Please help me decide, friends! Should my 1882 print polonaise have a standing collar or a falling one (like a shirt)?
Both are correct for the period, although the standing collar is far more common. I'd use pretty much the same technique to put in the collar, so neither is more work than the other. I think both would look good, so no help there. This is why I can't decide. See
my Pinterest board to see what I'm talking about.
Also, I'm so lazy and just want this thing finished that I decided against adding cuffs and instead am just going to hem the sleeves. This is what prompted my collar indecision, because I was originally planning on having matching collar and cuffs, both trimmed with a narrow cotton lace. Now, with the plain sleeve hem, I can make plain white cuffs to tack in (which I see in tons of 1880s photos) and I can reuse the white cuffs for other things later.