Starting the Bodice!

This is the bodice I am going to attempt to make a close reproduction of....close because it would be impossible for me to get the exact fabrics, there is no pattern, and it is very fragile so I don't want to explore the construction too much.  In fact, I try to handle it to the bare minimum. 

The lining is a very thin cotton fabric, the netting is a tiny bit less weight than what I will be working with, and the lace is not available to me, it will be really different.  But hopefully it will look similar.

 The fabric for the lining is a sheer "lawn". 

This is the netting I will be using.  it is a cream color.

The bodice netting has lots of tucks!

So this is as far as I got the other day. 

Then as I lay in bed that night I realized that lining was WAY to white.  So yesterday, when I got up I took out all the basting stitches holding the netting to the lining, separated the two fabrics and dumped the lining into a coffee bath!  I had dyed the lace on the skirt with coffee already.

Next post I will show you how it changed the look!

Update: What has been happening?

I have been very busy archiving the textiles!  And every time I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel more textiles are found.

If the textiles are old and part of the Patterson House collection, each is numbered, a form with a description is made,  which can be very time consuming.  Then each article is packed in its acid-free tissue in an acid-free box.  Then it is added to the index which tells where everything is.

So far I have filled 20 boxes and I figure I am about 2/3 of the way done.

In the meantime, ... Remember this dress:

This is the dress I envision is possibly Clara's wedding dress when she married her second husband!  My legend, at least!  Anyhow, the silk skirt is shattering so much there is no way we can display it on a dress form.   The bodice is still in good enough shape that it could be displayed at least a couple more times, although there are a couple of small places the silk is breaking on it.

Anyhow, in order to display the bodice with a skirt, I decided to reproduce a facsimile of the original.  Of course, it is not exactly like the original because I cannot get the same fabrics, the exact colors and there is no pattern.  But it will be reasonably close.  So it is how it looks.  It doesn't hang quite right because there is no petticoats under it at this point.

I still need to add the buttons to the rosettes.

The lace is white wedding lace that I dyed with coffee after taking all the pearls and beads off.

Next is the bodice.  That is going to get VERY interesting.  It is very complicated so I am going to take my time on it since I won't need it to show off the original bodice.  I did take some pictures for reference:

First a study of the lace on the skirt.  You can see how brittle the silk is.

Then the belt, which is of lavender velvet:

And the bodice:
The lining is a fine lawn fabric and not boned.

Then there is the outside . . .

The netting is very dirty and discolored, but there would be no way of cleaning it with the silk so delicate.

Notice all the tucks in the netting 

And then there is the collar which also has tucks and is a bit ruffled.

 The back:

 You can see where the bodice back has a bit of shattering also.

The sleeves:
The sleeves are very complicated. 

The top of the Sleeve has 2 triangular shaped silk pieces, one gathered on the front and one on the back.  These pieces overlap at the center.

The netting is gathered at the armhole and at each of the places where the lavender velvet is. 

Lace finishes the sleeve.

Lingerie Show!

Today, just before I left the Patterson House to go home, I decided to open one more box.  This box had several outfits on top, but I went straight for the bottom....and look what I found!

A bra?!

Cup size 0,   Ribbons for straps.  And no elastic, but heavier fabric in the back.

And next.....
                       A corset!

A pretty little thing! figuring a couple of inches at the laces, it was made for a 21 or 22" waist.
It is in very good shape and had certainly been used.

The label

The corset was made from 2 1/4 " ribbon.

 And then, of course,

The corset cover, in excellent condition.

The hoop petticoat comes next!

It comes in 2 sections that are hooked together.  Some of the twill is in bad shape so will have to conserve it a bit to show enough how it looks when fully opened.

Children's clothes

Today I had plenty of children's clothes to archive.  The 2nd generation of the Patterson House had 3 little girls so we have baby gowns, Christening dresses, and Toddler dresses.

These are a couple of my favorites:

A Baby Bib

This is a Edwardian Toddler's dress.  It must have been so cute on the girls.

The Wedding Dresses, etc.

First of all, unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures.  It was after our meeting and we didn't have a lot of time to look at every thing, and everyone has a camera on their phone and not one of us thought of taking pictures.

The whole idea was to see what we had in the boxes marked "Wedding Dresses".  There were 4 or 5 wedding dresses.  I was trying to get everything out and back together because people wanted to see but had to leave.  So from memory, there is one from the late 1950s, made of heavy bridal satin, most likely silk satin, plain, no decoration but a very long train.  The train was rather dirty and really should be cleaned but we will have to look more closely at the stability to see if that could happen.

Then there was a WONDERFUL 1920s beaded calf-length dress in an ecru. It is in sheer ecru or nude fabric with brownish beads in 2 lines from back bottom hem to front hem.  Then around the hem is heavy beading.  This is where my memory is getting them mixed up, so bear with me until we get back to them and take pictures.  I think...this one had an accordian pleated under skirt that went to the calf, the beaded section stopped about a foot higher.

And there was a early 1900s off white dress with high neck and heavy lace.  It has a lot of shattering problems so would probably only be displayed flat.

Then another beaded dress, off white and sort of 1920s-30s  shift type with a piece of long chiffon sewn into the side seam about a foot above the calf-length hem.  The chiffon goes from the side seam and up the back to the opposite shoulder and down the front.  Looks very dramatic!

Sorry about this tease, but we will get back to the details and pictures.

Today, I was organizing boxes and making sure my archiving is correct and the correct items are in the correct boxes.  I'm up to 14 boxes....Those new boxes are being filled quickly. 

So, then I worked on some children's clothes.  They would be from around Titanic period.  We have christening gowns and toddler dresses mostly.  They are stained with a bit of mildew and may end up being washed before being exhibited.  I am doing a quickey job of describing them on their forms, but I figure I can go into more detail when we check them in the Fall.

I will post the pictures of the children's clothes tomorrow.  I won't be working on the archives tomorrow, so Thursday will be the next time we hope for treasures!  I have one more box on one side of the closet to take down.  Then I will be cleaning that shelf, lining it with heavy aluminum foil and start stacking the boxes I have been working on.  There are about 6-7 more boxes on the other side to open and reveal!

Archival Boxes

Today, several of us got together for a little brainstorming on events and things we need to do for 2019.  A very goos meeting and some exciting things may happen.

Because we ran out of archival boxes, the last few times I have been archiving I had to use the tops as well as bottoms to store the items as I archived them.  Then the boxes I had ordered arrived and so today, while we were doing our meeting I was moving items in the box tops and placing them in new boxes.  So now all boxes have lids. 

Then I had a bit of time to start archiving some new things.  I came across quite a few children's outfits.  They are in really good shape except for the staining.  I think some cleaning would really help them.  Some day we should do a display of baby clothes!

Monday will be our docent meeting and I plan to open the wedding boxes and see what we have.  I know there are at least 3, let's see if they are in good enough shape to exhibit!