Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Delineator Magazine - 1888 "Ladies Four Gore Skirt" - An Inside View

Here's a chance to see the inside of one of these amazing skirts and the description from the magazine.



"No. 2375.-This skirt is portrayed made of dress goods and plainly finished. Its three dart-fitted gores and full back-breadth are shaped to produce a graceful, even hanging; and across the back-breadth two reeds are adjusted in casings and tied into curves by tapes or elastics. A belt finishes the top of the skirt, and the placket opening is made at the left side-back seam. A small pad bustle is a feature of the skirt; it is shaped in two parts that are narrowest at the top and rounding at the bottom. A filling of moss or curled hair is used, and the parts are caught together in upholstery fashion. The top of the bustle is caught to the belt.

This skirt is the fashionable shape for Autumn and Winter toilettes, and will be worn without an adjustable tournure. It accords in its hanging and in the arrangement of its pad and steels with the fashionable arrangements of drapery and also with the new styles of long top-garments. All kinds of seasonable dress good and also plain, corded, striped and figured silks, velvets, etc., will make up handsomely by the mode. Trimming may be added if desired, flat applications being especially favored.

We have pattern No. 2375 in nine sizes for ladies from twenty to thirty-six inches waist measure. To make the garment for a lady of medium size, will require five yards and three eighths of material twenty-two inches wide, or three yards and a-half thirty-six inches wide, or three yards forty-four inches wide. Of fifty-four inches wide goods, two yards and a-half will suffice. Price of pattern, 1s,. 3d. or 30 cents."

2 comments:

  1. Fascinating! Thanks for posting it.

    The price is interesting. It sent me to Google to find out when Canada adopted decimal currency. Apparently that was in the 1850s and 60s - but either there was a long change-over period, or this 1s/3d was for a different market. Was Butterick selling in Britain or Australia way back then, I wonder?

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  2. That is a great question. I don't know. I spend a lot of time trying to sort out the various pattern companies tangled histories and who sold what, where, and when. Somebody should write a book, really. The full history of these is so complex. How they got acquired and sold...it's a soap opera.
    If any body has good book suggestions I'd love to hear them.

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