I bought this pretty cotton top at a car boot sale in the summer. My plan was to dye it and wear it under a pinafore, but then I had a good look. It was so fine - all hand stitched with delicate frills and Dorset buttons. It has tightly buttoned sleeves and a single tie at the neck, which makes the frill stand up fetchingly. Is it a night shirt? A bed jacket? I didn't know so I put it on that towering pile of "things to be thought about later."
I got it out again the other day - I'd thought it might be Victorian, but it has an earlier look...
...like this - a bed gown or bedgown. These thigh-length lightweight loose dresses, allowing free movement, were popular at-home attire over petticoats and skirts in the 18th century. They were soon adopted as working clothes by poorer women. No need to get changed in the morning - how very useful!
Jimjams in the supermarket?
Busy girls have done it all before!
What goes around comes around. Love the buttons. Jacqui
ReplyDeleteHow true!
DeleteThe older you get the more you experience it. I wore Victorian petticoats and 30's dresses in the 1960s, '50's Levis and New Look dresses in the 1970s and now I'm getting out my vintage Fair Isle knits and Laura Ashley dresses from the 1970s-1990s. Never throw anything away!
I didn't know those buttons were called Dorset - it's a lovely night/day shirt.
ReplyDeleteLike the look of your staircase window.
You often find Dorset buttons on antique farm workers smocks too. I'm very interested in textiles and loved your photos of Turkish carpet weavers and yarns. Such wonderful colours.
DeleteAnother lovely piece of social history for us, perfect for Y1 national curric. being able to differentiate between a long time ago, and now.....great stuff.....I may send this to my teacher training daughter for her teaching practice history lessons ! Jx
ReplyDeleteGood luck to your daughter - we need good teachers! I wonder if this is a PGCE post-graduate course like one of my sons did. I have a friend whose daughter is doing her teacher training via the Open University - very hard work with her own children to look after!
DeleteI don't know how old it is but all I definitely do know is that when you get fed-up with it- send it down MY WAY!!
ReplyDeletexx
Will do!
DeleteThank you for your comment..still feeling sad to have missed out on 2 days at Newark..but hey ho, life goes on. Trading all weekend, so fingers crossed. Love that photo of you on the stairs! x
ReplyDeleteSelling was brisk though both buyer & seller numbers were down. Some sellers are cross about the new VAT charge, I believe - hope it doesn't put you and your friends off!
DeleteI love whatever it is Nilly. I have such admiration for garments that are beautifully hand sewn. I have three nightgowns that I dyed, they are all hand sewn and darned so exquisitely that is actually enhances them. I love your photo showing you wearing your garment!
ReplyDeleteThis one is just too fine to dye, I think. I do envy people like you and Julie who are so clever at getting subtle effects. I dyed a Victorian petticoat orange (!) last year but haven't dared to wear it yet.
DeleteIt's very pretty, Nilly, and you look lovely in it. It's survived extremely well, hasn't it? Gosh, it's all I can do to get a few years' wear out of some of my clothes although the really good ones still look like new...
ReplyDeleteMy pyjamas? Well, I certainly wouldn't go out in them but plenty round here do spend most of the day in their dressing gowns - usually the old ladies..and usually the dotty ones!
Axxx
Old dotty ladies, eh? Anyone in Yorkshire you also have in mind, I wonder...?
DeleteYou do look very pretty in it, a lucky find. My nanny (grandmother, she insisted she was called that) gave me something similar that she had made when she was a girl when I was about 18, it had hand pin tucks across the front. I thought it was a nightdress, but she told me they had to make them to be buried in! it didn't stop me wearing it to bed though.xx
ReplyDeleteI remember those - I used to find them, I'm sure, at jumble sales in the 1960s - I was too scared to wear them. Too spooky!
Delete