A New Cotton Bodice for Summer

Ok, confession time: I lied. I said I didn't have enough time to make a new ballgown bodice for my cotton 1860s dress, and that I wasn't going to do it.

...but then I did. The truth is, when I was writing my post about day and evening bodices I started to feel kind of sad about not having the bodice or being able to wear my cotton dress (it also happened to be really hot, and the thought of sweating into my silk was unappealing). So I put down my laptop and dragged out the fabric!

The bodice isn't perfect--it was made in a hurry, after all--but in general I'm pretty happy with it. I was especially happy to have something cool to wear to dance in! Hooray! As a bonus, I found some purple tassel trim in my stash when I dug out the leftover fabric from last summer. So I even had trim!

the dress in action (thanks Quinn for thinking to steal my camera!)

at the war memorial in the building, thus the serious face...while it was technically for 20th century wars, I think the line "liberty and union now and forever" works for Civil War remembrances too

There ended up being four girls in cotton ballgowns! Three of us were in alternate evening bodices for the day dresses we made last summer, while the fourth made an alternate evening bodice to match the underskirt of a different outfit. So everyone was in convertible cotton, and that was pretty neat.

four girls in cotton

We'll be wearing the day bodice version of these dresses again at George's Island again in a few weeks. If you're in the Boston area, please come and say hello! You may even be asked to jump in on some of the dancing.

OUT TAKES!

Sometimes taking serious, pretty pictures is difficult. It takes a lot of arranging...

much fussing

...and sometimes we're just silly.

zombie girls!