Complete with adjustable waistline
In its present form, this day dress of printed green cotton dates from 1798-1807. However, the dress--which belonged to a member of the Copp family of Stonington, CT--had at least two other, earlier forms. In about 1795 the waistline, for example, was originally at or near the natural waist. When high waistlines came into fashion about 1800, the dress was altered accordingly. Later, the waistline was dropped several inches to where it is now.
The owner of this dress was not content to wear an out of date style, and she was frugal enough to remake it several times. Given the high cost of fabric, wearing clothing altered to conform to latest fashion was a sensible practice at all levels of society. Fabric, probably left over from around the 1798, was saved after a "housewife" was made from it.
||Pieces of fabric used to make this dress were also used to later help create part of the "Copp Family Quilt" (1815), also found within this web program.
||Web display only
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