Emily’s dress: recreating a 1903-1904 evening dress
I’m working on a very interesting, and challenging, new project. This is Emily’s dress: It was made for Emily Jane Whitley, the daughter of a wealthy Auckland storekeeper, between 1902 and 1904. Emily wore it to balls and parties on Auckland’s social scene in the years before her marriage to a Manuwatu farmer, Percy Mildon, in 1905. We even have a photograph of Emily in her dress: It’s a fascinating dress because we know its history, and can make a reasonable guess at how it was made. The Whitley store sold fabric, and probably had an attached sewing workshop, so it is very likely that the dress fabric came from the family store, and was made up by the store seamstress. So what’s my project? Well, I’m attempting to recreate not just Emily’s dress, but the whole process of making Emily’s dress. I’m using my 1903 peddle sewing machine, a late 19th century guide to dressmaking, and a period pattern available in a NZ magazine. I’m even wearing a corset and the type of outfit …