1855 Undersleeves
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Lace or whitework undersleeves were worn under the ends of flared sleeves. They would have been sewn or pinned to the lining inside near the top of the sleeve. They are shown here with the 1858 Brown silk dress .
(1) White cotton undersleeves with cutwork embroidery
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One of the undersleeves
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Fashion plate in Le Moniteur de la Mode, October 1858
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TheTwo Central Figures in "Derby Day" by William Powell Frith, 1860. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
1850-1864 A pair of sleeves in white cotton.
They are 12¾" long with an added piece, 4⅜" deep at the top. There is cutwork embroidery at the ends with a design of three pine motifs 8" high; these are positioned to be visible when the sleeves were worn, the rest of the end being plain. The sleeves are gathered into cuffs, 1⅝" deep, which also have a cutwork design of pine motifs and a scalloped edge; they are fastened by a small white button and worked loop at the end of the opening, 3⅜" long.
(2) Net undersleeves with lace trimming
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Fashion plate Les Modes Parisiennes, January 1855
1850-1860 A pair of undersleeves in cotton net.
They are made of one piece of net joined with a shaped seam, and measure 18½" long on the folded outside edge.
The sleeves flare out at their ends which are trimmed with two rows of Bedfordshire lace edging, 2¼" wide, and a polychrome braid, ⁵⁄₁₆" wide, which runs along the top of each. This is a strip of silk fabric, frayed on each edge leaving less than ⅛" in the middle.
(3) White cotton sleeves with embroidered cuffs
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White cotton undersleeve with embroidered cuff
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One of the sleeves laid flat
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Detail showing one of the cuffs
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Fashion plate in Le Follet, May 1861
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Fashion plate in Le Follet, November 1862
1850-1862 A pair of undersleeves in white cotton.
The tops are gathered into plain bands, 3¾" deep at the widest part. There are three ½" deep pleats each side into the sleeve seam, 3½" down from the top.
The lower ends have an opening 1¾" long and the sleeve ends are gathered into 1¼" wide plain bands, fastened by two white buttons and worked loops. The lower edges of the bands have ½" of muslin sewn on, which has a ¾" wide band of whitework and a ½" wide lace edging, to be folded back over the plain bands. There are 2" long tabs of the whitework with the lace edging on the ends at right-angles each side of the opening and at the end of one the lace is curled into a roundel; this has a buttonhole at the middle which, with a buttonhole in a tab on the other end, fastens on to the lower button on the plain band.
The initials AM are embroidered in red silk at the top of the plain band at the tops of the sleeves.
(4) Undersleeves in embroidered net lace
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Embroidered net lace undersleeves
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One sleeve laid flat
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Detail of the embroidered net lace
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Fashion plate in Les Modes Parisiennes, October 1855
1852-1862 A pair of undersleeves in embroidered net lace.
The main part of the sleeve has been made to shape with large motifs round the lower part and sprigs above. A row of slit shapes, about ½" apart, go round the lower edge, probably to for a ribbon to be threaded through, although most of them have not been cut open. The top edge has a piece of the sprigged net, 6½" at its widest, sewn on above and its scalloped lower edge, with larger sprigs, overlaps the main part by ¾". The lower edge of the sleeves has an edging, 2½" deep, with larger sprigs in the shallow scalloped edge.