The Hoover Trunk, Part 4: A child's dress?

 Just to think about something other than Christmas costumes for a few moments, I thought I would post another treasure from the Hoover Trunk.  I have a backlog of photos that I took a month or more ago and I'm forgetting things, lol.

This is what appears to be a child's dress that looks to have been in the process of being deconstructed when it was put into the trunk and no one came back to it.  It's a purplish-brown, and I'm going to guess that it's silk.

For reference, the table has a 56" circumference. I believe the dress was originally one piece, but the bodice has been separated from the skirt and trim has been removed from the skirt so I think it was going to be remade into something else but, like so many of my projects, it got stalled and apparently never completed.

You can see the raw edge of the waist line seam; I believe it had a gathered pigeon-front as the front is longer and wider than the front lining.

The side bodice and underarm look to me to have been pieced.  It could have been deliberate, but it doesn't really line up so I think this was making do with bits of fabric.  I wonder if it actual was  once a woman's dress, made over for a child.  It's very interesting; just after I photographed this  I came across Nicole Rudolph's video on shattered silk, and I suspect that's what I have here.  There are other pieces in the trunk that are more suspect, but as this has broken down in a few places  (Like the split visible above)  I am wondering if this was the case.

It closed with hooks and eyes; quite tedious for a young girl I'm sure!

It is completely underlined in cotton

The stand up collar is actually a separate piece, completely finished off and hand tacked to the neckline.

The other sleeve also is splitting; it could be just a lack of wearing ease.  Comparing the two picuters, the seams are not the same on either side, which also makes me believe the bodice was pieced from repurposed fabric.

The skirt is fully lined, with a placket entrance and a faced hem.

The lined waistband is opened at the top, presumably where the bodice was removed.

There is a band along the bottom that has seams that do not line up with the seams in the main body of the skirt.

The hem facing band.

You can clearly see the parallel stitching lines where some trim was removed; I'm guessing it likely matched the trim on the bodice.

It was a pretty somber dress for a little girl.  I wonder what it was supposed to have become in its next iteration?