The Wedding Dress

In May 1910, grandfather and grandmother were wed. She and her four sisters were expert seamstresses and needlewomen and made her wedding dress. "The bride looked very charming gowned in a white silk princess dress richly embroidered, and over white." -- from one of the newspaper clippings.

The dress was re-discovered during the clean out of Auntie's condo. It was crammed into a small box that was slightly deeper than a box for a man's tie. When the box was opened the dress, over-blouse, embroidered bolero-length top and shawl burst forth like a spring! The dress is in surprisingly good condition in spite of the cavalier manner of storage.

The yoke and high collar of the dress are pin-tucked and are set into the princess style dress. Long sleeves come to a point over the back of the hand and are decorated with a passimenterie cording as is the center front of the dress from the hem upwards. The edge of the collar and the bottom of the sleeve have a whipstitch edgestitching over cording. An over-blouse of a different weight of silk was worn between the dress and the embroidered top to protect the dress from snags by the beaded edge of the top. The beads on the edge of the embroidered top have a silver lining that have tarnished with age and look quite dark. A silk stole completes the ensemble.

In May 2010, this dress will be 100 years old. I made the decision recently to donate the dress to the Colorado State University Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising which is dedicated to textiles. The curator was excited to receive it because there is provenance and feels the dress would be a great fit for the museum. The dress is made of silk and is quite fragile and I know that this museum will take good care of it. The curator also mentioned that they are planning a wedding dress exhibit in the near future and this dress is a perfect fit for the exhibit.

Today, I handed over the dress to the museum curator.

Grandmother's wedding dress has a new home.