1860s “Lotus” Skirt

For this lotus flower inspired look, I used an indigo cotton/linen blend for my main fabric and used a white velvet trim to trim it.

the petticoat Scarlett wears underneath her “BBQ Dress” (left) and my petticoat (right)

I planned for this dress to be historically appropriate for 1858-1862 and used a variety of patterns to achieve that goal. I used the Truly Victorian 1859 Double Skirt pattern for the skirt and machine sewed two bands of the velvet ribbon onto the bottom “ruffle” as well as by hand sewed a lotus design out of a soutache braid in between two more bands of velvet ribbon on the top part of the skirt. (I sadly have no pictures from the tendious process of sewing on the soutache braid) These layers were then gathered onto a waistband. This skirt was worn over the Truly Victorian 1858 Round Cage Crinoline as well as a cotton ruffled petticoat based on the one Scarlett wears in “Gone with the Wind.” I also paired the skirt with a blouse made from the Truly Victorian 1861 Garabaldi Blouse which I made from these Ikea curtains . Yes, curtains! I got two packages and was the able to make two Civil War dresses and this blouse out of it, so there is definitely a lot of fabric to work with, the fabric has great texture, but I suggest to wash it first because it does have a slight “industrial” smell when straight out of the package.

myself at the Huntington Beach “Civil War Days” wearing my dress for the first time