Ladies, where do you get your dresses?

MamitaT

Cadet
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
I am new to reenacting, and I want to portray a southern woman who married a yankee soldier. (Think North and South's Billy & Brett). I was wondering, where does everyone get their dresses? I don't want to wear a camp dress...if I'm going to invest all kinds of money into a dress I want a 'better day dress'. Nothing too fancy, but nothing too plain either. Do you ladies make your own dresses? Or do you purchase them from a seamstress online or in your area? I can't seem to find what I'm looking for online, and I'm getting frustrated as our event is coming up at the end of May. Help please!
 
My wife makes her own, but she's a seamstress... Her rates start at $120 for the simplest bare bones dress w/ a turn around time of 6-8 weeks. Right now she has a backlog of I think 6 dresses. She ALWAYS suggests people sew their own as they will have a better understanding of fashion as well as being considerably cheaper. Past Patterns, which are made off of original garments & Elizibeth Stewart Clark has patterns, the only thing my wife tells women they need to buy is a corset. As for buying a dress go 100% cotton, plaids, paisly & some floral are ok and there are a variety of sources for good period material. The better half usually suggests a 3 part ensemble that can be mixed & matched to fit a variety of roles. Waist skirt & jacket that way you can get multiple jackets that match the skirt and have completely different looks. A Garibaldi tunic is a good option as it was in fashion at the time. A hat, parasoul or a bonnet though for a day dress she says nice hat or bonnet.

I would suggest Elizibeth Stewart Clark before anyone else when it comes to ladies gear. http://www.thesewingacademy.com/

http://www.themantuamaker.net/ has fancier Authentic dresses. Mrs Vivian is a nice lady and the better half speaks well of her work.

Below are several links to other ladies gear vendors. I can't speak much to their quality as I don't inspect ladies clothing too thouroghly... my wife has a tendency of braining me w/ a skillet if my eyes stray too much.

http://www.jamescountry.com/ladiesandchildren.html

http://www.victoriantreasuresbymary.com/index.cfm

http://heirloomemporium.com/

http://abrahamslady.com/

Civil War Lady is another option; quality & a high standard of authenticity but I have rarely dealt w/ worse service. I was trying to buy my wife a gift and they weren't real interested in taking my coin... this may well have only been one employee but that employee soured me and I ended up finding Mrs. Clark who is one of the best and nicest people I have ever dealt with.

Good Luck
 
There is a site called Recollections. Their dresses are beautiful, expensive and you have to watch out for non-period correct additions which are optional....like a zipper.

I would rather doubt this site is 100% period correct, however you could get some neat ideas for fashioning your own clothes.

If you plan on being near the campfire, concider wearing tropical wool because wool itself is naturally resistant to flame. And never wear a hoop when you are working near/around/over a fire.

--BBF
 
Thank you so much! My next question is...where can I buy a well made, yet affordable corset? I want to learn to sew my own clothing, but it's going to take some time and I was really hoping to participate at events this year. I have already purchased pantaloons, a petticoat, and a chemise. I'm still shopping around for dresses, but I definately need a corset!

Lol @ Johan's comment about his wife braining him with a skillet :tongue:
 
I have a civilian sutlery of women mens kids clothes. also do sewing i make my own & for others.
I am not a professional seamtress but do a good job. i don't go into real fancy ball gowns but more
simple ones. i'm not uppity person. please feel free to contact me anytime if you wish.
originals by kay are pretty but sure are expensive.
 
She is the master of the deadly Ninja Throwing Skillet. Who once silenced a mountain howitzer w/ just the threat of braining them if they ever pulled the stunt of rolling that gun up to the end of Suds row and letting loose at 0600 again. Thankfully, for them, she & the baby had already been awake. You rarely see grown men skulk away w/ their tails between their legs like that. I believe her quotable moment was: "Hey! If the baby cries somebody dies!" While weilding a nice steele (pun intended) skillet.

He often refers to her as "the skillet Ninja."
 
I have gotten some of my dresses from Abrahams Lady in Gettysburg and I know they have a web site. They have nice dresses. Nothing really fancy but nice dresses and accessories.
 
You should also check out the links on the Recollections site. There are, I think, some suitable clothes at www.saccitydrygoods.com , ranksmercantile.com, and if you buy a Recollections dress or ball gown (that is not on sale) through victorianparlor.webs com, they are 25% off. Also, ladiesemporium.com might have what you need.

I'm going to be in my first reenactment in the first week of June, and I am going in cold, never having even been to a CW one before. (I'm going with a friend who is in a group in Ohio and he talked me into it. He's falling with a local NC regiment here for the weekend.) I haven't the money yet for the proper underpinnings, but the outside layer (and petticoat) should be period. That's the best I can do at this point.
 
Two things I forgot... there's also Forest Creek Rennaisance and River Junction.

And... could someone look at a dress at saccitydrygoods.com and tell me what you think. It's white with blue flowers. (I think I want it to be period because of the sleeves. Summer in NC can be brutal!)
 
it sounds like you're taking the time/money to procure the proper kind of undergarments. Hurrah for you! Originals by Kay is where I usually get my petticoats, my cage, etc (though I'm learning how to make my own). I'll be purchasing a corset there one of these days (the one I bought on-sale on Ebay had plastic "boning" and it's losing it's shape in a horrific manner . .. buyer beware).

It's amazing how the "shape" given one by authentic under-things really helps the "look." No matter how nice the dress is on the outside, if you're wearing a modern bra and the wrong-shape of hoop, it will be painfully obvious. Never underestimate What Lies Beneath ;-)

We want this:


182448_1696452204746_1041060230_31591312_4939741_n.jpg

Not this:
IMG_0394.jpg

(and yeah that's me in both pictures - safer to pick on oneself ;-])

johan_steele - that story of your wife is HILARIOUS. Amazing. Thanks for sharing (wish MY local association had a "Suds Row" at events. grrr.)
 
I have a friend who specializes in civil war era ladies clothing. She does very lovely work. I was her apprenticed at one time. Her website is carolina-belles.com; you can see some of her work there. She is reasonably priced.
 
Kays corsets are THE BEST but very expencive. I have found an alternitive that I was thinking of useing my self since I'm a girl on a budget! The website is www.denisenadinedesign.com. Her corsets run around $160 to 170, which is still steep but the quality is very good. This is important because you can get a really inexpencive corset for like $40 but it won't hold up for very long 1 or 2 years and they will most likely be very uncomfortable.
 
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 :wink: 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! :smile:

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.
 
Thank you so much! My next question is...where can I buy a well made, yet affordable corset? I want to learn to sew my own clothing, but it's going to take some time and I was really hoping to participate at events this year. I have already purchased pantaloons, a petticoat, and a chemise. I'm still shopping around for dresses, but I definately need a corset!

Lol @ Johan's comment about his wife braining him with a skillet :tongue:
 
Back
Top