02 October 2009

The Wedding Dress

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

Grandmother's wedding dress has a new home.

16 comments:

  1. lovely story and beautiful dress!

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  2. Lovely dress. How wonderful to have it going somewhere that it will be cared for properly and displayed for everyone to view

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  3. Great post! What a find! The link to the museum won't work. I have heard of this place and have been wanting to visit. Can you send me more info on it? Please?

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  4. Very cool! Now you know it will be properly cared for.

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  5. What a fabulous find! The museum is lucky to have been gifted such a stunning piece of history . . . they are probably doing a backflip or two *s* And best of all is now this treasure will be properly and lovingly tended forever and ever.

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  6. Very cool. What museum was that, and where?

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  7. What exquisite needlework. This was a perfect solution to assure the dress is properly cared for and appreciated. Congrats to you and thank you for preserving a bit of "women's work" for the future.

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  8. What a wonderful thing to do Paula- I love that others will see her beautiful dress and get a feel of life in a different time. It was a generous thing to do and one that truly honors both her and the dress. I am sure that they are thrilled to have such a beautiful piece of clothing. If it were me, I would be pleased to know that the dress would be preserved and cared for many years to come.
    Loved the photos too.

    Regards.
    Anna

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  9. Beautiful dress along with family photos! It must have been very hard to giveaway, but I would have done the same thing.

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  10. A delicious story. 8-)) The dress is a beauty!

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  11. I was just thinking about the beautiful handwork on the wedding dress. It was almost expected in the past that women could turn out that quality of needlework. And even in 1970, my sister-in-law made her wedding dress; it was white satin with applied lace and was beautiful. I wonder how many people could do that today. I'm figuring not many.

    BTW, am I still "noreply"? I can't figure out why Blogger is messing with my settings!

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  12. It must have been a bit of a decision to donate such an heirloom and it was very generous of you to do it. Beautiful dress and a beautiful story!

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  13. oh how special! What a wonderful thing to do with her dress, plus it will probably survive much longer! Kudos!!!!

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  14. The dress is stunning! How wonderful of you to donate it. Many more people will be able to enjoy now.

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  15. What an amazing story -- and I love the way you showed the photos.

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  16. How wonderful! I can see you did some of your sewing genes from your family.
    Thanks for sharing that, and I love the photos
    Vicki

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