Australian Dress Register

This is a good example of an outfit worn by a comfortably off working class family in regional Australia - the Chamberlain's owned their own house in Armidale - and can give us an insight into life in Armidale in the late 19th century. The use of wool in this garment is a good indication of how cold Armidale winters could get. The dress is smart styled and may have been Vere's 'Sunday Best' (the clothes she would have worn to church), but the fact that it was home made is clear when the inside of the dress is examined. The dual nature of this dress (smart on the outisde and workmanlike on the inside) shows the importance of appearance for working class people in the 19th century.

Author: This entry was compiled as a group effort, 30th March 2010.

The outift consists of a grey blue woollen bodice, skirt and belt, that would have originally been mauve.

The bodice has a stand collar and fastens at one side of a central blue grey silk panel with hooks and eyes. The panel has horizontal ruching and vertical pintucks sewn by hand. Fancy grey ric rac braid trims the collar and cuffs. The back has a silk yoke with hand stitched pintucks and vertical wool pleats are sewn by machine, also on the cuffs of the leg of mutton sleeves. They fasten with hooks and eyes. There are few tacking stitches left in one side seam indicating this was probably home made.

The eight gored woollen skirt fastens at the left front waist with a hook and worked eye on the petersham waistband. The skirt has a placket opening. The front panel is decorated with matching braid in floral motif. The back has an additional piece of fabric added to widen the centre panel at the hem. The widest panel is 460mm. It is lined with cotton sateen.

The grey/mauve silk belt is stiffened and shaped to a point at the centre front where it is also stiffened with whalebones. It fastens with hooks and eyes.