Empire Gown in a Hurry

At the last minute (as usual) I decided I needed an 1807-era servant dress for the Steamboat Bicentennial festival at work. I was lucky enough to have some gray check fabric laying around my studio (it belonged to a friend so I now owe her--oops!) so I set to work on a bib-front gown.

By combining the oft-used Folkwear pattern, scaled pattern in Janet Arnold's book, and images of the same dress in the Victoria & Albert's Nineteenth Century Fashion in Detail, I managed to whip up an acceptable bib-front dress in two nights. Yay me!

Yes, the bib is tied on the outside. I hemmed and hawed about this since the Janet Arnold gown shows it tied on the inside, but another gown from the V&A book shows it tied on the outside. Crap!

Well, this dress decided to drape better if I tied it on the outside. So the choice was made for me.

Sorry also about the lack of stays. I made the executive decision that as a servant, she could get away without stays--especially since I didn't have time to make another pair.