IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR RAISING AND SUPPORTING LADIES' DRESSES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jeannette Fleurman at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th April 1881.
JEANNETTE FLEURMAN, of Dorset Street, Portman Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Milliner. "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR RAISING AND SUPPORTING
LADIES' DRESSES."
My Invention relates to improved means whereby the skirt of a lady's dress may
be raised and lowered with the utmost facility, and whereby it will be supported
when so raised in graceful folds or puffs, the skirt being drawn together at the back
in such a way as to present an elegantly draped appearance. The means employed
are susceptible of modification, according to the style of dress to which the same are
applied.
As applied to a long dress, or one with a train, the Invention consists in an
arrangemont of cords running through loops and attachments on the skirt at the
rear, and towards either side of the same, and through guide loops on a waist belt
or cord, the said cords being so arranged that by pulling either one of them the
skirt is raised symmetrically.
The ends of the waist belt or cord are fastened at front by a button and loop or
other means of attachment, and it is provided at the back with loops or guide eyes
formed by looping and knotting the cord, or attached to the cord or belt in any
suitable manner. There are preferably three of such guide loops or eyes, one at
the centre of the back, and one at each side of the first. Through these loops run
a pair of cords arranged as follows:-The ends of the cords are attached to buttons
or knobs which cannot pass through the loops on the belt, and form stops, and by
pulling which the cords may be drawn up. Both cords are attached at one end to
the one button, the right hand one for instance, and the two cords pass together
through the right hand and centre loops on the belt. The cords then pass through
loops, eyes, or rings on the skirt at the back near the centre, and then diverge in
opposite directions and pass through other loops, eyes, or rings towards either side,
returning through the same loops, eyes, or rings to the centre loop on the belt,
and thence through the left hand loop to the opposite button to which the other
ends of the two cords are attached. Thus the two ends of the cords are attached to
the same two buttons, and the doubled cords run, the one to the right, and the

page_text: other to the left half of the skirt, so that when either button is pulled, both cords
are drawn up, and both sides of the skirt are equally raised.
To enable the cords to be readily applied to a dress, the bight or doubled part of
each cord runs through an eye in a small metal or other cross bar, button, or other
device capable of being passed through the loops, eyes, or rings on the skirt, and of
being readily connected to one of them, or detached, the cords being permanently
rove through their respective cross bars or other devices.
For a half train dress, the cord encircling the waist is made in two parts of
unequal length, their one ends being fastened together at the front as before. The
other end of the shorter part has a loop through which the other and longer part
is passed. To the end of this longer part are attached the ends of one or a pair of
doubled cords, which is or are led through a series or row of loops, eyes, or rings on
the skirt, the bight or doubled part of each cord being rove through a cross bar or
other means of attachment as before. The longer portion of the waist cord is
provided with a suitable loop and knot-forming a stop, and the raising of the skirt
is effected by pulling on the loop of this part of the waist cord, and securing it to
the button at the front, thereby shortening this part of the waist cord and raising
the doubled cord or cords, the loops, eyes, or rings on the skirt being in this case
also so arranged that the skirt is drawn together at the back, and at same time
raised in graceful folds or puffs.