The Homespun Dress: Atlanta, Georgia. 1864.
The Homespun Dress
I first started making historical clothing in earnest when I was working in my first museum job. I had been an imaginative child and voracious reader, and absolutely loved playing elaborate games of pretend and dress-up. However, even when I was small I wanted my clothes to be “right.” My mother, bless her, indulged me, but only to a point. No, I wasn’t going to have cloth-of-gold sleeves in my Halloween costume. Yes, darling, zippers aren’t accurate for the 1700s, but this is a dress for the school play.
However, when my job became embodying the lives and stories of mid-19th century people, I quickly found that my lifelong loves had a home! We were issued loaner costumes from the museum education wardrobe, but I sought and received permission to go beyond, and start making things that reflected what I was learning about the real experience of the time.
A few of my absolutely wonderful, inspiring, brilliant museum colleagues at the Atlanta History Center.
For us, it was forever 1864. Each year, we would interpret what was happening on such-and-so date, based on whatever documentation we had for people living in that region in the United States. We knew roughly when news of a particular battle during the American Civil War would reach that part of the country, and so we would operate on a similar “delay” as interpreters to the public. We were in-the-moment and in-character, and thus would not have knowledge of things that happened beyond that day in 1864. It was a really unique challenge of immersion and required we interpreters to know as much as we could about the people of the time.
I found that clothing and the ritual of dressing really helped me get into the mindset of the person I was portraying. Not only did it take time to get dressed with all the requisite layers and underpinnings, there were practical concerns that also must be considered. It did not make sense, for example, to risk damaging a “best” dress when dipping candles. It would not be practical to wear silk and a crinoline while cooking on a stone hearth. I needed the equivalent of a work shirt and jeans for my historical persona.
In 1864, years into the brutal Civil War caused by the secession crisis over the issue of American Heritage Chattel Slavery, with trade restricted and supplies scarce, imported finery would not be accessible to the majority of people. With all that considered, I made a simple, practical dress out of a homespun cotton fabric.
The use of homespun fabric, rather than imported material, became a patriotic emblem and icon of southern domestic industry during the American Civil War, particularly for the Southern civilian population. Its use was encouraged and even captured in a song, "The Southern Girl," or, "The Homespun Dress."
The colors were easily attained via natural dyestuffs and would camouflage stains, patches, or marks. The fabric, while sturdy, was not overly refined. It still followed the “rules” of fashion at the time, but would reflect the diminished lifestyle of the person I was portraying.
I based a few of the details off a surviving gown in the collection at the museum I worked at, but since I wasn’t making an exact copy, changed the sleeves to suit the look I wanted. Like the gown in the collection, it had a close-fitting bodice, darted to fit the body over a corset and closed with hooks and thread loops. I attached a gauged or cartridge-pleated skirt hemmed just below the ankle bone, so I wouldn’t trip. I chose to make wide bishop sleeves with buttoned cuffs, which was an extremely common sleeve style. It was simple, comfortable, and hard-wearing. It wouldn’t be considered a “best” dress even with a nice cotton collar and cuffs pinned in, but that’s why garments like these existed.
I dressed it up with practical accessories such as aprons, a cheery red wool sontag, and a shawl made from a fragment of an antique coverlet. Machine and hand techniques were both used.
This dress went a bit of everywhere with me, but my favorite times were going 1850s-camping with some of my nearest and dearest friends. Everyone dresses up in period appropriate clothing, brings period appropriate tools and accoutrements, and we spend time just enjoying each other's company. It's not about romanticizing a time of legalized race-based slavery; each member of the group understands and teaches about the paradox of liberty in American history. However, this allows us to go and immerse ourselves in aspects of the sensory experience of the past. It's part of experimental archaeology; who knew that camping could be research?
Project: Mid-19th century homespun cotton dress.
Materials: homespun cotton plaid, plain cotton lining, metal hooks, bone buttons.
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