We found this lovely cotton morning jacket in one of the last clothing boxes we opened to document at the museum. It’s a wonderful example of a garment a woman would wear at home in the morning, before dressing properly for leaving the house later in the day.

We were particularly excited to find this label inside, inked onto the back waistband of the jacket:

Unfortunately we haven’t been able to locate any donor or accession information, and I haven’t (yet) found information about any Jane Arbothnott/Arbuthnott with potential links to our district.

Although it’s possible that the inscription was inked in the early days of the museum, suggesting Jane was born in 1837, I’m inclined to believe that it’s a laundry label, inked at the time of making. It’s definitely an adult garment, and the date of 1837 matches the style and construction of the times.

The jacket is entirely hand-stitched, of a cotton piqué fabric. The frills are made of a finer muslin or voile, narrowly hemmed with tiny running stitches and attached with stroked gathers to the jacket. The jacket fronts are cut in one piece around to the side back. The internal tape waistband at the back has a drawstring which would be tied around the front, before the fronts are lapped closed and tied with a fabric tie, which is unfortunately missing.

I will be taking some more detailed photos of the jacket, and drawing up a pattern for it. A reproduction of this jacket will probably be included in my main project for the first part of 2020 – making a display and handling collection of historically accurate 19th and early 20th century undergarments.