1800s Muslin dress
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1799-1805 White muslin dress
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The back of the dress
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Detail of the front of the bodice, showing the cord tie; the belt would have been fastened with a small buckle. The end of one of the linen lining tabs can be seen through the muslin
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The back of the bodice
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Detail of the front with the bib down, showing the pinned tabs; the ties from the back waist can be seen
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Detail of the embroidery on the muslin
Description
The white cotton muslin has embroidery in white cotton; wavy stems with flowers and leaves form stripes about 5¼" wide and 12½" apart, with little curls of leaves scattered betwen them.
The dress has a bib front attached to the front skirt panel; this has a narrow cord drawstring round the neck edge, tying at the centre front, and the sides of the bib exrend up to the shoulders to be fastened by pins. Pinning was often used to as a method of fastening parts of clothing. The front panel side seams are open for 10" down each side.
The bodice and sleeves are lined with a heavier linen.
The lining in the front bodice is unattached and has tabs from each side over the bust, overlapping at the centre where they would be pinned together under the bib front.
A tape inside the back waist is sewn down for 3½" at the centre, with long ends for tying at the front to hold the back in place; these would be tied before the front skirt panel and bib were pinned in position.
The front skirt is gathered into the lower edge of the bib, and the top corners would be pinned to the lower edges of the bodice. The back skirt is tightly gathered into the bodice for 3½" at the centre back with a pleat each side, 1" deep on the left and ¾" deep on the right, and also pleats into the waist, 1½" deep, each side of the open side seams.
There is a belt in the muslin, ⅝" wide; it is sewn to the waist for 1½" to the left of the centre back, and sewn to the side back bodice seam on the right. The ends overlap at the front where they would have been fastened with a buckle.
The back part of the sleeve heads have eight little pleats into the shoulder straps and the lower ends have a tuck about ⅞" wide, about ¼" up from the edge. The linen lining has stitching attaching it along the top of the tuck on the right sleeve, but this is missing on the left one. The right sleeve is gathered along the top of the tuck for about 3" towards the back, and about 1¼" of this is loose from the lining.
The dress has a long train, which seems impractical for such a flimsy dress, but it was the fashion for a few years.
Contemporary illustrations
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Margaret Callander and her son James Kearney by Jean Laurent Mosnier, 1795. Yale Center for British Art
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Fashion plate in Journal des Dames et des Modes, 1799
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Fashion plate in The Lady's Magazine, June 1802
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Portrait de Geneviève Aimée Victoire Bertin by François-Xavier Fabre, 1802. Musée Fabre
