reading about our countries history and how people sacrificed and gave their lives to form our nation.

As I have been studying our Nation I have been studying historical clothing with my sister and friends. I love love love historical and modern clothing as you may have noticed! :)I am so sorry for the lack of posting recently, my family just attended a civil war reenactment yesterday and friday and saturday! So we are exhausted and recooperating! I will post photos from the event as soon as time allows and I have some sewing projects and the progress of my room make over to post later this week. So be looking!

So this post will be photos I have found in various places of women and children who lived during the american civil war. I just love seeing their outfits and saying to myself I wonder why she chose that fabric or I wonder what her name was. Oh I know she looks like me or she looks like a friend or relative or her dress is similar to mine or I want to make one similar to hers!!

So enjoy and tomorrow Lord willing I will be posting about some of my current reading, school, cooking, and sewing projects, and probably about more civil war reenacting and history! :)

Bare with me! Each of these photos has a lot of detail and each one has given me inspiration and I have learned a lot along side my sister about the clothing of the 1860's!
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This dress above I would guess is wool because they did not do solid prints in a cotten because they would fade too easily in the sun. I would love to have a wool dress similar to this style! I already have 2 neck bows and I have buttons for another dress. I also would love to make the type of belt she is wearing. My sister has purchased a pattern for it and I plan to make a silk one soon!!

The dress above is my day dress I wear to all my events and I cooking, sewing, laundry, and other activities in. It would be the equivalent of my everyday clothing in todays world. I want to point out that I made a bow that I am wearing with the dress to dress it up as well as a belt and bucklet, which slid on my belt a little. :) But you can dress up your everyday attire just like today we do and they also did so in the 1860's! In the picture I first posted, her bow and buttons are similar and her belt is different, but I plan to make one that is close to it that will work with this dress above.


This next dress is lovely! But I wanted to point out the similarity of my hats in these photos to the ladies hat in the CDV.

I just love the polka dot dresses of this period! But I can not have one, because its so hard to find the right type of period dot these days! If I ever found a dot that was like the period dot pattern I would buy it for a dress in a heart beat! Her hat also is beautiful!It is very similar to the photos I posted above of my hand woven straw hat,which I purchased online from a lady who specializes in period milinary.

You can see a closer up of the way I trimed the hat here with velvet ribbon.

I just found this photo today and I loved her doll, yoked bodice dress, and her adorable countenance! I had never seen a photo of a period child with a doll before. A good friend of mine has a period reproduction of a doll that they would have had back then and its similar. My doll I have made is cloth and her name is Rosette and she still needs a face. But I am working on it! I want to use her to show children at the reenactments what little girls would have played with. :)

This one is just adorable! I can't wait to see some little girls dressed to the nines like this at a reenactment! Its amazing that there are hardly any families it seems that reenact with small children here in VA!

I thought this one was interesting! Very different! Maybe these women are waiting for their men to come home from the war?!

This little girl I thought was precious and her yoked bodice is a rarity!

A great photo of a working woman! From what I can tell a sturdy wool dress and great boots and neck kerchef. Yes I do look like this at reenactments! Oh and I can prove it with these photos! :)

I am on the right in my dress I pictured earlier that is my every day dress. I am wearing only my belt this time as an accesory. But I am also wearing a hood, which I wear to keep warm in the winter. I was hot because I was doing work!!! Believe it or not you can work in period clothing. I was rolling cartridges and showing other girls how they would have done that to make amunition for the cause during the way. My sister and another friend and some mothers also showed the girls at this particular event how to sew bags and how to garden. We ended the day with a high tea after we had lunch and also did a fashion show and saw the boys do a battle and a firing demonstration was done by the older guys. This was the event we attended back in February put on by Bonnets and Bayonets, which is a group we help with. I have them listed under my favorite websites in the side bar.

You can see that my striped dress is very similar to the ladies dress below in the stripes going a similar way and that the sleeves are similar. I also have a velvet belt on as well.

I was excited to see another woven stripe similar to my dress and she is wearing a belt as well. She could be a my ripe age of 19 don't you think?!

My yoked bodice was inspired by the photos that is in the next CDV.

Now the dress below was the inspiration for my dress I am wearing in the above photos. I am also making the belt similar to hers and the other picture I talked about above sometime soon so my ensemble can be dressed up for nicer occasion. During everyday life events I just wear my simple belt and my bow sometimes, but they alwasy wore collars or kerchiefs around their necks because these were washed after each day, while the dress was only washed about every 2 weeks.

In the photo above my sister is also wearing a ladies cravat/bow similar to the one in the CDV above of another young lady! It was so popular it seems for young ladies to wear bows/ladies cravats over brooches, which were usually worn by older women.

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I am also wearing a ladies cravat in this photo.
This CDV above is my dream 1860's outfit right now!! I want to find a wool plaid and make a skirt similar to hers and also some wool for a jacket too! I would also wear a sheer blouse under neath, which I already have fabric for. I also would do some beading similar to on the sleeves and outer part of her jacket. And to top it off I would find some cotten or silk ribbon for a bow on as well. Right now its a dream, as its too fancy for my impression as a middle classing working women. I mostly do cooking, baking, laundry, telegraph, and sewing at events. Therefore I would not be a higher class lady. So right now its a dream! :)

I thought I would post this one as her belt buckle is very similar to mine I am wearing in the photos I have posted of myself. I also love herbow and full sleeves!

Hmmm.... I have been wondering are they sisters, friends, or what?! Its great to see group photos! I love all their trims, hair styles, collars, and bows too!

I thought this little girl was too sweet not to post the picture!

And this last photo I thought had a remarkable resemblance to a friend of mine named Aurora. I met Aurora at the Jane Austen Festival back in September in Bath for the first time after reading her blog a lot! It was great to meet another fellow Jane Austen and historical clothing fan and seamstress. Here is her blog if you want to take a peek. I thought their faces were so similar it was remarkable. Tell me what you think! I also love her printed dress and her sleeves have some very interesting caps that are pointed! very neat I thought!



And just to end I thought I would post this sweet photo my friend Lindsey took last July 4th at Gettysburg! I am with my friend Emma! She is a sweet heart and we had fun being together dressed in pretty dresses from the 1860's! :)

God bless and I hope you all were able to understand and learn more about living history events as well as the period clothing of the 1860's!

In Christ,
Rebecca Ann

All CDV's are not mine and are the property of their ebay stores. Also all photos that are modern are the property and taken by Lindsey W. Bethany Lynn, and Rebecca Ann. They are not be taken from my blog without permission. thanks.