1890s Nightdress
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1890-1900 A white cotton nightdress
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The back of the nightdress
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The front neck of the nightdress
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The front neck showing the name written in marking ink.
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The label printed on the inside of the yoke
Description
The nightdress is hand-sewn.
The front is open for 18" down from the neck, with three small shallow domed covered buttons and worked buttonholes in a ¾" wide section with a frill of machine-made cutwork embroidered cotton, 1¼" wide, each side; the frill on the right-hand edge is folded over the buttonholes, overlapping the other frill, and this double frill continues round the neck edge, the gap between them narrowing to ½" at the front edges and ⅝" further round the back. A straight-edged strip, 1" wide, of the cutwork embroidery lies to the right of the frills, with feather stitching, ⅛" wide, each side which continues round the base of the neck frills. The base of the front opening is finished with a ³⁄₁₆" deep welt with feather stitching, 3¼" wide, across the ends of the double frill and the straight strip. Each side of all this are 1¼" wide sections of 15 tiny tucks, their bases sloping down to end 4½" above the central section.
The back is gathered into the yoke whose seams with the fronts have feather stitching decoration.
The ends of the sleeves are gathered into ¾" wide cuff bands which have four rows of tucks along them with feather stitching on the edges. A cutwork embroidered cotton frill, 1¼" deep, is on the ends.
On the inside the yoke is a printed label saying Hibernia, trade mark, Hand Made.
Contemporary illustrations
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Detail from an advertisement in Sylvia's Home Journal, September 1884
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Fashion drawing in The Ladies' Treasury, May 1888
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Fashion drawing in The Ladies' Treasury, December 1888
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Fashion drawing in the catalogue for the White Sale at D. M. Brown's, Dundee, February 1912
History
By this date machine-sewn manufactured garments were widely available, but it seems that there was still a market for hand-sewn underwear.
The nightdress belonged to Rose Gibson and her name is written in marking ink at the top of the centre front of the left side. Rose Wood married Bruce Gibson in 1894.
Below the name is the number 3, meaning that at least three of these were bought at the same time; they would have been worn and washed in rotation so that they all wore out evenly.