...Bosoms and bayonets?

Well, I had a bit of fun with this dress.  It has gone about as well as my first attempt at making a period correct Civil War dress.
I got the fabric from the Oak Forest 1812 event the first year it happened; I think I got a whole bolt for $10 or so, and it's come back as several incarnations from aprons to linings.

 So.. My first RevWar dress.  I can't say that I'm very fond of it.  It does certainly need some alterations, especially to get rid of those unsightly wrinkles but on the whole I'm pretty satisfied.  Also... I will definitely be wearing a kerchief.  Got to keep the girls under wraps, you know.

The dress is entirely hand-sewn, with most of the work being done over winter break.  The back is pleated en fourreau and my unintentional slightly angled cutting gives it a really rad chevron affect.

Just the facts:
Fabric:  Cotton? Linen? Natural fiber of unknown and unknowable origin.  Lined with linen, sewn with linen and cotton thread.
Period:  Roughly 1770.
Pattern: JP Ryan, I believe.
Time it took:  I started cutting the day break started, with a few days off in the middle, so about a week and a half over all.
What I learned:  Always check to make sure that your fashion fabric and lining line up.  The sleeves need to be re-done, and the front taken in significantly (as you can see, the closure is off a bit.)  Also, I don't know what the drafters were thinking with the sleeves - the pleat was evidently supposed to fit around the elbow snugly, but it hardly comes down past my elbow at all and instead makes that unsightly bump.  I think that I'll just cut the pattern off above the elbow for greater practicality and movement anyways.

Over all, though, I'm pretty happy with my first dress for W&M!