1865 Wool Print Dress

This dress is from the Civil war or post civil war period. This dress would not have been an evening gown that was worn to a fancy ball. Like the dress before it it would have most likely been worn as a day dress. This would not have quite been for working purposes, but maybe more for an afternoon with friends because of the lightness in color. It is not an expensive fabric or print because of the small floral pattern this indicates that less was needed to make the dress and it could be paneled closer together. Geometric and floral prints were one of the most popular of its time because the grometric could be easily turned inside out and the small floral could be pieced together closely, in both cases using less fabric. During this period the trend of hoops was on its way out and a flatened front was coming into style moving the crinolines to the back. I am not sure who wore this dress but it most likely would of been a woman of middle class stance with the ability to sew and construct her own dress, which most women started to do at this time because of the sewing machine and the high textile industry that need women workers during the war. The large and wide silk southern belle dresses were not the everyday occasion dresses, a dress like this was for the everyday woman who wanted look nice for less. Wool fabric was one of the four most popular fabrics used during this time along with silk, cotton, and linen. Fabrics were being finished to look like others in textile factories, but it still wouldn't have been as easy to get them for an everyday middle class woman.