Age of dress hoop, and is this a slip or skirt?

The Vintage Vendeuse

The Vintage Vendeuse

VFG Member
These are two of the items I picked up at the estate sale of a woman who was over 100 years old. The first is the net dress hoop, what era was this from? Closes at the side with two hooks and eyes.
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The second is a very tiny wasted (22”) slip or skirt. A lovely wool with pretty embroidery along the hem. There is a placket at the side but no way to fasten it, and no sign that there ever was anything. What would have been used as a closure and is this a slip or a skirt?
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The closed them with a pin - its the reason the safety pin was invented - for closing baby clothing. Although it's long and could have been used for a Christening gown, it's not necessarily for baptism - its a long winter petticoat but at the turn of the century, the idea was apparently to use long dresses for proms, so that the dress spilled out of the carriage! (I read that somewhere a while back -- don't remember where...)
 
poppysvintageclothing said:
Jonathan, I guess the question would be how long is this piece? I know I have encountered several over the years that came with baptismal gowns and matched them which is why I felt it was. Interesting about the carriage dress!
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Looks like we posted at the same time, Mary Jane. The wool piece, not including the cotton waistband, is 33 inches long.

Editing to add: there were a lot of children's garments at the sale, including one baptismal gown which appeared sized for 0-3 months and looked nothing like this piece. (Doesn't mean that another sale customer didn't already purchase something that matched this piece, of course.) Also, wouldn't it have been more likely that the hand-embroidery along the hem would have included crosses/religious symbols?
 
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I am sure Jonathan meant pram not prom in his post. Spell check strikes again. Those petticoats were wrapped around the baby's chest, under the arms, then pinned. They were for warmth and also for show, as can be seen in old photos. I have had the same type of petticoats made of cotton, often with elaborate embroidery and many tucks.
Marian
 
Vinclothes said:
I am sure Jonathan meant pram not prom in his post. Spell check strikes again. Those petticoats were wrapped around the baby's chest, under the arms, then pinned. They were for warmth and also for show, as can be seen in old photos. I have had the same type of petticoats made of cotton, often with elaborate embroidery and many tucks.
Marian
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Ahhh, now I get the picture, thanks! :duh2:
 
Yes, I meant pram... sorry about that - just sloppy typing on my part. Not all long baby dresses were Christening gowns - we had a collection of baby dresses come in to the collection that were from c. 1900, and they were all long but they all came from the same baby - although the longest of them all was the Christening dress, but if you didn't know that, you would think they were all intended as Christening gowns. I guess its like not all white dresses are for weddings, or black dresses for mourning...
 
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