1865 Silk muslin dress

1865 Silk muslin dress
Date	1864-1868
Category	Women
Item	Dress
Fabric	Silk muslin, woven pattern
Decoration	Ribbons, Satin, Lace, Buttons
Wearer	-
Maker	-
Acc. no.	HC.D-9.76-3 a,b

1864-1868 A dress in ivory silk muslin.

The dress from the side
The back of the dress
Detail of the neck at the front
Detail of the end of a sleeve
The bow on one of the shoulders
Detail of the decoration on the skirt

Description

The ivory silk muslin has rosebuds scattered over it, woven in two shades of blue silk.

The bodice and skirt are separate.

The bodice lining is ivory silk taffeta which is fastened with 12 hooks and worked eyelets down the front. The inside waistband is an ivory silk ribbon, 1⅜" wide with two hooks and eyes to fasten. There are bones on the side seams and the front darts.

The silk muslin bodice fronts have three hooks and worked bars spaced down the front opening with a covered button and a worked loop at the neck. Eight faceted domed satin covered buttons go down the outside. The waistband is 1¼" wide with two hooks and eyes to fasten.

Ivory machine-made lace edging, 1" wide, is sewn inside the neck edge with velvet ribbon matching the dress trimming, ⅛" wide, slotted through to tie at the front.

The bodice is trimmed with bias strips of kingfisher blue silk satin, ⅝" wide, attached with a single line of stitching ⅛" in from one edge: there are two each side of the centre front which extend round the neck, and three, ¼" apart, round the sleeve ends whose mitred ends turn up at the outer seam and are interlaced. The two round the tops of the sleeves are under bows of satin ribbon, 2⅝" wide, on the shoulders, which doesn't quite match.

The sleeve ends have the machine-made lace sewn inside the edge with ¾" showing, and box-pleated 1⅛" wide ivory silk ribbon is also sewn round the inside.

The skirt is gathered into a 1¼" wide ivory silk taffeta ribbon waistband.

It is also decorated with three of the satin bias strips, ¾" wide and ¾" apart, turning down at right-angles and interlacing at the side front and side back. The lowest strips in the horizontal sections on the front and the back have lengths of matching blue silk machine-made lace, 2¼" wide, along their lower edges; this lace is also under the bows on the shoulders. There is a 1" wide strip of the satin round the hem and a ⅞" wide strip ⅞" further up.

The dress probably had a belt which is now missing.