Dress #122: Victorian day dress in purple mouse and cotton floss on cotton

and cotton floss on cotton paper

This darling little pinup dress is made from Korean Hanji paper in white and gold flowers on a bright turquoise background

while the sleeves are in a metallic Japanese paper in a purpled bronze shade

where this fibre was cultivated and processed

Dress #122: Victorian day dress in purple mouse and cotton floss on cottonThis hand stitched paper dress is based on a day dress from the early 1880s; the original was offered for sale by Augusta Auctions in 2022. The fabric was dyed with mauveine, one of the first synthetic dyes. Mauveine, also known as aniline purple and Perkin's mauve, was discovered accidentally by William Henry Perkins in 1856 in an attempt to synthesize quinine, which is used in the treatment of malaria. The dress is six inches tall, stitched by hand