Dress

Dress (open robe) 1745-50 in cream damask; Skirt lined with thin cream silk; Bodice and sleeves lined with off-white plain weave linen; 20mm wide linen tape; very narrow green and yellow ombre ribbon (rayon or polyester?)
Mantua with open bodice and skirt; cut and constructed ‘en fourreau’; there are two pleats on either side of the centre back seam; the back yoke has been folded over the top back neck edge, but is covered by the lining on the inside – yoke would normally fold over bodice lining as well; bodice lining centre back does not have a seam, but is darted from the waistline almost to the top; this appears to be original; there is a pair of linen tapes stitched to the bottom centre back point of the bodice lining; the robings are double folded with the upper pleat stitched to the lower one; the sleeves end in wing cuffs pleated at the inside elbow; the front edges of the linen lining are formed into plackets into which eyelets have roughly been worked (7 on each side); these are presumably for lacing over or under a stomacher; the gown has pockets slits; centre back skirt lining piece has been salvaged from a quilted petticoat that had been stitched with a lattice design; front bodice fastens with lacing. Old stitch and crease marks on the back bodice indicate the gown was altered to make it larger at some point; there is no corresponding evidence on the bodice lining – was it perhaps entirely replaced at some point? Stitch and crease marks on the sleeves suggest there was some manner of alteration or that the sleeves were made from fabric salvaged from elsewhere; centre back skirt lining panel may or may not be original to the construction of the gown; entire skirt lining may or may not be original to the construction of the gown. Condition: some stains and worn places. Dirty - especially the original white linen lining. Silk skirt lining piecing is sewn with white silk thread; skirt panel seams appear sewn with off-white silk or linen thread; perimeter edges of skirt appear to have also been sewn with the same thread; waistline seam sewn with white silk thread; most bodice seams, and pleating of bodice back sewn with white silk thread; bodice lining seams sewn with off-white linen thread. Skirt lining pieced with slip stitches; outer edges of skirt sewn with small running stitches; skirt panel seams sewn with running stitches; waistline seam worked in slip stitch; bodice lining seams sewn with slip stitch; underarm portion of armhole seams are back stitched; centre back bodice seam appears to be back stitched; back bodice pleats sewn down to lining with running stitch; sleeves sewn onto shoulders with running stitch; sleeve seams lapped and slip stitched inside and out; sleeve cuffs tacked onto bottom of sleeves with running/stab stitch.