c. 1865. Brown wool challis one-piece dress, printed with pink and orange flowers and brown and green leaves, closing in front, with full-length curved-seam sleeves, sewn-in engageantes, and floor-len..
more »c. 1865. Brown wool challis one-piece dress, printed with pink and orange flowers and brown and green leaves, closing in front, with full-length curved-seam sleeves, sewn-in engageantes, and floor-length skirt pleated to the bodice with slightly more fullness to the back.
The bodice is made of three pieces: two front panels with two boned darts each and one piece of boning at the right opening edge, and a single center-back panel with curved tucks at side back. It opens in front with fourteen concealed hooks and eyes. The neck has a 1.9 cm / 0.75 in. high standing band collar and the waistline is round. The bodice is flat lined with brown cotton.
The shoulders are dropped and the sleeves are full-length, with a curved two-seam construction first introduced between 1884-1868. They are smoothly inserted into the scye with no gathers, bell toward the elbow, and narrow back down at the wrist. White cotton mull engageantes, or under-sleeves, with a drawstring at their top edge and a ruffled cuff embroidered with whitework flowers and vines have been attached to the dress cuffs with large basting stitches. These are done with a dark green thread which goes through the outside of the cuffs with no attempt to hide them.
The skirt is floor-length and full, slightly longer in back than in front, and has slightly more fullness in back than in front. The skirt is made of seven straight 59.7 cm / 23.5 in. wide panels sewn selvedge to selvedge, and is pleated directly to the bodice in a pattern of five wide double-stacked box pleats. It has one hook at eye at the waist and is lined at the hem only, with polished brown cotton 19.1 cm / 7.5 in. high.
There is piping at the scyes and at the waist. Double rows of brown plain woven silk ribbon are stitched in parallel at the bicep and at the cuff. Hand-sewn.
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