1860s Blue printed wool dress

1860s Blue printed wool dress
Date	1860-1870
Category	Women
Item	Dress
Fabric	Wool, printed
Decoration	-
Wearer	-
Maker	-
Acc. no.	HC.D-1.75-8

1860-1870 A dress in printed pale blue wool

The back of the dress
Detail of the front waist
Detail inside the front waist showing the large seam allowance of the skirt
Detail of the fabric

Description

The pale blue wool has a printed pattern of purple and brown bell-flower sprigs on a ground of scattered black dots.

The bodice is lined with cream cotton, and the sleeves and skirt with ivory glazed cotton.

The front bodice panels have two deep pleats into the shoulder seams, and the fullness is controlled by six pleats into a 1¾" width, 2¾" above the waist, held by two rows of horizontal stitching 1⅜" apart.

The bodice panels are loose over the front edges of the lining which have nine hooks and worked loops, with three more on the pleated section down to the waist. The bodice panels have a hook and worked loop at the neck, and the neck edge is piped.

A ruched band, about 2⅜" wide, goes round the sleeve ends, which have a narrow self facing.

The skirt is flat pleated into the piped waist seam, with two box-pleats at the centre back. The centre front opening has a 6½" long placket and there is a pocket in the right-hand side seam. The seam turning round the waist is very wide, 6¾" at the centre front narrowing to 3⅜" at the centre back, and its edge is bound with the glazed cotton, ⅝" wide at the front and ⅞" at the back; there is no sign of any alteration to this, so the dress might have been cut with someone taller in mind before it was assembled.

The button on the centre front was added at a later date, when the dress was probably used for dressing up or amateur dramatics. The hem has been let down 1½" and its edge machine-sewn up to the lining; a little tuck was taken round the back waist of the bodice which gives the effect of double piping.

This is not an expensive dress and probably belonged to someone lower down the social scale. The skirt is not as full as the fashion for that date would have dictated, and using less fabric would have made the dress cheaper.