THANKYOU for NOT washing!

Christening Sash 1129.2020.21

 Next out of the basket  was three folded/rolled strips of wide silk ribbons. I could tell immediately what  one of them was, because it had the same silk fringe trim stitched to the end, that matched with others in the basket.  Unrolling it I got super excited because it was it's full length, and was what we would refer to as a sash for a gown.  So many of these things would get reused for other purposes in the years after the Christening set was no longer needed.  We have several 18th c Christening gowns here in the collection, but none have their original sash with them.

There were two other lengths of ribbon along with, one nearly identical in weight and width, seen far right in the picture above,  but just a few inches long with torn ends....and then another length of a leaf brocade seen on the left.  What is super exciting about the actual sash....is those folds there~ do you see them?

 Having these folds still remaining on the sash, tells me exactly how it was originally worn. The exact width of the folded pleats gives the measure of the width of the sash as worn,

and exactly how much of the sash was pleated to go round the baby's body, as there is clearly an end point to the pleats.  They were not stitched, just folded and pressed. The narrow part would go round baby, tied to the side or back, with the wide fringed ends gracefully cascading down from the bow. 

It may seem silly, but its times like this, when one is truly grateful that the item was never washed~ washing removes the clues to how something was placed on the body. Even lines/areas of staining can provide essential clues as to how an object was originally worn....especially with baby things!