The Scott Sisters' Pieces 1: Baby Clothes

My maternal grandfather's family all lived in Miami County, Ohio since the early 19th century. Many of the children were women throughout the generations and towards the end of the 19th century that side of my family consisted of:


Mary Ellen ('nee Farver) Scott (1841-1913) and married Samuel Sproul Scott (1873)


Their children:
John Gustave Scott (my great grandfather) April 29^th 1877 – May 10^th 1965 
(Aunt) Grace (We call all the sisters Aunt ** even today) Sept 12^th 1880 - April 1^st 1975 

Jean : Dec 22^nd 1881 – Feb 13^th 1967 

May:  May 19^th 1883 – Oct 24^th 1966 

Sarah 1875-1902

Emma 1886-1904

Keep in mind their names for the rest of this series, cause it can get confusing. K? k. :)

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These women and the rest of my family were smart enough to keep some of their personal possessions in cedar trunks for decades (decaaaaaddddddeeeeesssss). Also, amazingly, these women were insanely talented with sewing and some lace making. 


Guess who now owns these pieces?


...I do. (Yessss)


So today, I committed several curatorial and conservational sins by taking these pieces outside to take some pictures (for you) in the sunshine. I broke rules. It was thrilling (har har)! And afterwards they went back into their acid free boxes with their acid free tissue paper, carefully padded and rolled for safety. Anyways, I have so many pieces that I am going to break them down to space it out and create a series over the pieces from my family's collection. I hope you all enjoy them and if you have any input whatsoever please share, late 19th century is not my strong point.


Today we're starting with 2 children's dresses. I have no idea how old they are, (probably 1870s-80s & early 20th century??) Anyways, they're beautiful, machine & hand stitched and make me want to put my future babies in them....




Here's the first one, it's a blue check cotton (maybe linen mix?) child's gown with standard pleated bottoms and beautiful cut out lace work on the chest and arms. 

An interior shot to see the more true blue color of the fabric

Ugh. So pretty. So So pretty.

Delicate lace collar

Hand button holes (more on them later)

Closed by 3 buttons in the back and that's all.

Hand stitching on sleeve

I just loved the sleeves and the mix of fabrics

This is the second child's gown. Much simpler. I don't know if the two gowns are related in some way or just the only 2 children's gowns they felt worth keeping (this one is much simpler than the blue). This white gown is much larger than the blue.

Dropped waist, pleated bottoms, button closure

Delicate sewing

full shot

sweet soft lace

lace

I'm in love with the little blue gown and it's pretty cut out work. I can't imagine how cute a baby would be in that little gown...I wish there were photographs...


Anyways, this is the first of many on the pieces in the family collection. I hope you enjoy and I'll post another soon. :) The next post is about Aunt May and her button holes....