1825 Red crepe dress

1825 Red crepe dress
Date	1825-1830
Category	Women
Item	Dress
Fabric	Silk
Decoration	Appliqué, Satin
Wearer	-
Maker	-
Acc. no.	HC.D-3.02-3

1825-1830 Red silk crepe dress.

The back of the dress
The decoration at the top of a sleeve
The end of a sleeve
Detail of the back waist showing the loops for holding the ties

Description

The dress has an apron front, where the front skirt panel is not sewn to the bodice, but has a tape or ribbon at the top corner each side to tie round the waist to hold it up.

The bodice and sleeves are lined with ivory cotton, and the skirt is lined with a thinner cotton.

The bodice is fastened with four hooks and eyes sewn on in such a way that the left front, which has the eyes, overlaps the right when fastened. It is trimmed with 2" wide bands of matching silk satin which are about 1¼" apart at the waist, rising diagonally to join the armhole seam near the shoulders; the bands are on the bias and have a ½" tuck at the outer edge and three more ¼" wide. They have five bars spaced over them, ⅜" wide, made of three rows of piping and an ⅛" strip. There are five rows of the satin piping round the neck with an ⅛" wide strip of the crepe round the top edge. The ivory machine-made lace edging, ⅝" wide, gathered inside the edge, is a later addition. The shoulder seams and the side back seams also have the satin piping. An ivory silk ribbon, ⅝" wide, is sewn inside the back waist, with long ends to tie round the front holding the back bodice in place before the apron front is secured.

The sleeve heads are pleated into the bodice, under a short oversleeve in the crepe, 5½" wide at its deepest; this is cut into seven arrow shaped lobes with double piping round the edges and satin covered flat buttons where the side points of the arrows meet. The lower sleeves have a section of five pleats into a 1¼" width, and are sewn to a ½" wide bias satin strip edged with narrow piping, which goes round the sleeve ends. The pleats are controlled by bands of the satin, 2" long including knots at each end; one is 2⅛" up from the sleeve end and the second is 2⅜" further up. The ⅞" wide machine-made lace edging on the ends is a later addition.

The front bodice has a self waistband, about 1¼" wide, with no fastenings at the centre front. The skirt side seams are open for 12" down, and the edges of the front panel are faced with ¾" wide ivory silk ribbon; each end of the top edge has a length of ½" wide coral pink silk ribbon to tie round the back and secure the apron front in place round the waist; the ribbon on the left has torn off and been replaced by a much later greyish velvet ribbon. At the base of the side back bodice seams there are loops of buttonhole stitch for the ribbons to be threaded through. The ribbons would have probably been covered by a belt, now missing, and it is possible that the ribbons might have been long enough to cross over and be tied at the front.

The hem is 1¼" deep and is padded. Above that is a decoration, about 7½" wide, of a row of joined chevron shapes in the matching silk satin, with piped edges. It is attached to the skirt by a stitch at each point and occasional stitches along the centre.