Victorian Cuffs

Have you ever wondered what Victorian cuffs were really like? These men's and ladies cuffs are
an interesting study.

Gentleman's' cuff - back.

I don't know if it was common practice for cuffs to come in sets of three so you would always have a spare, but my cuffs certainly did.  

Gentleman's cuffs - front.   The pressed pattern is quite visible in this photo. All three cuffs have the same two stripes pressed into them, evenly spaced from top and bottom.

It's not that clear in the photos however one cuff is whiter then the others. Perhaps it didn't see as much wear or perhaps it was cleaned.

The edges have been bound with self fabric bias strips. 

The buttons are held in place with these little thingamabobs which probably have a proper name but I can't think of it right now. You can see the stitching is tiny and done by machine.

Here's a close up on the button hole, its not stitched perfectly but you can see there are even tinier re-enforcing stitches around the buttonhole.

Detail of the pressed pattern on the reverse of the cuffs, you can see the bias binding stitching is not perfect. (us perfectionists like to know these things)

The ladies cuffs are constructed in a similar fashion however have some definite differences.

Lace at the corners for starters. The lace appears to have been hand stitched with precise little stitches.

Ladies cuff - front.

The lace is machine stitched in place. You can see around the edges of the cuff where the fabric has been trimmed away after the purfylling (embellishing) has been completed.

How do you think that little cut got into the corner? Trimming the threads, trimming the excess fabric, or later by something else entirely? I guess we'll never know.

Ladies cuff - back.

The ladies cuffs have the seams folded and stitched down without any bias binding.

The corners are neatly trimmed and the button holes simply cut through without edging.

The ladies cuffs also came in sets of three based on the two different lace patterns for these six cuffs.

All nine cuffs are surprisingly thin, fine and stiff. They appear to be made of linen, but I'm no expert. It seems to me there is a stiffening layer sandwiched between the outer-layers and all glued together so they behave as a single layer.

I don't think they would have been terribly comfortable, but I imagine they always looked great!