Casgliadau Arlein

Wedding dress consisting of a long bodice, skirt, neck ruffle, bustle and apron. The bodice and skirt are of very narrow striped bright blue silk. The apron is of coffee-coloured lace or drawn thread work. Worn by Mrs Eleanor Rees (née Phillips) on her wedding at St Elvan's Church, Aberdare, 1873.

Neck ruffle (* see note below) made from 6cm wide blue petersham ribbon, which is pleated and stitched together to create rosette-shaped ruffles (two pleats are formed, facing away from each other, and stitched in place. In-between the two pleats, the outer edges of the ribbon are lifted and stitched together). A strip of machine-made (?) black lace with a floral 'palmette' pattern is stitched to the underside, protruding from one side of the ribbon. A pleated strip of cream cotton (?) net is stitched on top of the net and also protrudes from the blue ribbon (on the other side) by 1-2cm. The stitching goes through both layers (net and lace) and is carried out in a combination of black and blue silk thread. One end of the ruffle ends in a decorative bow with pleated elements and the other end is (or appears to be) unfinished with no method of fastening. All hand-stitched.

*When assembling the dress for display it became obvious that 65.278.3 couldn't really work as a neck ruffle. The length was too long to fit around the neck and the rosette was too large to comfortably sit at the neck. It has been suggested by Sue Renault, social history conservator, that the neck ruffle might, in fact, have been either a hair adornment, or have been previously attached to a bonnet.