Apron Front Dress c. 1799

The original apron front dress that this pattern is derived from belonged to the Nathan Pierson family in the Richmond/Pittsburg area of Massachusetts. Not much else is known about the history of this gown. The style of the gown, however, is a typical transitional dress from the waisted gowns of the 1770s and 1780s to the rising waistlines of the late 1780s and early 1790s to what we know as the Empire Style of the 1800s.