Coat, teal wool with cordwork, 1910-1915, interior view

1910-1915. Teal coat, three-quarter length, with machine-sewn cordwork scrolls and meanders, shawl collar, and single button. The coat is made in seven pieces running the full length of the garment: two front panels, two side-front panels, two side-back panels, and one center-back panel. The front panels are narrow, not reaching the scyes. Each side-front and side-back panel has a curved strip that encircles the scye, filling out the necessary width of the garment, and meets at the shoulder seam. The back panel is cut to fit the width of the front panels at the shoulder seam. The princess line shaping of the panels, which narrow to the waist and flare over the hips, creates a silhouette close to the body. The coat has a shawl collar which extends just past the waist to the single large silver button that closes the garment. The front panels are slightly cut away beneath the button. The sleeves are full length, with a curved two-seam construction. They have fullness at the top of the arm and narrow to the cuff. There is a slight gather at the scye. The coat is heavily embellished with machine-sewn cordwork done after the garment was constructed; cords run across seams. Most of this decoration is in the skirts of the coat, where cord outlines both pointed and rounded arches filled with meanders, which surround arabesques made with continuous lengths of cord. Cord meanders also flow up over the shoulders at the seams between the side panels and the fronts and backs, defines the collar, and finishes the cuffs. It is also used to edge the collar and all the hems, and even forms the loop for the button. Where the design requires another section of cord, the raw end is pushed through the fabric to the interior. The silk of a lavender lining has shattered and fallen almost entirely away. Machine-sewn and hand-sewn.https://scholars.unh.edu/bowen_collection/1772/thumbnail.jp