Absolutely the last donation for a while!

One final donation from a particularly bountiful fortnight. I was out when this arrived but luckily Dawn excepted it on my behalf.

It is a beautiful blouse circa 1890 in almost perfect condition.

Heavily pin tucked black satin lined with white silk

Trimmed with black sequin and seed bead encrusted lace

Small hidden pocket sewn to the cotton lining. This used to contain a scented handkerchief or posy. You can also just see some of the internal boning.

At first we weren't sure why the waistband was a lot bigger than the rest of the blouse but we think it could possible have been a maternity garment.

Close up of the neck  with lace and beading

Beautiful details on the cuffs and rosettes on the waistband

There are no labels inside but that is not uncommon for this era so it is hard to tell if this was a home made garment or a shop bought one. It is small, probably equivalent to a modern size 6.

...and one more donation

The final donation in a week of donations was this rather lovely little (it is very small) Tudor style dress. It was given by a lovely lady from Cambridge and it belonged to her late mother.

Her mother acted here at the Maddermarket in the mid 1940s but we worked out that the dress was probably made for her around 1938/9.  The dress was for the character of Mary Queen of Scots but we're not sure if it was for a MMT production. I will be hitting the archives soon.

It's always great receiving donations but when they have provenance too, it's even better.  Not sure if we'll be able to use it for our June production of Anne Boleyn. As I said, it is very tiny and it only just fits my smallest dummy, but I will use it for the production display.

The black is cotton velvet and the white is rayon

The skirt is covered with silver sequins and the braid is beaded silver

French hood trimmed with artificial pearls

Pretty Things

Hello lovelies,

Still fairly quiet in the wardrobe which is good. I'm getting a head start on our big Shakespearean offering in March. We are doing 'As You Like It' with a bit of a hippy/flower power vibe! Watch this space for some groovy gear........

In the meantime here are a few piccys from a donation I received this morning from a lady in Cambridge. They all belonged to her mother.

Lovely little silk blouse that could easily do 20s and 30s shows

Very pretty fine wool dress that may well find it's way into As You Like It

As may these sandals

Hand embroidered mittens and belt. Wish I'd had these for The Snow Queen

Beautiful lace and cotton camisole. 1920s I think

I have some more donations arriving tomorrow. Stay tuned costumeophiles........

Random Musings

Things are fairly quiet here in the wardrobe at the moment. We have had a couple of small, modern plays on the trot so I'm doing a bit of house keeping. Sorting out the undies today and discovered these two that made me laugh........

Little and large.

A 46E and a 32AA to be precise!