The Humble Housedress

Many of the residents in the nursing home where I visited wore hospital-style gowns. It was the 70s afterall and many of the improvements that would come through nursing home reform had not yet occurred.

That being said, there was one wing of the nursing home where most residents dressed in casual clothing, if they were feeling well enough. This is the wing where Mrs. Rose lived.

Mrs. Rose almost always wore a house dress or a house coat.  Those wonderful loose-fitting and washable dresses that women wore as domestic "uniforms" in the mid 20th century.



Though I don't know the girl or the old woman in the picture below, the image reminds me of myself and my own grandmother, Nanny...

And the dress she is wearing reminds me of the house dresses that both Mrs. Rose and my grandmother wore.

They also wore housecoats which were very similar.   I remember Nanny might throw her house coat on over her slip if someone were to come to the door...

House dresses were simply-made and easy to get in and out of...and they allowed my grandmother freedom from the girdles, brasierres, slips and garters that kept her under wraps while in public.  

Someone must still be wearing them since K-mart has a huge selection online, referring to them as "dusters".  For me, the modern version of the "house dress" might be yoga pants and a t-shirt.

I found an old house dress pattern online and someone had actually scanned the back of the pattern envelope so I was able to use that as a template...

I struggled to find a fabric in the period style with a print that was small enough in scale to translate well to a miniature reproduction. After much trial and error, I found a small fat-quarter bundle of 50s prints that I'd bought from the quilt store years ago...Honestly, I am grateful every day for my stash.

I picked out the color and print I thought would work the best and attempted to age the fabric through aggressive washing and abrading the fabric across my nutmeg grater.  I also hung it out in the bright sunlight for a couple of days, hoping that might fade it further.  I'm not sure it worked but it seemed an old-fashioned thing to do and I think Mrs. Rose would have approved...



I changed the magnification of the "pattern" on my printer until it was the right size and used it to cut and sew my pattern pieces...



I ended up sewing one full side of the dress and modified the second side knowing that it would rest against the ground fabric.



Mrs. Rose was grateful to be getting dressed...



Delighted with the color of the dress since it matches her eyes...



And here is how she looks propped on the edge of her seat, eager to receive visitors...



And very grateful to be dressed in her comfortable, cozy house dress from home.