Silk dress c1860

Today's the day ........................... to dress up

What fun I have had today!

I was on a museum training course where we spent the day learning about Costume - how to date it, display it and generally look after it. The course was based in Manchester's Gallery of Costume at Platt Hall. We had complete access to the whole collection as it wasn't open to the public today - and I learnt such a lot from the very knowledgeable trainer.

In the afternoon, we got to dress up a mannequin with one of the costumes - and here is mine. It was a beautiful silk dress, all hand stitched, dating from about 1860. Look at the size of that waist - it was just 22 inches! Hard to imagine a real live woman fitting into that but that was the size they were then.

It's a great little museum and well worth a visit if you're in Manchester on an afternoon, Wednesday through to Saturday. And it's free too......................