A Mid 19th Century Child's dress

I have been going thru my treasure boxes trying to pick some of my favorite early print gowns for a new vingette....and I just am having a horrible time trying to decide 'who' will be on display! Early prints are my absolute FAVORITES!! I just got this little dress~ isn't it darling??? I have my fair share of whites, so I'm always excited to add some color to the collection. This dress is printed on a thick wool blend, in little boteh, or paisley designs on a gorgeous blue ground.
Is full of wonderful details, and has lots of surprises to share! Its all hand stitched, and looking at the outer fabric one would think the wearer would come from quite a wealthy family. Indeed I'm sure they did....but as we look further, one realizes just how precious any textiles were in early America (above photo detail of the gauging& piping at the waist)

The long sleeves are set off by wonderful blue ribbon & china button rosettes, with a single band of blue ribbon at the elbow, and a double band of this really great woven ribbon at the cuffs. They actually 'are' the cuffs! These fit very well with the color of the gown, and would have been a very easy way to lengthen the sleeves as the child grew. They are original, sewn in the same thread as the rest of the gown.
Here is a closer view of the little ribbon rosette I mentioned earlier~ red & white china buttons sewn with blue threads~ quite patriotic!!
And looking inside....SURPRISE! This is the inside of the waistband as shown in the second picture. The gauging has been fulled out with a narrow strip of this awsome indigo resist print~ there's little shamrocks, dots and double rings
This photo is the inside of the back shoulder~ you can see the back opening has been faced with a glazed blue polished cotton, still quite crisp, the hand hammered brass eyes, and the bodice lining~ a white homespun. If you look a little closer, the sleeves are also lined in the glazed blue cotton, but the shoulders have been lined in a very finely woven blue & brown homespun plaid.
The hem is faced in a coarse weave heavy linen with raw pinked top edge. Who would think this little dress would have sooo much going on? And I wonder if there is another little dress or husswife or pocket out there in the world some where....that has bits of this blue print in its own lining???

A New Place to Shop Diamond K Folk Art

First, I must apologize to all my friends in Bloglandia for getting behind yet again on the Blog! The children and I all have a nasty flu virus or something, just cant seem to be rid of it! We will be on our way tomorrow to hospital for xrays on Pip's leg~ both her & I both are quite tired of her cast! Grandpa is also very ill, and its got us all plum wore right out!

I have not been happy with the looks of the Mantua Maker's Mercantile, its just not what I invisioned, so I would like to announce that I am now on Etsy.com You can find me here http://www.diamondkfolkart.etsy.com/ I will be adding my new dollys and pretties there, as my time allows.
This is one of my latest little papered & watercolored mache shoe boxes~ one just can't have a new pair of shoes without a pretty box~ can they??? This one is just an inch wide and inch&half long! (Pardon the clay on my hands~ I have been working on a new Biedermeier Dolly)

Feeling Better today..........
Our Great Pyrnese dog, Yetti, has graciously donated his couch for Pip to lounge on. Can you believe the 'nerve' of our Dr. suggesting I keep her "STILL" for the first 2 weeks????!!!! There is NO way he has ever had children! We will have this hard plaster cast that goes nearly to her hip for about 3-4 weeks, then if we are goode.....we may get one that is below the knee for the last 3-4 weeks. It is SO heavy! I'm hoping the weight of it will sort of keep her from moving about too much....(hey~ I can hope right???) She is quite a happy camper~ we saved her last dose of codene for the 'casting'~ thank the Lord for good medicine. I cant stand to see my babies in pain
I got the honor of being the first to sign her cast~ we were putting on new sparkly pink nail polish, so I gave her a pink heart to match. She has been sure everyone she sees signs it~ keeps her pen with her! Daddy drew some sort of catipillar monster looking thing on there.....sisters Emma & Tressa both signed....brother Josh signed, then drew her a real neat picture of a ""Volcano spewing out Hearts""....and of coarse she's been filling in herself here and there. I knew it wouldnt stay white for long

Girl's White Muslin Dress, 1839-1842
This is a fine corded muslin dress fitting a girl from 6-7 yrs of age. From the several rows of hand sewn cording at the hem, this was most likely a best dress. 'Whites' were common underthings in the 19th century because they could be easily laundered~ but an outer dress such as this, would have belonged to a wealthy child. It was considered a symbol of priveledge and high status to have a 'white' gown...because you literally couldn't do much or you would get it dirty.
It is entirely and sewn with fine, minute hand stitches. The long sleeves are actually 2 part~ they are just tacked on under the ruffle at the elbow so they can be removed easily to make the sleeves half length
Emma is not wearing a set of stays, because she is small enough to wear this dress without them. Its original owner would have had a pair of soft stays, with perhaps a wooden busk up the front for rigidity. Note the horizantal creases under the armpits~ this is classic early 1840 fitting. The armcyes were set very high, and narrow~ this gave the wearer a longer looking torso.
1836 was the height of frills and huge gigot sleeves. From 1837 things started to slim down~ the sleeves gradually deflated, until they were worn nearly skin tight in the 1840s. The bodice of our little dress here still retains a bit of 1830s styling~ the decorative piping up the front and lower wide neckline.
Center back closes with hand hammered brass hooks & eyes
Here is a section of the hem, showing the teensy weensie hand done cording. This was mainly decorative, but still helped support the fullness of the skirt.

'Shopping'...

What do you think our 18th & 19th century Ancestors would think of the modern day shopping experience~ be it in a mall, or on the internet??? Can you imagine!!!? I myself, would be lost without the internet~ there is really no place to shop for anything within a 3 hr drive, anywhere around me...And when we do make the trip up to Pueblo....I am always so dissapointed~ the stores NEVER have what I want. So an entire day wasted....gas wasted....time wasted.....when I could have just hopped on the computer and found exactly what I wanted in the first place! I can remember as a child, spending the whole day shopping with my mother~ driving all over Spokane, and being exhausted when we drove home to Colville!

Shopping in the 18th century must have been a wonderous experience! Straight and too the point~ there were no fancy lables or packaging. You would enter the shop, and all would be neatly layed out for your parousal...if you had the right $$$ of coarse! Being Royalty, the artisans, shopkeepers and tradesmen would cart their wares right to your door. It wasn't until the early 19th century that Hannah Davis made her wonderfully decorative band boxes. I like to imagine a melting of both centuries together in my little dolly world.

Why just morning past, Darling Constance and I took the carriage along the Olde Towne Road to the city center. We shopped and shopped for hours, until our feet hurt! We set the carriage at the Livery, where we fetched a new set of shoes for 'Dunbar'(our ever so humble Percharon) from Harod Jenkins, the Blacksmithe & Ferrier. We saw the most delightful trifles in the Bakery window.....but of coarse could not partake as our stays were laced waaaay to tight for eating anything. At the Milliner's, Constance picked out a beautiful striped and banded hatbox for her Bergiere to fit in. (Her friend Anne's was sat on last week, and absolutely ruined) We stopped at the Mantua Maker's to scope out the new silkes~ we fell in love with a new indigo resist that just arrived from port at Boston. Ohhh and there was lace from Brussels.....but ever so expensive! We did buy some pretty silke threads for our embroidery, and some tinsel too. It was my frivolty for the daye! But....the actual point and reason for the trip to towne, was a visit to the cobbler, Master Wythe Crodget. Ohhhhh such beautiful shoes and boots. We had broght a bit of fabric left from Darling's dress, to be made into matching shoes. See his work above??? They match wonderfully, are so very comfortable to wear, and look at her new paste buckles. They were a 'gift' from Wythe....he's not fooling me. Being much older and wiser than Darling, I know his intentions! One more stop to the Butcher for meat for this evening's meal, and we were off home........

Please Meet Hogarth & Cruikshank

Such mischevious boys~ but the bestest of friends! Mamma has dressed them in their best coats for their first day at school.....'The Eisendorf's Seminary for Egg Painting'
They're quite excited! Hogarth is such a ham~ he's the one with brown spots & his arm around Cruikshank.
"See!!!" He exclaims....." Just look at my steady hands~ I'll be egg master before anyone elce!"
Aren't they sooo cute! They are both singing Beatrix Potter's 'Here comes Peter Cottontail' as they merilly go skipping off to school~ better not be late boys!

Hogarth will be on eBay later today~ hope you'll stop by and visit

Darling
This is Ladye Constance Cullpepper.....but I call her Darling. She is one of my 'Grande Dame' Queen Anne dolls, and is just under 2 FEET tall. All of my Grande Dames are larger, with reproduction wardrobes that are made just like real adult size pieces. Even ladye's Pompadour wig is removable. I offer special programs every now and then exclusively for my Grande Dames and their owners~ like Parties, & New Clothes!
Darling is hand sculpted mache, with inset antique brown glass eyes. She has a very high forehead, which, in the first half of the 18th century, was very sought after as a sign of royalty.

Everything, like on all my dollys, is hand stitched. Her saque back gown laces closed in the front over a brown silke stomacher. She wears knit stockings, linen shoes with leather soles, antique linen shift, mull tucker for modesty over her bosom, petticoat, pannier hoop, gown, and wig. She also has accessories like her silke Bergiere bonnet, antique lace lappet, and green silk velvet shawl.
Her dress is a reproduction cotton c1840...BUT~ at this scale it is a perfect representation of the marvelous large scale bizarre silkes of the early 1700s. She wears antique lace engagents under her 3 tier sleeve ruffles
Here is my Darling readying herself for tea in the morning....she has not yet put her wig on, so wears an antique lace lappet to cover her head
Grande Dames also come with their own cloth covered box, that matches (usually) their first dress. Above are some of Darlings pretties, on the lid of her dolly box(this is the inside)
We are off to the shoe maker again this morning....as her very nice brown linen latchetts are just tooo plain...........