Historic Textile Tour

 Sunday I was in Petaluma for a Historic Textile Tour at the Petaluma Museum.  The museum, a former library, is pretty small, but the current display, which focused on women of the American Colonial period in California, was pretty interesting, with clothing, artifacts, and letters from the women who arrived in California in the mid 1800s to the early 1900s.

There was more to read than to look at, since there is limited space in the museum, but the pieces displayed showed a fairly balanced look at what life (and fashion) was like for these women.  One thing to remember is that it's always the "best dress" or a dress attached to a memory that is cared for and preserved, and the day to day wear has been described, but not often preserved.

The tour was interesting because it focused a lot on the fashion style, rather than the textiles themselves, which were limited to wool and silk.  Silk was interesting because cheaper silk threads woven into cheaper garments were spun with metal fiber to make it look more like expensive silks, but would "shatter" the fabric after use.

For me the big question had to do with sleeves, which never was answered to my satisfaction, since samples and descriptions were at odds when it comes to the timeframe where certain sleeves were worn.

The big surprise of the day was how many of the dresses actually had sewn in functional pockets... and I don't mean little pockets like in the clothing women wear today, but 8 and 10 inch deep pockets that were actually useful!

Gowns in silk. Off the shoulder and short sleeve gowns were evening wear.

Wool and silk wool blends, later Victorian, inspired by menswear.

a dress made with more expensive Asian fabric (the bluer red) and cheaper American fabric, enlarging the image shows the "shattering" of the cheaper fabric with the spun metal/silk threads woven in.

While most of the dresses had waists of about 19-20 inches, worn by young girls, this striped dress was made for a more matronly figure and more conservative woman, who wanted a party dress that wasn't quite so risque as the off the shoulder dresses of the time.  Other dresses for formal occasions (like the graduation gown on the left did have higher necklines and sleeves for more "dignified" or formal occasions. 

I was a little disappointed that there was no discussion of the hats, bonnets, and other accessories in the collection.