Why Are My Great Aunt's All Wearing The Same Dress ?

[maidmarianoops]

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sylvia

classmates

[Aislin]

Can't help you with the dress question ... but have a question of my own. In the group photo ... is it just my eyes, or is Minnie Jane really, really slouching, ... or ... is she extremely long from hip to knee?

Good eyes Deb.  It almost appears that she has something under the dress over her knees.  Her knees appear almost squared off

[Roobarb]

I thought it was the chair arm but then realised that the boy was holding that. I don't think it's her leg though, as aislin says, it's squared off. It's also extremely broad there.

[alpinecottage]

Had she lost her feet or left foot, say from about mid-calf?  Is she in a wheelchair/bathchair?  Do you have any pictures of her standing?

I don't think it would necessarily have been strange for four unmarried sisters to dress alike.  Parents still dress twins the same, and even more so in the past.

[lookingforold]

Could the four ladies be wearing some sort of 'Uniform'? Perhaps they all belonged to a club, organization etc and this was their attire?

[Galium]

  It must have taken a long time to make those elaborate dresses in the days before sewing machines.

Sewing machines have been around since the 1850s, worked by turning the wheel by hand, or by a foot treadle.  They would not be beyond the means of a comfortably-off family in the late 1800s.

[Rachels]

  Has anybody counted the pleats yet ?

I really can't face it just now 




Rachel

[Deb D]

What weird and wonderful tangents this hobby takes us off on!

The more I look at Minnie's "knees" ... the more it looks like a "cage" that was - and still is - often used (for example, in hospitals, for burns victims) to keep either the weight or the scratchiness of fabric, away from the lower legs.  I wonder if Minnie had had some sort of injury, or a skin condition that made contact with the lower skirts of her dress either painful or irritating when she sat down?

*ps it's too early in the morning for me to even think about counting pleats LOL*

[Aislin]

My first impression regarding Minnie Jane's knees (at least I think it was Minnie Jane) was that she had some sort of cushion under her skirt over her knees.  Maybe someone was going to sit on her lap?  Very curious.