Emergency Room consultation 2 - intensive care...

M

mercyonthesubway

Registered Guest
I think this one's a bit of a heartbreaker. It was the 'coming out dress' (more or less) of my teacher's mother, tailored for her in Germany (I presume before the war - there's no fasteners at all on this). The lace and rhinestones seem sound, but the periwinkle (is it periwinkle?) silk is, I discover today sadly, really going. It's like tissue, and I already put my thumb through it while arranging it today. Arghhh. How can this be saved/renovated/reborn?? Please help...





The skirt has a few scattered holes. And a couple of streaks of faint discoloration.



*sniff*
 
*heavy and mournful sigh*

Thanks guys. It's probably going to take me months, nay (possibly) years to decide how to redeploy the lace, so this may languish a while.

Does the silk disintegration continue even if I were to cut it up into much smaller panels?

Truly this is a lesson in:
NO HANGERS

and

NO DAMP

in storage, for a start, I think.
 
the photo could serve for someone to recreate the dress....its a basic design, really. if you know someone who could make the same dress in a nice silk, have that done and use the vintage bits as embellishments. or...sell as is with the encouragement for the buyer to do the same. OR, sell the embellishments! People love those for new designs!

Ang
 
I agree - take photos for posterity and study, then salvage what you can. If you can trace a pattern do that , too. Or cut it part on the seam lines and make a pattern that way.

The silk will continue to deteriorate, so I would not use it for other projects.

Hollis
 
You might also ask if there is a photo of the original owner wearing it at her debut. That, plus a good photo of it now would "preserve" the dress and give a great history of the pieces that can be salvaged and put to a new use. Think how excited the young lady would have been if she'd only known we're all so concerned for her dress and that you're working so hard to "keep it alive."

Good luck with it!
 
Yes, that fluttery papery feeling makes my heart sink :( If you can't use for pattern cutting as too fragile perhaps find a similar paper pattern to give to a seamstress along with the salvaged lace sections.

And of course these pictures and original photos if you can get them should be kept with the dress, absolutely.

Glad to see you're still a sucker for vintage-ness in all it's forms. And yes, periwinkle indeed!
 
These are all excellent pieces of advice, thanks everyone (and hello Harriet! Incurable - we all are).

I might not have thought of the 'take pattern' option by myself, but I now find myself puzzling over how to do that, given that my sewing credentials are non-existent. Does anyone have a site/book recommendation, so that I can use this as an educational opportunity? Hopefully I wouldn't screw it up on first attempt... I do prefer the 'recreate' option over all others, although i'd have to introduce snaps somewhere so as to make it wearable.

Unfortunately the dress does not fit over my rigid manni's breasts/shoulders, otherwise I would have taken slightly better documentary photos. I may try briefly putting it on a fabric hanger for that. I haven't asked about pictures of the original owner wearing it, but could enquire. Somehow, I'm doubtful, but there's no harm in asking.

Thanks again everyone - your input has been incredibly useful, and I really would be a bit lost without it.

L
 
It must have been a smashing gown, and the lace is lovely. I agree to salvage what you can of the embellishments.

If you want to hang it to take an accurate photo for re-creation purposes, I'd use a padded fabric hanger, plus take soft toweling or flannel, make "pads" out of it, and place it up under the shoulders of the dress when you hang it to minimize stress. The wads of padding should be wide enough to nearly fill out the shoulders but NOT stretch them at all, but be wider than the hanger to take up the extra fabric that would otherwise sag.
 
I had a shattering silk nightgown in that lovely pale pink and I wanted to preserve the lines. Since it was already decomposing I took the photos and ironed on the lightest weight possible of pellon interfacing. This kept the gown together long enough to take measurements and to draft the pattern without it causing continued crumbles during the handling. Of course ,if you were to attempt this with that dress, do not use the iron on pellon on the lace especally if you intend to reuse it for a recreation dress. The lace can be supported with a layer of tulle hand stiched with invisible stiches to support it for a "transplant" to it's new silk home.
 
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