1845 Girl's red dress

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1845 Girl's red dress
Date 1845-1852
Category Children
Item Dress
Fabric Silk and wool
Decoration -
Wearer -
Maker -
Acc. no. HC.D-7.78-5


1845-1852 A dress in red silk/wool for a girl, from 10 to 12 years old.

The dress mounted

Description

The fabric is in a leno weave; the space between the twists of each pair of silk warp threads has three wool weft threads passing through it, but they pass alternately over and under the warp as in plain weave, and bunch together giving the fabric a slightly striped texture.

The bodice and sleeves are lined with cream cotton and there is a bone on the centre front seam.

The bodice front is gathered into the shoulder seams with three rows of stitching spaced about ⅝" apart; the fullness each side is controlled into five pleats, 7" up from the waist, which come together as they go down to the waist. They are top-stitched with the fawn silk thread used to sew up the dress.

The centre back opening has ten hooks for nine worked bars, now missing and replaced by modern metal bars, and there is one original metal eye at the waist.

The armhole seam with the sleeves has matching silk satin piping which also goes round the neck edge. The ends of the sleeves are also piped and the satin extends ⅜" up inside as a facing.

The skirt has flat pleats into the piped waist seam with about 1½" of gathers each side of the centre back opening. Four 2" wide bias strips of the silk/wool are sewn round the skirt, about 2½" apart, with piping along their tops; the skirt appears to have been shortened by about 3" incorporating another bias strip into the new hem with its piping on the hem's edge.

Contemporary illustrations

History

It is hard to be precise about the age of the girl who wore this dress; children of the same age can vary a lot in size. Little girls were put into corsets from infancy at this time resulting in their bodies being shaped as they grew and their waists remaining small, which was not really good for their health. The dress measures 21" round the waist and 28" round the lining at the bust; the fullness visible there is caused by the release of the silk/wool fabric at the top end of the tucks which come up from the waist.

Contemporary items

1840s Man's cotton coat

1844 Printed cotton dress

1848 Printed wool dress

1848 Striped silk taffeta dress