Bodice

Bodice in two parts, spit down the middle, made of cream silk brocade. Sleeved bodice, fully boned in the way of stays; sleeves are to just below the elbow; cream silk brocade fabric with pattern of pink and blue flowers; pointed at centre front waist; narrow boned tabs from side front around back; deep rounded square neckline, high back; laces up front and back in spiral fashion; there are a few fragments of a silk tape lacing remaining if a few eyelets; sleeves and underarms lined with cream linen, bodice interior is linen canvas of boned foundation. Boned foundation and outer layer have been made up separately; the boning channels appear to be back stitched and extend over the shoulders, there are also two horizontal strips running across the bust and two small horizontal strips along either side of the back neckline; the tabs have been cut and boned in one with the body of the foundation, which is made up from different sections than the outer layer; the silk layer has been sewn with lapped seams from 5 sections for each bodice half, the points at the centre front waist are of pieced fabric; the sleeves and their linings have been stitched with the same type of lapped seam; the armholes of the bodice body were first finished by turning the silk to the inside and catch-stitching it to the interior linen and then the sleeves mounted to the armhole edge; the sleeve armhole edge was finished before mounting by turning the raw fabric edges in toward each other and stitching around the edge; the sleeve is sewn to the bodice armhole with small catch-stitches; the waist tabs on the silk layer are cut and sewn separately from the body, some of these appear to have been sewn to the foundation before the silk body layer, other either afterwards or concurrently, they have all been finished by turning the silk over the foundation layer; the sleeves are in two pieces, the lower part of the left-hand sleeve is pieced; perimeter edges of the stays body have been finished by turning the silk over the foundation layer; the sleeve hems have been finished by turning the raw edges together and catch-stitching the layers together; the underarm linen pieces are like facings and appear to have been applied over top of everything else. The shoulder ‘straps’ are pieced at the front and the two ends overlap by approx 3”; that the sleeves have been applied to finished armhole edges also suggests alteration/modification; as does the use of a different silk fabric to cover some of the waist tabs.