Original Size

What size person originally wore this dress?

As noted in a previous post, we found our dress to have a waist of about 21"; underbust 25.5"; bust 34.75"; skirt side length 42". But what size was our wearer? To figure that out, we need to think about ease - the areas of the garment that weren't skin tight. The tiny waist was likely tight to the body, and to a corseted body at that. But what about the bust and hips? Certainly there is ease there, but how much?

A little online research helped with this question. I rediscovered a wonderful site, Vintage Sewing.info, which "offers free online access to public domain sewing books" (from their home page). A dressmaking manual from 1917 was helpful:
http://www.vintagesewing.info/1910s/17-ad/ad-04.html#lesson17

(the text would be cited as follows)
Coates, Lydia Trattles. American Dressmaking Step by Step : Containing Complete, Concise, Up-to-Date, and Comprehensible Instruction in Sewing, Dressmaking, and Tailoring : Prepared to Meet the Needs of the Home and Professional Dressmaker and Pupils of this Branch of Domestic Science in our Schools, Colleges, and Universities. New York: Pictorial Review Co., 1917.

The "Table of Approximate Sizes of Proportionate Measurements of Patterns" gives us a context for our lady. The smallest size in the table has a bust of 32", waist of 22", and hips of 36", and skirt side length of 39.5". From what I can tell, that chart does not include any ease for patterning, as the addition of ease is discussed elsewhere in the text. Therefore, our lady is definitely on the small end of the size spectrum, with her waist even slightly smaller, yet she seems to have been slightly taller than average.

All of this points to the dress having been custom made, as opposed to ready-to-wear, but we'll discuss that more in later posts.