Costume in Detail by Nancy Bradford, page 372.

I’m still struggling with the Quaker Dress conundrum, both because I want a challenge and I want to be as accurate as I can be.

So, not unlike my stubborn cat, I got an idea, and I just can’t shake it. The kind-of-cross-over, apron-front, v-neck day dress.

I’ve tried and failed before, but I got a little farther Saturday. When I went looking for the original, I was pleased to find that it had ended up at Killerton House, as part of the National Trust Collection.

You can find it here, but you can’t see it yet. 

WOMAN IN GRAY DRESS
John Brewster Jr. (1766–1854)
New England
1814
Oil on canvas
29 1/2 x 24 5/8 in. (sight)
American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Eric D.W. Cohler, P3.1998.1

I think it may look something like the dress in this portrait, but without the collar.

Bradfield’s notes indicate that the front, sloping edge is a “fine, 1/10″ selvedge very narrow of rich dull orange saffron.” Based on this note, I have tried using the selvedge for that edge in the lining. (Better to fail on the lining than on the silk, right?)

We’ll see… the next trial will be a drawstring, just to see if I can get this business to fit.