First long dress

Monday 10^th (February)

I am still spared to see another day and oh! how thankful. I attended school but it was very muddy, however I rode down and had a very pleasant time. I am anticipating much pleasure to-morrow evening for I expect to go into the country with Mr B, Mr H, Libby, Cousin and Kate Spooner. I hope I shall have my composition commenced at any rate. This is my first long dress and how the girls at school did laugh at me to-day. I now must try to write some composition. Good Bye.

Kate Spooner is probably Catherine Smith Spooner, the wife of William Spooner. He is Serena’s cousin. According to the Spooner Memorial, he is the son of Reed Spooner and Serena’s aunt, Abigail Lewis (Spooner 152).

This may help explain Serena’s earlier bonnet problem. Serena seems to be making the transition from girlish clothing to adult dress. Bonnets are worn by women, while girls wear wide-brimmed straw hats. At about age sixteen, girls begin wearing full-length dresses, bonnets, corsets, and adult hairstyles. The dresses of younger girls are shorter, but well below the knee. Under these shorter dresses, the girls wear ruffled petticoats, pantalettes (trousers), and long stockings. Hoop skirts for women will not come into style until later in the 1850s. (Severa 107-109). Serena’s new dress was made by hand by a family member or a dressmaker. Isaac M. Singer patents his first home sewing machine this year, and they will become widely available in the next ten years (Severa 90). Men’s clothing is beginning to be made in factories by machine. (Cist’s Weekly Advertiser).