Summary

Hand-made organza flowers from a debutante dress worn by Elizabeth Euphemia Saunders circa 1949.

The flowers were originally stored in an old Kayser lingerie box (not retained) along with a pair of creamy white net fingerless gloves.

Elizabeth left school at 13 and worked for a milliner in the city. Her dress was made by a skilled local dressmaker, perhaps Nellie O'Hara, a close family friend who was a better dressmaker than her mother, who otherwise did the family sewing. Elizabeth saved the flowers from her dress and stored them in a cardboard box. She wore her dress to other formal occasions such as balls. Around 1955, when she no longer wore it, her mother took it to pieces and re-used the sheer skirt fabric to make two throws to cover food during service, protecting it from flies. The throws may have been used at the wedding breakfast of her brother James Farr and his wife Margaret (nee Witton) in 1955, which took place at their home in Port Melbourne.

Elizabeth herself hoped to marry, and gathered a glory box in a wooden trunk, made by a local man who also made the bathroom cupboards from recycled wooden radios. Her glory box contents included a decorated sewing basket, kitchen canisters and a washing up bowl. It is likely that she gathered more items, such as napery, a housecoat made by her mother (offcuts also saved) and aprons, which did not fit in the box. Although Elizabeth never married she kept the box and its contents intact.

Part of a collection of objects, documents and photographs from the Saunders family home in Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne. Elizabeth Jane Taylor Saunders (nee Elliott) (1894-1971) and James (Jimmy) Farr Saunders (1888-1974) bought the house in 1928, financed by the State Savings Bank of Victoria. James was a stevedore, working on the Melbourne docks, notably Station Pier, and was actively involved in the Port Phillip Stevedores Association and later the Waterside Workers' Federation. Elizabeth Jane was a skilled seamstress, making clothing for her family, mending, creating soft furnishings such as cushions and blankets, and doing decorative needlework. They had five children, of whom four survived to adulthood. After Elizabeth and James passed away their daughter Elizabeth Euphemia, a dental nurse and later language teacher, became the sole occupant of the house, carefully preserving its contents as decades passed. Her niece proposed the donation of the household contents to Museum Victoria, a rare and significant record of 20th century family life in Melbourne.

Physical Description

Nine hand-made white organza flowers with safety pin at reverse. These were originally housed in a Kayser lingerie box with a pair of fingerless net gloves.

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