Conservation?

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

How can we work with this dress without causing it further damage?

Today I sat down with the dress again to get to know it better. With every step I find more places that the dress is damaged. Small pieces of the deteriorating fabric have fallen off in several places: bits of chiffon and net that lined the lace in the bodice, pieces of the skirt lining, and especially the coral silk trim on the waist sash. Above is a picture of some of the bits.

As I start working on patterning today, I'm concerned that the dress will be hurt by being handled so much. There are some logical tears, such as the top of the front slit of the skirt,but I'm mostly worried about how brittle the fabric is. The skirt lining seems to flake off in your hands. Yet, other layers of fabric are in excellent condition. It's fascinating to see how age affects textiles differently, right next to each other in the same garment. I suspect the silk lining may be a weighted silk, as was common in that period. The metals added to the silk cause it to have a much higher rate of degradation.

Here's a slideshow with some images of the deterioration.



After my work today I've come to 2 conclusions:

-we need to try to humidify the dress with steam to reduce its brittle state
-we need to work on the pattern in a different way than I had originally planned. Rather than working closely with the garment to take exact measurements, we will refer to it with only the gentlest measurement taking, and drape the pattern on a mannequin to check the shape.