Friday, June 06, 2008

Friday Show and Tell

When I was little I spent a lot of time with my Great Aunt Clara and Great Uncle Roy. They only lived about 2 miles from my house, so I was able to ride my bike down to their house very often. One of my favorite things to do at their house other than play with my paper dolls was to play dress up. My favorite thing to dress up in was this dress.
This dress belonged to my great, great aunt Tess. I'm not to sure how old this dress is, but Tess died in 1924. It looks like the late 1800's. This was the best dress in the world to play like you were Laura Ingalls. Of course the dress was huge on me when I was little but I didn't care. I also had an old pocketbook that was my Aunt Claras that I would carry when I dressed up. I didn't really appreciate the work in this old dress then. Look at the gingham strips that were inserted into the bottom and sleeves:
The dress buttoned up the front with hook and eye closures. What a pain it was to hook all these up!



And the back had a slight train to it.

As I grew older the dress was put away. Until our church decided to have old fashioned days. I immediately thought of this dress. Aunt Clara still had it! I wore this for several years for old fashioned day and so did my cousin. Some where along the way it got a tear in the fabric near the left underarm, so we would just pin a small bouquet of flowers there. When Aunt Clara and Uncle Roy went into the assisted living facility, she told me to take the dress. As I pulled it out last night I noticed it is beginning to dry rot. Especially along the bottom where it has drug the ground for so long. I'm not sure how to preserve this or even if it is worth preserving. Perhaps our local historical museum would want it. I may give them a call.

For more Show and Tell head on over tohttp://kellishouse.blogspot.com.

In other news, we are melting here is SW Virginia! Oh my stars! For the next week our temperatures will soar into the mid and upper 90's! Our average temperature for June is high 70's to mid 80's. This is more like August weather. I hope this isn't a preview to what this summer will be like. Uhhhh.

And I also finished March's block of the month last night! Whoo Hoo! Only 3 more to go and I will be caught up!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Blessings

Linda

24 comments:

Kelli said...

Good morning! This is such a special and beautiful treasure, Linda! I love how you have lots of memories of dressing up in it as a little girl. I would definitely call your local museum.
~Kelli
P.s. I didn't see your name on Mr. Linky yet, so I just added it. I hope that's ok!

Timalee said...

Wow that dress is awesome, that is so neat that you got to wear it! I hope you are able to find some way to preserve it.

A Hint of Home said...

What a treasure to have. I'm sorry it's starting to dry rot. Maybe there is a way to preserve it.

Anonymous said...

What an awesome treasure. We are starting to get hot here up in Northern Illinois.

Susie said...

Hi Linda,
What a lovely keepsake filled with such special memories of your childhood. The detail and workmanship is amazing.
I certainly hope your local museum realizes what a treasure this is!

nancy said...

A fabulous post, LInda. YOu know, I have heard that there are treatments now for old fabric that can prolong their life. I think it would be so wonderful to be able to do that with treasures like that. I had two ancient quilts that I lost to dry rot several years ago and wish I had known about it then. what a beautiful dress!
Nancy

Ceekay-THINKIN of HOME said...

That dress is very cool. You mentioned Laura Ingalls. I don't know if you have gone to quills cottage.blogspot....but it may be of interest to you. Great post.

TJ said...

That is so cool! And looks like an amazing amount of work was put into it.

Susan said...

Oh what a special treasure. Surely the historial society could repair it and would be delighted to have it. So wonderful an idea to pass it to them so many can still enjoy it.
Susan

Love Bears All Things said...

I sure hope you can learn how to preserve it for your family instead of donating it to the museum. What a history to have for future generations.
Mama Bear

Lovella ♥ said...

Linda, what a treasure to have that dress. I'm wondering if Jill from my sidebar would have wisdom on what to do with it. . she is a reasearch librarian.
Anyways. . you can find my email address on my profile. . I'll send you an invite to gmail from that. . .glad you are going to join the mennnonite blog cookbook

Blondie ~ Vintage Primitives said...

Hi Linda!!
Thanks for visiting my blog; I have your name in the drawing for the giveaways; please come back and visit again. I live fairly close to you - in NC but close to Martinsville Va.
Love, love, love Roanoke and have several dear friends in that area.

Blessings
Blondie

Blondie ~ Vintage Primitives said...

Also meant to add that the dress you played in is a TREASURE! How lucky for you that it is still in great shape.
Just sign me
Pea Green Blondie

Muum said...

Wow, I would say your local historical society would be interested in it. That is amazing. They would have some tips about how to preserve it, too, I'll bet.

Unknown said...

this is absolutly gorgeous and extra special... I love the Victorian era very much.. I would certainly be honored to have such a treasure from an Aunt. Thanks for sharing this, Mica

Libby said...

What a treasure . . . I hope someone is able to help you with the preservation.

Barbara H. said...

That dress is just amazing! What a treasure! I am sure some place will be able to do what is needed to preserve it. I am glad we don't have to do all those buttons any more!

The church I was in as a teen used to have Old-Fashioned Sundays. but I don't hear of them any more. I wonder why not? They were fun.

Tammy said...

What a wonderful family treasure!
It is so beautiful, and knowing it belonged to your g-great aunt is so special!
I love history so love things like this...
And how perfect to be able to wear it to old fashioned days...
But yes, it's probably time to try and preserve it now. I don't know anything about this, but hopefully your museum will!
Thank you for sharing it with us!
Blessings,
~Tammy

Linda - Behind My Red Door said...

What a lucky girl! I can only imagine the fun you had in that dress. What a treasure for sure!
hugs, Linda

Dawn said...

What a wonderful memory - and a lovely dress. We liked to play dress-up too, but didn't have anything that valuable! My daughter got to play with her grandma's wedding dress until it was in tatters.

Sorry about the heat! We've had some weird weather, but no extreme heat yet. Hope we don't!

mrsjojo said...

I can only imagine the delight of dressing up in this fabulous dress!
I hope that it can be preserved. The fabric print is very interesting.
Thanks for visiting and commenting on my blog this week.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say thank you for stopping by my new blog site! I do love paper and fabric, something addicting at just looking at the different designs and the use of colors and such. Your dress is amazing-always wondered how it would be to walk about in such fashion, neat neat!
smiles:O)

JEWELGIRL said...

A wonderful treasure of a dress,
always fun to see clothing from
days gone by! I hope they can save it!

Unknown said...

Hello! I think this is the coolest Show and Tell I have ever seen!! What an amazing treasure to have! Thank you for sharing this!!!

Join me every weekend for "Weekend Decorating" on my blog: http://emsbingy.blogspot.com if you would like to. Hope to see you there!

Have a great night!