One more round..

I know I post a lot of these pictures here.  I really can't help it, though, this is my first experience with extant garments!  I'm having so much fun and by the end of the month, fingers crossed, I'll have my own little show at the historical society.  So here's a beautiful piece that I found tossed inamongst the Edwardians on the clothes rack in a garment bag that I quickly rescued and brought down - it's in rather poor condition, though stable - almost all the lining of the back is torn off, though it seems sound otherwise.  The accession tag read '1870s,' but I read it more as a late 60's, especially with the sleeve jockeys.

 So here's the inside.  It's a crisp, thin silk taffeta in a lovely chocolate brown color.  You can see the buttons - silk covered, with little rhinsetone?-ey bits.

 Closure always fascinates me, no pun intended.  Little hooks and eyes went halfway up the bodice - maybe the buttons were later additions?

 Aaaand here are the eyes. 

The adorbs sleeve jockeys trimmed with velvet ribbon and lace.

 Sleeve details

 The sleeves are wide coat sleeves and are fully lined.

 Boning on the bust darts - the boning is individually bound and sewn into the slashed-open bust dart.

 Attaching the pleats to the lined bodice.

 The skirt is a mixture of knife pleats, at the front, and cartridge pleats at the back.

 Roughly 10" hem facing.

Most of the 60's dresses I've seen here have self-fabric stand up collars, not replacable white ones.  Here you can also see the piecing- there's a lot lot lot of piecing going on here, not just at the neck (which is a strange place, I'd think) but also on the side pieces and at the top of the skirt, to name a few.