Etsy.com has lots of handmade civil war re-enacting womens clothing. Some are kind of farby and some arent. Some are more affordable and some are way toooo expensive.
Ebay has a few ladies that do good work too although Ive found ebay is normally more expensive but not always.
This will be my 3rd summer re-enacting and Im finally learning to piece things together with what I have to make do. To start off 100% outfitted is very expensive and over $1000. The shoes alone are a wallet killer then through in the corest and hoops and the wallet is dead.
etsy.com has some affordable skrits made with elastic bands so that it fits a wide range of ladies. There are also blouses sold on there in various colors.
Right now on etsy.com there is a person making and selling the popular and very comfy homestead dress for $100 which is a good price compared to the typical dresses. That person also has a variety of colors to choose from. Here is her link. I plan on getting that dress for my daughter. It might be something to consider:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/99476522/custom-order-womens-or-girls-1840civil?ref=usr_faveitems
In etsy or ebay type in "civil war dresses -doll" and it will show you stuff. The -doll is because if you dont do that tons of doll clothing will show up.
There are ladies both etsy and ebay who make aprons and bonnets too.
The homestead/pioneer dress is neat because they can be fancy to county farm wife depending on how you deck them out. You can use a cincher or an apron or a birtha collar and dress it up.
Here is another link for the homestead/pioneer dress:
http://www.1860garmentsbyglenda.com/pioneer.html
If you are tall with a long torso beware of those high waisted dresses and short waist bloues because they do not go well on long bodies at all and are very uncomfortable. From my experience those are more for shorter women. 1 peice dresses or skirts with long blouses are best for taller women.
And whatever you get keep it safe so you can reuse it for years to come due to the price. If you get it stained that's no big deal they did back then too. If it gets a rip just patch it up and wear it anyways. Think like they did which is no walmart and no made in china cheap clothing, everything was hard to come by and a women didnt have tons of dresses unless she was rich. The average lady would not have been able to daily dress like they did for their picture taking times. Only the super rich ladies dressed like that daily. Can you imagine bending over and washing clothing in those fancy gets up while wearing corsets? Corsets are another issue that is not needed if you are going to be a country hard working lady but if you are going to be the fancy dressed lady then corsets seem to look the part. I wont wear the cursed things because they upset a medical condition I have.
Also make sure it is an outfit you can dress yourself in unless you have someone to help you get dressed. Those alwful tight wrist cuffs can be a real bear.
Another pointer: if you are prone to not tolerate the intense in the sun all weekend long heat then you might want an elbow length blouse/dress or one of those blouses/dresses with the tie or eleastic cuffs so you can wear them at your wrist or above your elbow so you can wash the pots and pans without getting your sleeves wet and to cool off.
And have fun. Dont freak out too much about everything being perfect
There will be times where the judgemental harsh re-enactor will slam on your oufits and try to point out this and that and how the history books say such and such. Listen to them but let it go because those types will bring ya down if ya hang around them too much. But there will be lots of nice ladies that can show you stuff and gently guide you. Have fun and enjoy!
Oops I almost forgot to add Otts. I found them at the 150th mannasses in 2011 and they have decent charges and good clothing. Here is their link :
http://www.ottssutlery.com/ladies_apparel.htm
And another hint for those pinner aprons. If a lady is small busted the average pinner aprons seems to do just fine. But for the lady who has a lot of woman up top she needs a pinner apron made wider and larger because the average size pinner aprons dont fit, feel or look right on the larger busted woman.