I'm baaaaack!!! And frivolously cross posting this
all over the place;please pardon my excitement. :">
I have to say (yet again!), any photo I have *ever*
seen will not do those garments justice! This was a
most amazing experience.
I have to thank Nikki a million times over for being a
patient and humourous compass. I, being the
directionally impaired, would not have made it *to*
the Met, let alone around the island and then home!
It was luck of the draw we got along so well, having
only met once for about an hour the year previous.
Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!
Okay, the cool stuff everyone has been looking forward
to: Underwear Mythbusting. I won't have complete data
available right away, I still have to crunch it into a
readable format, however I can happily say that even
the museum staff were impressed with the level of
detail I was painstakingly dragging the Most Patient
Nikki through. She recorded as fast as she could
while I fired numbers and terms at her as fast as she
could write. After four hours she was just about
mental mush. By hour six, so was I - but could have
kept going! You have much to look forward to in the
coming months. :-)
Myth #1 The Stained Drawers They are not in any way
stained by blood. They are not even stained in the
right place for it to be blood of natural causes. The
photos that we are all used to have some kind of
strange shadow artifact. We have mapped out the
stains, however the stains are not *nearly* as dark as
the photos suggest. My suspicion is, the inks used to
trace out the embroidery pattern leeched into
subsequent layers when the garment got wet while being
folded. There is no evidence that suggests that
someone tried to remove the stains which tells me they
haven't been used since the stains occured. In fact,
none of these garments look like they have been used,
ever. This one garment though has taken a beating of
some kind; it has substantial evidence of poor-quality
repair work throught the seams and embroidery. The
fabric shows no wear that says it was actually damaged
through actual use, though.
Myth #1A The Stained Drawers have a front and back V
opening Not true. The back should have a seam in it;
the seam has torn away down from the waist, but has
done so cleanly enough that it appears to have a seam
finish. The waistband is supposed to be a casing that
a drawstring runs though.
Myth #2 - The Gathered Drawers are crotchless Patently
untrue. In fact they are gusseted, just as the other
above is. It's just a really long opening. They are
just like any other pair of knickers one might
envision. I have to say though that the sewing on
this garment is just... incredible. The seams are as
sturdy and perfect as the day they were made. So much
so I couldn't find the selvedge edge inside the seams.
And the stitches are so perfectly repeated and tiny,
it looks as if a machine had made them.
Myth #2A - The Gathered Drawers are closed with a
button Again, untrue. They have two small eyelets for
a point tie to pass through. The pattern down the
opening is goldwork, as is the rest of the
embellishment which excited me to no end. Goldwork
embroidery is my new obsession so I get to decorate to
my heart's content. Given the nature of goldwork
though, it's amazing that the embroidery is still in
perfect condition at the opening. This point leads me
to further believe this trousseau was never worn.
Myth #3 - The Stockings were once sleeves I totally
disagree with this supposition. They have piecing in
them that are absolutely identical to one another
which says to me that it was a part of the cutting
design. They are also above the knee stockings so the
photos simply have not given relevant context to their
dimensions. I would hazard that the intended wearer
was roughly my height (5'5"); if I compare the overall
length of the stocking to my own leg, it sits
perfectly above my knee by about 2 inches. I have
some numbers and formulae I can use to establish this
for certain, I just have to crunch it and see what
pops out. I want to roughly estimate the overall size
of the intended wearer so I can better understand how
the clothing sat on the body.
Myth #4 - The Gathered Chemise is blackworked I'll
leave embroidery technique out of this for a moment
and say no, indeed it is not *black* work - it is
mauve and plum. Yes, purple, to be general about it.
And somewhat variegated at that. It was such an odd
shade of purple that we couldn't find an accurate
match to them in the swatch book. Basically, the
colour codes we have are close in value, but one must
sadden the tone considerably.
Myth #5 - The Ungathered Chemise has been tampered
with considerably Most certainly has been; this one is
confirmed without a doubt. The lower hem
embellishment is petit point cross stitch in a totally
wrong style of embroidery. In fact, the whole thing
looked so far off from what I have seen in the other
items in this collection, I left that one to last and
didn't take any really substantial recording of it.
Seams were different (the sleeves and gussets are
faggoted together rather than flat felled like the
others), style of embroidery motif is quite different
- I think it was tagged into the collection to go
along for the ride.
Instead, we did a fast and dirty doc on the nightshirt
in the collection. I hadn't seen this one before that
moment and was pleasantly delighted. It has
reversible embroidery, delicate metal lace, a
sailor-style collar and pretty cuffs. I would almost
say this could also be used as a standing collar
chemise, but there is not a great deal of leg room to
walk comfortably. The hem is split over a foot up the
seams for walking space and freedom of movement,
that's it. It also could be a man's shirt, it's a bit
longer than the other garments.
Myth #6 Loom Widths were really narrow/really small
Well, of course this statement is relative, but the
full width selvedge to selvedge measurements I found
were pretty consistent at 90 cm wide. The fabric
weave is stunningly fine, ranging from 26 to 44
threads per cm. Most of the garments are in the
higher catgegory.
One fascinating note for all of these garments though.
There is a seam finishing stitch I have never seen
documented before until now. It topstitches *and*
hems at the same time. I practiced it on the plane
home, and I think I have the method for reproducing
it. It creates an absolutely repeatable, perfect
stitch on the top and secures the hem or seam
finishing with total durability. It's ingenious,
simple and very rhythmic, thus easily reproducable. I
hemmed a 60" wide piece of cloth in less than four
hours at a rate of 7-9 stitches per inch on a heavy,
uneven weave table linen, with travelling
interruptions.
Start stocking up on your stranded silk flosses - that
is what both embroidery *and* seams are sewn with.
The seams are all this salmony-pink kind of colour and
are an intended part of the embellishement design of
the garments. The only time a non-silk thread was
used was in structural assembly that would not
necessarily be seen in the finished garment - i.e. -
gathering threads. Or, in the preservation attempts;
be they well done or horribly executed.
The only other garment that shows obvious signs of
conservation is the flowered chemise - they have
stitched a stabilising backer onto several slowly
disintegrating sections as a preventative measure.
The stockings made no sense to us until I realised
they were stored inside out, so that the embroidery,
right side out could be seen. It was a challenge to
bend the numbers around in my head trying to document
something not meant to lay flat.
The convent stamp found on both pairs of drawers are
far more modern than the drawers themselves; being an
ink stamp. I'll have to go back through the museum
cards to find the Met's date of acquisition to more or
less establish the date of that stamp. It is most
likely Victorian; the font style strikes me to be
oh... 1880 ish.
I think that's it for now, I hope I have taken care of
the immediate burning questions. I so far have
approximate yardage requirements and cutting layouts
scribbled out. Next will be to stew the rest of the
information into something more palatable and to make
mock ups to confirm my theories. Once that's done...
I'll be ready to start writing it into a final finding
paper. :-D
Kathy
Ermine, a lion rampant tail nowed gules charged on the shoulder with a rose Or
barbed, seeded, slipped and leaved vert
ItÂ’s never too late to be who you might have been.
-George Eliot
For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is
an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to
receive it.
-Ivan Panin
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