Please help me date this dress!

I was curious about the term 'middy manufacturer' used in the reference Hollis found. Searching for a few more examples it seems to mean middle manufacturer, as in - not mass produced nor couture/custom made but somewhere in between. I can't read all of the earlier documents from the teens -1920 but by one newspaper from 1950 it suggests that the American middy manufacturer bought high end garments from London to copy/reproduce (perhaps at a lesser quality of manufacture) for their own market. I think this might perhaps explain the early use of overlocking in order to speed up the manufacturing process/save costs in timesaving.

I would really like to see a close up photos of the garment label, both sides of the buttons, the overlocking itself from both sides (perhaps next to a ruler), and where it goes into other garment sections.

 

Melanie,

This is a difference between American and British terms. A "middy" is a term for a type of woman's blouse or top, very popular, with a Naval influence in many cases. It has nothing to do with the manufacturing processes. Middy blouses were hugely popular for young women and children for school wear, gymnastics, beach and sporting wear and casual wear.

 

I found another dress with serging from the same period - a white cotton lace insert dress from c. 1909 in our collection:

 

1909!! I am surprised and amazed at those seams. Great find!

 

We should re-create the serging comparision that used to be around online somewhere - but from dated examples. They really do differ over the years - Jonathan's 1909 example is only 3 thread overlocking from what I can see, very wide and a little irregular. I wonder if it cut at the same time or merely bound a cut edge with 3 threads?

 

Considering the original purpose of serging was to finish off knitwear edges, like on socks, I suspect the early ones didn't cut the edge, only bound.