This tobacco brown wool ensemble consists of a simple bodice with a leg of mutton
sleeve and a straight-to-bias 5 gore skirt. The bodice closes at center front with buttons
and hand-made button holes.
The bodice is flatlined to brown linen. There is no finish to the seam allowances and no
bones. The bodice is shaped with two darts under the bust in center front and center
back and side back panels. From the outside the bodice appears to have two panels
on each side of center back, but examination of the interior shows that what might have
been taken as a side seam is really an even 3/8" tuck from the underarm to the hem.
There is no side seam and the front panel ends quite far to the back. The second dart
has been released from about 1 1/2" above the hem, perhaps in an alteration at a later
date. You can still see the needle holes from the original dart on the inside. The tuck
seems to have been taken before the sleeve was set in and before the hem facing was
applied. The release of the dart happened after the hem facing was applied.
The shoulder seam rides 1 1/2" to the back at the neck and armseye. Both seam
allowances are pressed to the back. The bodice appears to ride 1 3/4" below the waist
in the front and 4” below in center back. The point develops over the back 6 1/2" inches,
from the backward side seams to center back.
The bodice buttons left over right. On the left side, there is a 1 3/8" extended facing,
finished by hand. There are 12 hand-stitched buttonholes with the end of the button
hole only a 1/4" from the fold. On the right side, or the button side, the bodice is turned
under on center front and machine top-stitched with two rows of stitch under the
buttons. There is a single layer of the fabric with a selvage finish acting as a flange.
The one-piece leg of mutton sleeve has an interior sleeve that does not have the
fullness of the outer sleeve. Its cap is only slightly eased into the armhole and the
sleeve measures 14" at the bicep. The outer sleeve measures 22" at the bicep and
the cap is approximately 11" high. The fullness of the cap is knife pleated rather
haphazardly toward the back. The pleats are concentrated within 7" at the top of the
armseye. The outer sleeve has no support. Rather than a typical underarm seam, the
sleeve seam is forward 1" from the natural side seam.
The outer sleeve appears to have been 1 1/4" longer than the inner one. They were
seamed together at the wrist and the outer sleeve turned up inside as a hem. The hem
is interfaced with the same material used in flat lining the bodice, approximately 2 ¼”
above the finished hem. The edge of the interfacing was machine stitched to the inner
sleeve to hold it in place before the underarm seam was sewn. The seam allowance is
visible from the hem to the armseye. It has not been finished. The sleeve is machine
stitched into the body and hand overcast.
The convertible collar is a simple rectangle. The fabric is double with a fold on the
outside edge. It finishes on the inside of the neck with a selvage edge. The stand at
center back is approximately 1 1/2".
The straight-to-bias skirt is flatlined with brown cotton. The 1/4" seams have no finish,
but the selvage was used on the straight grain seams. The center front panel has
straight grain joins on either side making the gored panel 23 1/2" at the hem. The
flatlining has a straight grain center seam and the piecing does not occur. The front
panel measures 13" at the waist, making the gore extend to the side. The top of the
side back panel measures 5" and is eased into 4” on the waistband. It is 12" wide at the
hem. The center back panel is 8" wide at the waist, pleated with inverted box pleats to
2 1/2" and the panel measures 32" at the hem.
The skirt waistband measures 26" and the total circumference at the hem is 136". The
center front length is 42" and the center back length is 47", indicating a slight train.
Center back is quite bias and has an 8" placket below the waist. The edges are turned
under with a 1/2" finish. There is only a 1/2" underlap at the waist. There are no closings.
The hem is faced with a 1 3/4" strip of off-grain fabric. The facing is finished by hand.