Girls Gone Wild!!!!! I would certainly call the print of these fabrics 'wild'... but truthfully, they were all the vogue in the mid 19th century. This was what you were to be with the 'in' crowd, and from cut and fit, some little girls Mommy or Daddy paid dearly to have them made up! These are 3 of my favorite little printed cotton gowns. The two to the extreme left are either sisters, or 2 gowns belonging to one little girl, as they are same size, and were brought to me together as a set. They were a bit large for Emma to model at 6 yrs old, so probably fit a girl of 7 -9. The gown on the right is for a girl 10-12, note the more adult styled deeper neckline.

The fabric of each of these gowns was most likely printed on a roller. Printing with a large copper engraved press had been done since the 1750s. To speed up this process, they seamed the copper plates together into a tube, and roller printing was born. The actual Mechanism was patented by Thomas Bell in 1785, and was powered by water and could print an amazing 6 colors at the same time! As I understand, it is pretty much the same as current machines, except we now can print 16 colors at once, and the rollers are engraved by computers, instead of by hand.

The dress above is likely mid to late 1840, the bodice in unique transition between the popular gathered fan front, and a fitted waist in a deep V point. The stitching is perfectly minuscule and even, definitely made by a skilled seamstress.

Having made a fan front down sized for dolly myself, I know first hand why this fashion was so popular for children for so long~they were very forgiving in the fit of the chest, and could be altered easily and unnoticeably for a growing child. Most the alterations would be on the inner lining, letting that out, and they would not have to do anything to the actual outer dress. looking closely, you will note the subtle difference in construction between the above dress, and the one below. Above, the bodice is gathered into a deep fan at the wast, with separate fitted side panels, giving the wonderful illusion of a smaller waist, and the fan gathers reach completely to the necks edge, being bound down flat a bit before, by a wide corded piping. The upper sleeves are made up entirely of wide tucks, also seen at the hem.

This bodice of this little dress is made of a single panel, gathered into a fan and caught at the breast under a flat fitted & piped yoke. The upper sleeves are capped with a scalloped frill. Both dresses hook up the back with alternating hook & eyes. All have wonderful hidden side pockets, that I just can't help myself but to wonder what they once had stuffed into them!