I'm pulling out various bits from previous digests, and will try to be minimally chaotic. :) Right Versus Left Closures on mid-19th century women's dresses: while a center-front opening is the norm after the 1840s, the fronts can lap either way, whichever is easiest for the woman dressing herself. Pockets: dress pockets are fairly common, actually. They're less likely to be patch pockets visible on the skirt, and more likely to be inserted in a seam on the dominant side of the body. Using a pocket stay (a strap or strip of fabric that supports the far side of the pocket bag by attaching it to the waist band inside) allows the pocket to be useful without hanging poorly. Fabric: Cotton prints are fairly common by the 60s, all across the nation. The limiting factors on cotton use are predominantly climatic and individual preference, as well as style. Sheer cottons have certain styles that are more common; printed mid-weight cottons are less likely to be worn in the middle of a cold New England winter (versus wool, for instance), etc. Hoops shapes/sizes: yes, indeed, there are different shapes and styles all through the hooped era! I've not had difficulty sitting in any of the shapes I've used. It takes a bit of practice to master managing a hoop or cage, and sitting in chairs with arms can be problematic. :) The trick of sitting, generally, is to use one hand to very gently lift the rungs right at hip level, sit straight down, and don't lounge backward once sitting. This lets the hoops telescope as needed, without belling up and out a'la Laverne & Shirley. :) Whatever size and shape you choose, keep the length around mid-calf, no lower. Hoop use: for an upper middle-class woman, hoop use is going to be quite ubiquitous. Particularly if she's a New England upper-middle-class woman! It will take far longer for her resources to be exhausted during the war years (barring risky investments, etc), and if the target year is 1861, she's nowhere near that point. Choosing to use petticoats only for stage reasons is a different set of choices than those the actual woman would have been making. If it suits your needs for the stage presentation, then skip a hoop; just be aware that the character is more likely than not to be wearing them all through the war. Aprons: they do not generally match the dress at all. Lower to middle-working class women seem far more likely to be photographed in a working apron than their middle-class counterparts; upper working class and middle class women, when photographed wearing aprons, do seem to be wearing "fancy" aprons made of silk (for decorative use and wearing during needlework/sewing, not chores.) An upper-middle-class woman is going to be more likely than many others to have hired help for some household tasks (the dirtiest, most labor-intense ones, such as laundry). Pinners do show up, but half-aprons are also bog-common. Avoid any strapped "pinafore" styles for an adult women in this era. Which Patterns of Time pattern are you looking at? Re-using Dresses in New England v. Frontier: here's my sense of it so far, based on looking at the "recycling" trades in the US: The upper-middle-class lady in New England is more likely to sell her used things off to a rag & bone man or used clothing merchant if the dress can no longer be made functional for her own use, and cannot easily be cut down for a child (or, if she's not of the mindset to use her cast-off dresses as yardage for a child's dress.) She is more likely to have aprons that start and finish life as aprons. A woman in a frontier settings is more likely to *buy* a used garment from a traveling used clothing merchant, and remake it to suit her own clothing needs (for herself or a family member, cut down to aprons, etc), and to re-use her own worn dresses in protective ways (aprons, underskirts). Both women are part of a huge cyclical process, but they are at different points in that wheel. Steampunk: LOVE it. Mid-century has a lot of scope for steampunkage, in my opinion. Trims, in particular, and accessories, are prime spots to bring in mechanical elements, metal filigree, etc. You can take it even further with exposed understructure, really punked-out bonnet elements, buttons, and fabric choices. Add in shoes, watches, spectacles, watch chains, belts, etc, and the possibilities are just as endless with the early/mid Victorian era as with the later stuff. I'd take inspiration from the technology mentioned by Jules Verne, primarily; he's publishing during the mid-century, and is, technology-wise, one of the Grandpas of Steampunk. :) Regards, Elizabeth Clark http://www.elizabethstewartclark.com Historic Clothing Tech Support at http://www.thesewingacademy.org _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
