The 1871 Dress

I've decided that before I make the Wishing Dress that I want to make a dress from the same era I'm basing the dress off of, the early 1870's. I'm doing this since I've never made a historical dress before, and while I'll learn a lot when I do the mock up, I want to be familiar with the techniques and other aspects of the dress. Also, I want to make it with directional fabric since the Wishing Dress has directional fabric and I don't have any experience with matching up patterns.

The pattern I chose is from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 2; the 1870-1 dress. I still need to get the patter enlarged, but I got impatient and started on the skirt. I measured it all out myself and have the muslin cut and the pieces pinned together.

I'm thinking I may change the neckline to this though. 1 because it's almost identical to the Wishing Dress, and 2 because I think I like this better than what the pattern has.

Dress ca. 1875

As for the fabric, I'm still figuring that out. I want to make the dress blue for some reason (perhaps because that's what the dress the pattern is based off of is) but I still don't know what type of material I want to use.

The pattern has 2 difference bodices, one for day wear and the other for the evening, so I'm going to need a fabric that would be suitable for an evening dress as well as a day dress.