When we left St Augustine Florida, we left the Anna Murray Douglass Dress for further projects they had going on. We knew we left it in good hands. Today....well that day, depending on when you are watching, the dress returned to Brooklyn, NY. The Woman's Exchange (Women's Exchange), refers to a system of benevolent consignment stores, usually established and managed by women, to benefit women. A number of them are members of the Federation of Woman's Exchanges (1934), which is still active. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman%27s_Exchange_Movement I have only been to the 2 Chapters now, St. Augustine and Brooklyn. The shops are filled with lovely merchandise all companies owned by women. We had a beautiful Lunch and enjoyed catching up...
The dress is now in St. Augustine, Florida, teaching lessons of support.
I posted our first night video here
Stills of our first night at Peña-Peck house, where the dress is on display.
This was the moment I heard my voice on the video. I had send them videos of myself creating the dress. I knew they were going to display those video, but it just hit me and I was filled with gratitude.
The room was beautifully prepped for "The Dress"
This is the last in the series, Making of the Anna Murray Douglass dress. The dress was created from a plum silk taffeta. I machine quilted the center front and then beaded with garnet beads. Although I sewed the majority of the dress on the sewing machine, my thoughts is that the dress in it's time period, would have been made by hand. I didn't have that kind of time. Link in bio for other videos in this series Anna Murray Douglass It was such a beautiful event. Ms. Lana Turner planned this event in a short period, but the real miracle was how she met Michelle V. Agins from the New York Times. At a party they met...
At first I thought I would just buy a corset to wear under the dress, but then quickly changed my mind. I wanted to get the full effect of what Mrs. Douglass might of felt like on that day. I knew that an 19th century woman may have worn some type of corset/stay under the dress, but needed to find out which she might have worn in that time. My research turned up a Stay. I found this from a website called The Dreamstress: The term stays probably comes from the French estayer: to support, because that is exactly what stays did. Stays turned the torso into a stiff, inverted cone, raising and supporting the bust, and providing a solid...
Wikipediea defines it: A chemise or shift is a classic smock, or a modern type of women's undergarment or dress. Historically, a chemise was a simple garment worn next to the skin to protect clothing from sweat and body oils, the precursor to the modern shirts commonly worn in Western nations.
