My sister used to live in an area where they did Civil War activities and thought it would be fun to join in. They wore period clothing, did the cooking, set up shops, had quilt shows, a lot of activity from that time 1850's era. Her friend that introduced her to it loaned her a pattern to use to make a dress. It was a shirt waist dress made of the indigo fabric with little white decoration of some sort. My sister told her friend that it looked so familiar, and but decided it was a popular pattern, she must have seen when she was trying to pick out a pattern. So she brought it home, and then looked at a picture of our great-great grandmother, everyone called "Mam" because she was a school teacher during the civil war time and there it was. No only was the dress identical pattern, so was the fabric. (Nice to know my family was stylish for their time. :-D ) When she showed it to our aunt and me, my aunt pointed out the two women could have been sisters, even their hair and expression were the same. We got a real kick out of it.