The Tissot Dress: Day Dress Version

I have loved the pink dress in Too Early by James Tissot for years and have always wanted to make it. This dress of course also appears in many of Tissot's other paintings as well. This past autumn I made a huge step towards my goal and made a day dress version. I also have plans to make an evening bodice so I can recreate the painting exactly.

Making this dress was an enormous undertaking, and involved hand pleating over 80 yards of fabric. Click here to read all about the making of!

My initial inspiration is of course the painting in which the pink dress features the most prominently, Too Early.

James Tissot. Too Early. 1873. Oil on canvas. London: Guildhall Art Gallery.

For the day bodice I took some inspiration from The Ball on Shipboard. You can see it on the woman ascending the stairs in the lower right corner. However, I don't like the exact design of the day bodice in that painting so I took at as inspiration only and then went my own way with it.

Detail of The Ball on Shipboard by James Tissot. 1874. Oil on canvas. London: Tate Gallery.

And here is my own version!

In addition to the dress, I also made two new petticoats to go underneath. The bottom-most layer is extremely fluffy:

The top petticoat is a bit less exciting: