Historic Clothing Collection

Imported from Europe, this mid-1770s cream hand-woven silk floral spray brocade silk was a rare and extremely expensive textile. Such fabric was worn only by women from the wealthiest families. Originally it would have been used to make a full skirted 1770s dress. Perhaps discovered many years later in an attic or trunk, that unrecorded dress was unpicked, and the fabric remade into this fashionable 1830s dress with knife pleated drop shoulders, large puff sleeves and bateau neck. Skirt gathers are not 1830s, and the waistband is sewn by machine, indicating more recent adjustment, probably for fancy dress purposes.

Green / pink shot silk floral sprig silk bodice, late 1840s, with long sleeves and a ruched pointed waist. The full skirt is missing. The dress featured in the next slide (mainememory.net #105763) is of the same fabric, perhaps made from the missing skirt.

Many decades later perhaps a descendant of the original owner found an 1840s era dress, and cut up the skirt to make this ca.1918-1922 ankle length dress with long sleeves, front closure, belt, and braid and button trim down the skirt front. Ideally suited for an 1840s dome skirt, the silk is too crisp for this a 1918-1922 style of dress, and hangs awkwardly.

A blue /teal leaf figured silk bodice, dating between the 1840s and 1860s, with long sleeves, ruched, and a pointed waist. The silk fabric removed on one side reveals a wadded under-lining, designed to shape and provide warmth. The full skirt is not in the collection, but a completed bodice in the same fabric appears in the next slide.

Possibly it was the granddaughter of the original dress owner who saw the potential of converting the substantial amount of 1840s skirt fabric into an 1880s basque. Apparently, the fabric from the original bodice was needed to complete the job.

It is likely that the same new plain teal fabric used to trim the basque's back bustle tabs and other details, was also used to make a bustle skirt. With the addition of a long front panel using the remaining figured leaf silk, the result would been a very successful makeover with the pattern / plain fabric mix fashionable at the time. In the bustle skirt’s absence, it can only be imagined.

A two piece dress, featuring a copper or bronze colored small plaid 1860s bodice with narrow bands of brown velvet ribbon and black. The ensemble lent extra or repurposed fabric to the coordinating 1890s bodice in the next slide.

The matching 1890s era straight, flat front, hip fitting skirt appears to be an update of the missing 1860s skirt. Revamped by making a simple center back adjustment of bunched unorganized gathers, and a few narrow pleats. The back simulates the fashionable deep back pleats found in 1890s skirts. The original heavy interlining is intact and undisturbed, indicating no seams were altered. All changes were concentrated at the waist.

Evidence of further reuse, or unfinished alteration, is found in the bodice's dark brown velvet areas. Untidy sewing thread ends, and impressions in the brown velvet trace the position of now removed narrow braid trimming. It is unclear the braid was removed for reuse elsewhere, or to make way for an updated trimming.

A copper or bronze and brown small plaid 1890s straight waist bodice, sleeves with a little fullness at the head, a standing, spreading collar, with a front inset panel - all of dark brown velvet. The ensemble likely included a matching skirt, perhaps the skirt paired with the 1860s bodice in previous slide.