1860's Plum Fall Dress

Last fall I went to an Alumni Weekend for the Atheneam Girls School and I simply had to make a new dress to wear! After a few days of research I found a pattern my inspiration, I do believe on Pinterest.

I found the perfect pattern from Period Impressions, called the Zouave Outfit.  This is what I used for the jacket. I decided I wanted to add a different shade of violet velvet trim to the cuffs and waistband.
 

   
       The shirt I had already bought from Ebay(Unfortunately it has been over two years ago and I'm not sure who I bought it from).
         The skirt was made from 5 yards of the same material I used as the jacket and I Cartridge pleated the skirt from a tutorial on Historicalsewing.com (a very handy site with more tutorials). I did not use panels like I probably should have but I've learned recently it really does make a difference if you use panels or not.  I then added the green ribbon around the hem and above the cuff for more detail. My origanal idea was to use a Greek pattern but being my first dress I didn't want to over complicate things.
          The end product was beautiful! It is my first day dress(you can tell if you get picky) I loved the way it turned out.  I'll probably adjust one or two things later on but for now it's just my lovely plum dress.