1845-1849 Dress from LACMA

Here is another option for the Auburn Ravine dress. This example is from the "Fashioning Fashion" exhibit at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which I was able to visit last year.

1845-1849 Dress

Dress: England, 1845-49 
Silk plain weave with warp-float patterning, printed, silk lace, and silk passementerie

"By the mid-1840s, dresses with sloped shoulders, tight bodices with fitted sleeves, and fuller skirts mirrored the similarly constricting social norms of the early Victorian woman. Bodices often included rows of pleat extending over the shoulder to the waist in a pronounced V-shape that pointed to the wide, cartridge-pleated skirt."
 
Here a link to a close-up of the bodice.

Using the Truly Victorian TV 454 pattern as a base, the V-shaped pleats would be laid over where the brettelles would go.  It's another option I can play around with!

In Auburn Ravine continued

Just as a quick refresher, here is the next dress I want to recreate.

Circa 1852

I have been thinking about how the pleats at the shoulders are handled with this dress and have two options.  Like the dress below, I could add a separate pleated bertha and attach it the the shoulder and center front seams.

Or I the piece is darted at the waist and pleated into the shoulder seam, as illustrated below.

Personally, I am leaning towards the bertha because I have so many fan front dressed with gathering and pleating at the front waist, that this would be an opportunity to have a darted front dress with a nice tight fit around the waist and added volume to the top (where I need it the most).  

In Auburn Ravine c.1852

Seeing that I am giving a talk on women's fashion at a museum, why not recreate clothing from an original image taken during the Gold Rush? I have always loved the image "In Auburn Ravine."

1852

Close-up

My husband has yards and yards of dark blue wool that he ordered that is too light weight for what he wanted, so guess what color this dress will be...?