Civil War Dress

For the next reenactment, I really wanted to have my own dress. In the last reenactment, I was told that the dress that I'd made was not historically accurate. So for my birthday, Mom and Dad offered to pay for the making of my costume.
The first thing I learned was that historically accurate prints in fabric is very hard to find. Plaids are always good, but I really wanted a print. I joined the Sewing Sisters Facebook page so I could get there opinion on some prints that I found online. The first one I fell in love with they immediately said no; the background was a little splotchy. Also the flowers were too realistic. And there wasn't enough contrast.
So I was rather exasperated that the one that I loved wouldn't work. So I kept looking and found a pretty one that was sort of a rust color, with brown and white flowers. I really liked this one, but the Sewing Sisters said the flowers were too modern.
I was beginning to feel a little burned out with looking for fabric. I kept posting fabrics and getting turned down each time. I finally found a fabric that they said might be a possibility. It was almost a light faded red, with a lighter print with almost no contrast.
After thinking about it, I decided that it was too faded, and that if I lived in the 1860's, I definitely wouldn't buy fabric already faded.
So I was back to base one. Several ladies told me that the colors need to contrast; like pink with dark pink isn't really a contrast because they are the same color. The print can't be too small; the flowers can't be too realistic. The Sewing Sisters also told me that back then, geometric patterns were very popular.
A great website is Reproduction Fabrics; however, their prices are rather high. I got a good idea of what to look for; I realized that Joanns doesn't sell any fabric that would be even close.
Several ladies recommended a certain print that I really didn't like. But after looking at it later on, it started to grow on me. It was a dark red color, with goldish leaf/fern print and little blue dots. I didn't like the blue dots because on the computer, they popped out unattractively. However, at a distance, they didn't look so much like eyes.
I finally decided that I liked the fabric; we ordered 12 yards! Now that it's cut out, I see that I could have gone with maybe 9 yards.