The 1860s woollen dress is from Ontario and is checked with green and pink. The pink is a coal tar dye. Those dyes faded easily and many women preferred to continue using the most permanent vegetable dyes indigo for blue and madder for red. The dress has two 1860s features: the straight waistline and the long two-piece sleeve which, because it was cut like a man's coat sleeve, is sometimes called a "coat-sleeve". There is a narrow neckband into which a plain or pleated band was stitched. Bands replaced the collar and cuffs of the previous decade. The bodice opens down the front and the pleated skirt opens to the left of centre front and hooks to the bodice.
The skirt, or petticoat, from QuΘbec is made of two matched lengths of homespun. It is pleated to a cotton waistband. The hem is finished with a line of feather stitching, now much worn. As a skirt it would have been worn with a bodice or a jacket; if a petticoat, it would look very dashing with a hitched up skirt. Dress skirts were worn hitched up for walking or skating. Brightly banded petticoats were also worn in the Scottish communities of Newfoundland, and striped skirts in Acadian settlements.
Courtesy: National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada and Royal Ontario Museum
