The Industrious Lady

 1860s CIVIL WAR era Victorian Greek key trim silk BODICE jacket top 1800s antique vintage 1850s From the Seller Wonderful VICTORIAN blue striped silk bodice with applied ribbon trim in a Greek key pattern. Hand stitched buttons and light boning. Beaded tassels at the shoulders. Drop shoulder and period tailoring. A mixture of machine and hand stitching. MEASURES : bust= 36 length= 17.5 Very good condition. Sturdy without shattering or underarm yellowing ! Repairs at the cuff and a stain on the sleeve.  From the Industrious Lady Hello waist tape! and if you notice, there is machine stitching along the inside seams. We see this more towards the late 1860's, although sewing shops in the early 1860's commonly had sewing machines. One option women during the early sewing machine era would do is have the dressmaker do the major cutting and sewing with her much more industrious and faster machine, then take the garment home and finish it by hand. This way the owner could cut costs. W

Making Moire Memories Well it finally happened. I've been dying to wear this dress somewhere, but you know, pandemic. So it finally got the dust blown and off and made its debut. And where better than at the lovely Ella Sharp Museum in Jackson Michigan. So it was masks up and hoops on! The moire dress was finally going to be moire than just a pretty dress handing in my closet. (sorry guys, I promise that will be the last moire pun... maybe) All in all I like how the dress turned out. I do wish I had made it a little shorter so its not getting stepped on so easily. My poor fiance wanted to do a hike, I wanted to wear a big dress. Who says you can't wear a 19th century dress to hike two miles and walk through a culvert.