Reconstructing my ancestor's Shabbos dress without... anything? Fashion history with no photos

Sewing my Victorian ancestor's best dress for Shabbat-- without a pattern, photos, or anything but fashion history research! I'm reconstructing my family's Jewish immigrant past through dress history. Time to delve into the process of researching, designing, and drafting the pattern for great-great-grandma Carolina's Shabbos dress. A pattern for the style of dress Vi's Jewish ancestor, Carolina, would have worn as her Shabbat or Shabbos dress was unlikely to exist as a straightforward set of directions. As a seamstress, she used techniques that would have felt like second nature to her, so mundane there was no point to writing them down. For the second installment of The Clothes on Their Backs, Vi will share her process as a fashion history and fashion archeologist, discussing the process of historical costume research, design and drafting for working class clothing. A difficult reality of fashion history prior to the 1880's is that, before the late 19th century, flat drafting systems like dress patterns were primarily reserved for tailored menswear. Women's clothing, or clothes worn by working people, were either tailored directly against the wearer's body, or borrowed patterns from an existing piece of clothing. The Clothes on Their Backs: Join fashion historian Vi as she delves into her family's untold stories through historical costume dress reconstruction across generations. We'll explore the intersection of family history, genealogy research, and dress history anal