Description
Crazy quilt-style patchwork dressing gown made of printed and plain rayon, cotton, and silk pieces sewn together. The seams are overlaid with colorful feather-stitch embroidery.
The robe has a surplice neckline that fastens at the left breast with a large rayon frog and button; two additional frogs have no buttons and one is torn.
The robe is shaped slightly to the waist in back. It is fully lined with wine-red rayon satin which extends to form a border on both center front edges.
Additionally, the patchwork was made on top of either a full interlining or a pre-existing robe of navy blue with a printed white curlicue pattern (which is visible through several of the patches).
Dimensions
Comments
The dark green crepe patches are crumbling–one at PR hem at sides is nearly gone, and a flowered blue patch on PR sleeve is starting to shatter.
A slit in the sleeve cap of PR sleeves shows a glimpse of the inner robe.
Additional Notes
A significant number of of the fabrics used are rayon, which reinforces the 1930s date. A number of newspaper ads from the early-mid 1930s offer commercially made patchwork bathrobes, mostly aimed at teen and younger girls.
There are also ads offering pre-cut rayon pieces, and a few other articles suggesting that the reader could make such a robe herself using scraps left over from other projects.
One newspaper highlighted the Sumter, S.C. County Fair in 1934, where sewers could enter their new patchwork bathrobes to compete for a prize.