Originals

I find I am still having to apologize for the quality of my photos. I'll keep working at improving. Seriously, I can only go up. Sorry.

A few months ago, a lovely woman contacted me about finding a home for some historic garments of her ancestors and wondered if I would like them.

Of course!

I'll work my way up to the best two dresses, but wanted to show off these first.

First, there were 2 lengths of black silk ribbon. I forgot to measure the width (probably wider than 4") but the lengths were just over 4 ft. and 9 ft.


It's gorgeous ribbon! Look at velvet blocks on the sides.


I didn't want to store the ribbon folded, which puts stress on the folds, so I sewed and stuffed a little tube out of some muslin and made a muslin bag to go over it all.


The next item was a black striped silk hobble skirt. It's very, very straight and I would date it to the beginning of the twentieth century.


The most interesting detail is the pocket.


The skirt opens at a side seam with snaps, with hooks and eyes at the waist.


There's also webbing inside the waistband to give structure to the thin silk.


The silk is just lovely, and has the manufacturer's name embroidered into the selvage.


Finally, I also photographed a scrap of a paisley shawl that has been in my collection for years. I would love an original shawl, but when I found this scrap for $5, I bought it.


I'm sad that it's been cut up, but at least we can still enjoy this little bit of it.