Spifying up the Victorian Mourning Dress

I have never been able to let go like the Victorians and go full bore on throwing all kinds of decoration on their late 1800's dresses.  But I decided to really give it a try.

This is what the Mourning Dress looked like originally.




































I did end up adding pleats at the hem.


















Now I decided to try some ruching. . . yards of ruching.

And lots of stitching and lots of thread...

And lots of gathers.

I added some ruching on the sleeves too.

Then I decided to make an overskirt too, with ruffles all along the edges.  And the end result . . . .

Well, that was fun!