Martha Washington - Colonial Costume

My grandmother is a very proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Remember Emily (the mother/grandmother) from Gilmore Girls? She was a high society DARer, they had high teas and judged everyone. Major gossiping and a lot of keeping up with the Joneses. My grandmother, Mimi, is just an endearingly eccentric member of a society committed to doing good in the community, spreading American pride, and restoring historic properties. From what I have experienced with her DAR chapter, its a really lovely group of (mostly) older ladies who just love this country and its exciting history.

While I was in college my Mimi asked me to make her a colonial costume for her to wear to her DAR events. They often have teas and social events where it is appropriate to dress up as your Revolutionary War ancestors. I didn't have time to work on it durring college and had totally forgotten about it until this summer when she asked me to tackel the project again. This time I was interested.

It took me a few weeks worth of nap time sewing blitzes, but it finally done. Just in time too! Mimi's DAR Christmas party is this week. I am so excited for her to see it and be able to wear it to her Christmas party.

Mimi said she didn't really care if it wasn't historically accurate (meaning I could use a zipper) so I used the Simplicity pattern # 2354. I had to make some adjustments and alterations. I added lace to the cuffs. The sleeves were ridiculously long, so I added some ruching to them. I didn't do the ribbom detail on the stomacher because I just didn't like it. I had to tea dye the bodice fabric because it was much to bright white. The pattern was pretty simple to put together and if I didn't have a little one tugging at me all the time it would have been done much more quickly. I think it turned out really nicely, check it out and let me know what you think!