This post is late because I booked my schedule to the limit without giving myself any space for emergencies and things going wrong – which meant of course there were, and they did!  It’s also late because my browser freezes every time I visit the Centraal Museum’s website, which is rather annoying when you’re trying to Rate a Dress from that site. Last Week: An 1810s dress of pink roll-printed cotton, with lots of frills Comments on last week’s dress focused on how frilly and pink and youthful it was – and how much it reminded some of you of a nightgown!  For some people that wasn’t an issue, or even made the dress more charming.  For others….not so much. The Total: 7.6 out of 10 Looking like a nightgown was a little too much for some of you, and the rating definitely reflects that. This week: a mid 1890s dress in red silk faille and silk velvet A number of the comments on last week’s dress focused on how girlish it was.  I feel …

This week’s Rate the Dress is brought to you by my latest research and sewing deep dive: the big sleeves of the mid 1890s.

You really liked last week’s dress, with its slightly unusual (or at least unexpected), and quite busy, 1780s fabric. This week I’ve picked a dress with an equally unusual-for-its-era fabric. Will you like it? Let’s find out! Last Week and-then-some: a 1780s dress in Indian chintz You really liked last week’s dress, and enjoyed all the additional information and commentary on the fabric. I won’t be able to be as detailed and informed with every Rate the Dress post because of how much time it takes to write them, but I’ll try to balance quicker ones with more in-depth ones. The main problem with last week’s dress was keeping track of all the 10 ratings, because there were so many in a row. It lost a few points here and there for the fabric reminding some of you of curtains – it was the OG for the look! The Total: 9.4 out of 10 Practically perfect. This week: late Victorian marquisette madness This 1890s dress is made from a striking fabric with a bold abstracted …