Documentation of Hem Lengths and Ages

[Catherine Kelly]

Hey, it's better than "Ma Kelly". 

And I dubbed myself "Auntie" when I acquired my first nieces and nephews. I think I was born to be Miss Haversham and be the evil old maid aunt... 

LOL,
B.

Evil?  never!!    fun...    I think so...    as for "Ma Kelly" VS "Mom Kelly"...

I think you might be right... and "mom Kelly" suits me..     I am the one they all come to when they have a problem or need something.   

 it began when we first started reenacting and the VERY "farby " group we started with, had a lot of teens in the group.    So I soon became  "camp Mom"  which soon enough evolved into "mom Kelly"    and I wear it proudly...      I have now three adopted sons that have served in Iraq... the third one due home in May!   Yes!!!...     and  I just keep taking them all in..     the more the merrier...   I love all the kids so...    My kids just accept it as normal and in fact introduce me to their friends as Mom and let it be known that everyone calls me "mom"     some began to add  "kelly" because they have a "mom" so it feels more comfortable to them...    and either way it is fine with me..   

eventually even the adults started calling me "mom" 
and the truth be told.. it suits me..   I've always been that kind of "mom" person..     now I am old enough to enjoy it.....    

 Catherine

[BarbaraSmith]

YAY! I had a few "moms" like you growing up. And boy howdy am I grateful for them! You keeping "mom-ing it up" out there, okay?  World needs all the moms it can get.

Me, I'm definitely the eccentric aunt. In real life, and to all my cyber pals. You know, the one your relatives all whisper about at the family reunions? We've had one in every generation of ALL my families. I guess I'm the proud recipient of that legacy. I think my Aunt's Mildred and Laurine are somewhere watching me and getting a good laugh out of how I'm carrying on their traditions. 

LOL,
B.

[Catherine Kelly]

Okay I promise to keep it up..    not that I have a choice.. it is who I am in any facet of my life... in the mean time..   the world is a better place because of eccentric aunts, they play an important part in making life fun and ineresting        and I believe you do a great job at that too...   

what a pair we could make at an event...LOL   and any time you find your self East ...   if I am at the event.. you will always be welcome in my camp...     We can sit back and enjoy...

Catherine 

[BarbaraSmith]

Why thank you kindly, ma'am! I mean Mom! 

I have never gone back east for a 19thC event yet. Need to get that into my whirl. My dad is more interested in 18thC, so most of my flying-in is to events he wants to go to. I keep trying to get him interested in the Market Faire at Fort Frederick, MD. I hear it's wonderful!!!!

Hugs,
B.

[Nona Nelson]

I've seen you all have taken over the thread!
I've thorught that I'd share some of the images I  found, but the computer is being smarter then me. lol 

[Catherine Kelly]

I've seen you all have taken over the thread!
I've thorught that I'd share some of the images I  found, but the computer is being smarter then me. lol 

Oh Nona,

I'm sorry...    but you put a couple of aunts and your mom in a room and discuss how your daughters should dress and it always seems to  lead to "Well when I was that age, My MOTHER Blah blah blah",   which then leads to... "I spent my lunch money on... "     sorry...

    Catherine   (MomKelly)

forgot to say ... when you get your computer to cooperate...   please post the pictures..   

[BarbaraSmith]

Oh dear, sorry Nona! All my fault! You know how I babble along...

No way is the computer smarter than you. It's just being childish and throwing a tantrum. Just discipline it well, and show it who's boss. 

Hugs,
B.

[Amanda L]

browsing my librar catalog today and ran across this title, thought it was interesting. I will have to check it out at some point.

How young ladies became girls : the Victorian origins of American girlhood by Jane H. Hunter.

maybe it would have something on hems?

or maybe you would like this book from 1844

Advice to mothers on the management of their offspring. During the periods of infancy, childhood, and youth
Chavasse, Pye Henry, 1810-1879.

can you tell I have had too much fun browsing online today?!

[Nona Nelson]

Its ok that you guys took over the thread! lol 
Thanks for those book tittles! Timerline doesn't seem to have them, so I guess I'll have to do a ILL!

[Lydia_Prescott]

Anyway, Nona has actually inspired me to make a dress with a shorter hem and short sleeves for the summer. Not only to stay much cooler (I think I'll sew a sheer dress next summer) but to actually look like a teenager, and dress age-appropriate.

Okay, done blabbing . . .
-Anna

Anna,
 you are to old to do short sleeves ! you can so the shorter hems but I wouldn't do short sleeves unless it's a evening gown. It wasn't period for a 16 year old to be running around in short sleeves for a work dress ( or any other dress except an evening gown )

BTW most of the post is parroting Nancy 

[Elizabeth]

Lydia, will you be so kind as to share the references you've found for a girl of 16 not using shorter sleeves in the daytime?  It looks like you may have come across things I've not seen yet, and I'd be glad of more references!

[Nona Nelson]

Melissa (Lydia), you have been miss-lead!
Teenage girls would wear short sleeves weather it be on a "ball gown", sheer summer dress, or a plain ol' cotton everyday or work dress! Short sleeves would be great on a work dress for summertime use! And they wouldn't be in the way of working! Like if you were washing clothes or dishes, you wouldn't need to push up your sleeves and you wouldn't have to worry about them falling down into the water and getting wet!
There are some great CDV's of young ladies in short sleeves:

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Evening%20gown,%201854.JPG

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Fashion%20Photos-old.jpg

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20006.JPG

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20007.jpg

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/slides/Woman%20025.html

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/slides/Woman%20027.html

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20032.jpg

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20033.JPG

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20045.JPG

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20060.jpg

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20099.jpg

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20100.jpg

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20106.JPG

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20128.jpg

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20147.jpg

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20165.jpg

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20170.JPG

http://www.oldsacramentolivinghistory.com/museum/Virtual%20Museum/Fashion%20Photos,%20Daguerreotypes,%20Early%20Victorian/Women's%20Victorian%20fashions/Woman%20with%20patterned%20ballgown,%20bracelets,%20necklace,%20earrings.jpg


Oh, wow, I really got carried away! That is alot of pictures!

[atlantashannon]

 :oWow! Thanks Nona! Love all the pictures. I'm going to make a short-sleeved fan front bodice myself.

[Nona Nelson]

:oWow! Thanks Nona! Love all the pictures. I'm going to make a short-sleeved fan front bodice myself.

oooo, that'll be lovely! I can't wait to see it! one of my dresses is a fan-front (well, almost all of my dresses are either fan fronts or modified fan fronts) and it has short sleeves too!

[atlantashannon]

It's going to be of the same cotton print of that gathered bodice dress I posted pictues of recently.

[atlantashannon]

OOh! I found this picture from the late 1850's, and I looove the dress. What are these sort of short sleeves called, and what kind of bodice? What material is it made from? --A.

[Elizabeth]

From the way the wide sleeves set, I'd say it's silk.  The sleeves are a wide open, "pagoda"-ish shape, but the overall balance of them is a bit awkward here, proving that not even period dressmakers always got a harmonious result.    I'd go either definitely shorter, with a short white undersleeve (everying bicep-length), or definitely longer, to the mid fore-arm, with a wrist-length undersleeve.  The bodice has a half-high neckline (nice and cool for summer), and may be pleated to fit at the waist.

[Ginger Lane]

From the way the wide sleeves set, I'd say it's silk.  The sleeves are a wide open, "pagoda"-ish shape, but the overall balance of them is a bit awkward here, proving that not even period dressmakers always got a harmonious result.    I'd go either definitely shorter, with a short white undersleeve (everying bicep-length), or definitely longer, to the mid fore-arm, with a wrist-length undersleeve.  The bodice has a half-high neckline (nice and cool for summer), and may be pleated to fit at the waist.

Go shorter, Atlanta!  You'll get a lot more comfortable wear out of it down here!

[atlantashannon]

Go shorter, Atlanta! You'll get a lot more comfortable wear out of it down here!

Oh, dear me.  :DI wasn't planning on making those sleeves for my upcoming cotton dress....but I still like them.  But I especially like the neckline. Would this type of neckline look alright with a fan-front bodice?

[Elizabeth]

Yes, provided you do a smooth lining, and pleat the fullness into the neckline while it's draped on your dress form, then baste things in place and bind the neckline.