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Margaret cleaned the underarms in eight sections: back bodice, back sleeve, front bodice, and front sleeve, both right and left. After removing the dress shields, she used an agarose gel soaked in pH-adjusted water, cyclododecane to create a liquid barrier, distilled water to rinse, a suction platen to further control moisture, and blotters to reduce the visual appearance of the stains.
To address the losses throughout the silk, she created a lining made of an adhesive-coated, undyed silk crepeline, activated with acetone, for the bodice, sleeves, and small section of the skirt. She used a sparing amount of hairsilk stitches to hold the breaks in place.
Before the dress is returned to Drexel, Margaret created a storage mount and dressed the gown on a custom mannequin for final photography. Meanwhile, she looks forward to a fascinating career working with and preserving historical dress.
A printable PDF version of this story is available at this link. Previous stories on projects from the Department of Art Conservation are archived on our website.