Green Edwardian Blouse

      This lightweight Edwardian bodice is made of mint green china silk.  The front, back and raglan sleeves of the bodice are evenly gathered to the yoke.  

      The one piece bishop sleeve is gathered into a pointed cuff at the bottom

     The hemline in the front is swooped down so the pigeon front can be achieved easily.  We used a piece of elastic to demonstrate the shape.


     The blouse is hemmed by machine, with a heavier thread sewn through the bottom to create a solid line on the outer edge of the fabric.

     The neckline is round and falls slightly below the collar bone.  The rounded yoke is made of a creamy pink cotton plain weave under layer with cream colored lace flatlined to it.

    Some individual eight point embroidered lace flowers go around the neck and also around the bottom of the yoke.  Four rows of hand-ruched trim surrounds the bottom of the yoke.





     The bodice appears to be made of 3 pieces of 20” wide china silk.  The side seam and the center back are both finished selvage edges.  





      The only lining is the under layer of the yoke, which appears to have suffered some rust discoloration.  the neck is bound off by bias, made with the pink under layer fabric, and the yoke is shaped with darts in the front and a seam at the shoulders. 


      
       As far as closures, there are six hooks with thread eyes at the back of the yoke, but there is no evidence how the bodice closes up the center back.

     The condition of the garment is fair. There are several water stains, particularly on the back of the blouse. Also, the silk is shredded with the grain in several places. 


     There is no boning in this bodice.  Also, because the waistline is not set on a tape, there is no way to determine the neck to waist or waist measurements.

1900s Pin-Tucked Net Blouse

     This blouse is made entirely of silk net sewn into 1/2” pin tucks which run vertically on the main part of the bodice and horizontally down the sleeves, along with a detail of horizontal pin tucks that spans the shoulders. 

    Three parallel bands of 1 1/4” band of trim set on net with a wavy pink, blue and green pattern colored in run down the center front.  the same trim creates a yoke detail in the front and the back, runs along the base of the collar, and runs along the cuff of the sleeve.  There are two pieces of clear plastic boning sewn into the collar, where it is attached only at the top and the bottom.

    Tiny gold sewn on studs accent the center front line of trim and the shoulder yoke. The collar is finished off by a piece of netted lace with a scalloped edge, and the same lace runs along the hem of the sleeve. 




















     The inside of the blouse is made from a very thin, sheer layer of china silk that has not held up with time.  The hemline of the blouse has a short, 2” peplum to secure the blousing and make tucking it into a skirt easier.

1918 Purple Silk Dress with Sash

        As indicated by the title, this dress is from 1918. The garment has silk fibers made with a satin weave. Considering the delicacy of this garment, it is tremendous that it is in fairly good condition, especially with the age of the garment. It is also remarkable that it has maintained such a good condition with the weight of the garment as it is. However, in light of this, there are some tears in the silk and sheer lining. Additionally, there is also some discoloration at the hem.

      Despite these elements, there are a lot of interesting details about this garment. One such detail is how the under-layer of the dress has a square neck and is overlapped with several semi-sheer layers of fabric to form a V-shape neckline. There is also a small sailor collar in the back. 


     The sleeves are sheer and decorated with tassels along the elbow and lower arm. The same tassels are found on the outer-skirt as well as hanging on the end of the sash that wraps at the waist. 

     The panels of decoration seen on the front and back of the bodice, and also along the bottom of the sash, are all hand-embroidered silk. This embroidery was all done with metallic thread. 

        The waist of this garment is slightly lower than the natural waistline--which, of course, is a precursor to the 1920s' all-too-popular-dropped waistline. 
        The hem of the garment is uneven and slightly shorter than full length. The sheer outer layer of the skirt is split on both sides. This dress is very delicate and beautiful; it displays minimal frills and lace, indicating it was made near the start of or during US involvement in WWI.

As far as how the garment works, it is fascinating how many and how complicated the closures are. For instance, the sleeves snap at the wrist (post 1915) and the skirt hooks to the bodice in front with hooks and eyes. 

        The sash hooks on the left side over top of everything. The bodice closes in a series of overlapping layers, with a sheer lining hooking in the Center Front underneath it all, and a solid heavy woven waist band  also hooks in the Center Front. Much more than we are used to today, to say the least. 

       The size of this garment is actually a little bigger than the average person's during this time. People were generally quite a bit smaller than the average sizes of today's world. Today in the Western Hemisphere there is typically a lot of food and nutrition available as well as a lot of hormones in our food, which contributes to the increase in the average size. Someone today wearing a medium or large could potentially wear this garment with ease.  

The Bust measures at 43.5 inches; the waist is 32.5 inches; and the hips are 41 inches. The outer skirt measures 28 inches in length on the left side and 34 inches on right side. 

            A fun feature that we discovered on the inside of the garment was that the tag inside waistband reads “The Wonder” Fresno, Cal. This is fun for us from the Central Valley to see a piece of our own history, still in such good condition. 

Silk Kimono Jacket

Today's feature is this silk faille kimono jacket.  

The jacket is an open style with short, wide pagoda sleeves.  The fabric is smooth, soft, and fairly plain.  Interest is created by cording machine sewn down in intricate designs.  Look at that detail!

Shaping is only at the side seams--no darts or princess seams.   The front of the jacket is rounded and comes down into a 90 degree angle.  The black band goes all around the edge of the hem, center front, and up around the back of the neck.  The seams are finished French seams, and there is no lining in the jacket. 

The hemline is higher in the back than in the front, and there is more fullness in the back which seems to indicate that the jacket was worn over a skirt from the Edwardian era.    

There is no identifying information with this garment, and it does not appear to be a part of a set.  It is in excellent shape.  

Question for our readers--

With what would you imagine this jacket was paired?

Comment below!

                                       1890s Tailored Jacket

   This garment was really fun to work with. It was one of my first vintage garments to examine in detail and document. 

  This beautiful garment is a short tailored jacket from the late 1890s. It is only a single piece. This jacket is navy blue and has braided decorations on the bottom of the sleeve that form into a circle. 

  Attached on the inside of the jacket there is a blouse section that has many pleats in the front. 

  The garment also has a high covering collar. The collar has burlap underneath the satin, as well as under the wool of the lapels. In addition, there are waist ties on the inside of the jacket. The sleeves are slightly large. 

  This garment is made of wool with a herringbone fiber weave. The lining of the jacket is cotton with a chintz weave. The blouse portion of the garment is silk with a satin weave.

  Whoever would have worn this delightful jacket would have had to deal with many forms of interesting closures.  There are 3 metal hooks on the inside of the right side blouse section. There are also 12 metal hooks on the right side and 12 eyes on the left. There are two metal hooks and eyes on the back of the collar. Also there are three thread loops for the three hooks on the wool to hook into.

  The bust of the jacket is 36 while the waist is 34; There is enough room for this to fit well over the small figures of the women during this time. Another blouse could have been worn throughout the day and this would have gone right over, while still maintaining a well put together appearance. 

  There is also a lot of trim involved with this garment. There are silver soutache braided trim at the bottom of both sleeves in a circle. It also is featured along the inside and the outside of the lapels. 

  The garment has faired decently well throughout time. The wool has held up well, although there are several holes in the back of the garment near the bottom. The inside lining is in good condition. The satin of the blouse section has not faired as well as the rest of the garment. The fabric is deteriorating and must be handled with extreme care due to its fragility. 

1910 Aqua dress

The skirt is very uniquely cut.  the skirt is on the straight of grain where it connects to the back piece (at the center back seam from the left, and at the side back in the right.  It is cut in the shape of a parallelogram with curved edges.  the upper edge is gathered and set into the waistband.  This puts the center front on the bias and creates beautiful draping on the skirt. 

There is a square cut out at the top right of the skirt and the edges are sewn together to create a peplum that fits smoothly into the skirt.  The top edge of the skirt is sewn into the waistband to the center back to accentuate the peplum. 

The side back of the skirt is wrapped around where the front piece is sewn in the center back and sweeps up to the side front. The draped panel is connected to the main part of the dress with a tie made of the aqua fabric, and the corner is weighted to hold it in place.  The skirt is not connected in the back;  rather, the pieces work together to create a wrapped look.  In the center back, there is a strip of china silk to give an additional 5” of coverage.  It is connected to the wrapped piece with a swing tack, and the whole skirt is hammed with a 3” piece of silk satin bias cut fabric. 

The skirt is set on a grosgrain bias tape.  The under bodice, made of china silk  and 2 layers of net, is connected to the top.  The under bodice is flat across the top, and has a piping detail with the strings still intact to tighten the bodice around the chest.   Straps made of net and a piece of cotton twill tape for support are attached to the under bodice.  

The over bodice is made of the same aqua fabric as the skirt, and has been hand stitched on top of the bodice.  Across the back, the bodice creates a smooth line across the back 2” below where the other bodice falls, and swoops up under the arms to the shoulders.  The front of the bodice falls into a surplice top that is snapped in place.   in the back, there is also a flat panel that connects at the shoulders and the covers the majority of the back of the bodice (except when viewing from the side.)  The back piece has a fabric belt set on it to control the fullness against the waist.  On the back left side there is a bow made of net along with a velvet flower. 

The dress also has sleeves that are set into the shoulders.  they are open across the sleeve cap, and are full underneath the arm. 

The bodice has hand sewn tucks in several places, which seams to indicate that the bodice was draped and fitted on the wearer. 

1930s Yellow Day Dress

       This yellow dress is a very typical style for a daytime dress during the mid 1930s.  The bright yellow silk dress has a white, green and black pattern printed onto the fabric--all components of the dress are made of this fabric.  

       The front panel is cut on the bias with a side panel set into a diagonal seam that extends from the side seam at the waist up to where the cape sleeves begin.  The side piece fits smoothly under the arms and up into a shoulder seam.  

        The dress has a v-neck, with a stitched down collar detail and simple bow detail at the bottom.  Both the neckline and the armscye are finished off with a folded piece of bias to give it interest. The cape sleeves are set into the flat collar detail.  The edge of the sleeves are scalloped, and are finished with a small, tight zig zag. 

       The back of the dress comes up to about 1” below the nape, and has the same v-shaped detail that is found in the center front.   All the detail lines on the bodice are seamed and topstitched to give them stability.  there are belt loops set into the side seams, but no belt has been found.  There are no closures

      The skirt is cut on the straight of grain and arcs up from the side seam to the center front.  The measurement at the side seam is 19” and at the center front is 26”. The hemline is finished with a rolled shirt tail hem.