Clara's 1869 Winter Overdress

I hear reports of snow across the country, although we certainly haven't seen any (and are very unlikely to see any here in the Arizona desert). But we did turn on our heat for the first time today, and are glad that our heater works.

So I decided to draw a nice, warm dress for Clara today -- an 1869 silk or taffeta party dress, with a matching overdress.

Have you ever seen a 1950s or 60s movie, where the movie star arrives at a party with a gorgeous cloak that matches her evening gown? Such high fashion was not a new idea... in the 1860s, it was quite the thing to have a cloak that matched your party frock. Even then, the idea of having a cloak to match your dress was not a new idea, having been a practice of the wealthy for hundreds of years.

It seems very impractical to me to have a coat you could only wear a few times. However, it sure is cute!

Clara has a little feathered bonnet to go with her dress, and some tall button-up boots to finish off her outfit.

The original dress was cranberry red. The overdress was cream colored with red trim. The bonnet was a matching red with white ostrich feathers. The boots were black.

To print Clara's dress, use this PDF file:

Clara's Dress 57 (783k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will be available on this blog as long as I continue to post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:

 The Clara Paper Doll (718k)