Bittersweet
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Eyal and I always knew that it would be difficult building a family from
two different countries. It is just now, however, that we have to really
put that ...
12 years ago
Playing Dress-Ups!
While helping my mom go through a closet, I came across this antique dress. We believe it belonged to my great-great grandmother, Dulcibel Brown who was born in 1856. My mom remembers being told by her mother (who passed it on to her) that it was an everyday work dress. I hope that Dulcy was quite a bit smaller around the ribs than I am, as I can't imagine doing any work in it! An interesting feature is that the buttons down the front (waist to neck) are like cuff-links. That is, both sides of the placket have buttonholes, and they are held closed by two buttons adjoined by sturdy thread. If anybody knows about the history of clothes and knows why this would be done (rather than the usual way of attaching a button to one side and having a button hole in the other), please tell me. 
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2 comments:
Much like men's tuxedo shirts-- A lot easier to iron without buttons being attached.
My father's uniforms also had detachable buttons. That way the uniform could be cleaned without damaging the buttons. As you grew, or changed from winter to summer uniforms, you could use the same buttons.
Were buttons expensive?? Military ones were!
Bill
Thanks, Bill! Maybe the dress would get ironed, but it doesn't seem like it would need it (it would certainly be hard to iron those sleeves; incidentally the buttons on the sleeve cuffs were sewn on and the cuffs were quite snug). I think the expense of buttons is probably the explanation. Wooden buttons would be cheap, but anything else wouldn't be. Even though you need twice as many buttons (two per closure), you could switch them from your every day dress to your fancy dress, from your winter dress to your summer dress. Cool!
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