And even if it were, I’m not they right type to be interested!
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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:
Evening dress worn by Mrs Emily Jane Mildon (nee Whitley), 1902-1904, Collection of Te Manawa Arts and Cultural Centre
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:
Emily in her dress, 1903-4, photo courtesy of the Mildon family
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.
Evening dress worn by Mrs Emily Jane Mildon (nee Whitley), 1902-1904, Collection of Te Manawa Arts and Cultural Centre
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 a dressmaker would have worn at the turn of the century for some of the sewing. As much as I can, I’m going to be the unknown seamstress who made Emily’s dress.
Emily’s dress is now in the collection of Te Manawa Arts and Cultural Centre, the Palmerston North regional museum, near her husbands farm. Te Manawa has very kindly let me investigate the dress and make a full pattern from it.
Detail of the train of Emily's dress
You can read more about the dress here.
Sucky suck
My computer keyboard is dying. It won’t type lowercase t’s (only now, in the last 5 minutes, it has started tyin ‘qty’ whenever I hit the ‘t’ key), or any ps, bs or gs. And it thinks that the ‘-‘ key adjusts the sound.
And the inbuilt spellcheck won’t work , so I have to cut and paste all the missing letters from other documents.
So, instead of telling you all about my new project, the computer is going t0 the shop, and there will be no posts from me for a few days 🙁
BNZecause you really don’ wan o read a unch of osIOTUYs aou Emily’s eauiful ink dress, circa 1904, wih los of missin leers and srane hins when he comuer sars ryin ot uess wha I am sayin. And I don’ wan o ry o wrie like ha eiher 🙁