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Part of a mourning dress worn in 1917 by Mrs John Rowlands of Thomas Street, Abertridwr, after the death of her mother, Mrs Margaret Morris. Made by David Evans & Co, Queen Street, Cardiff.

Black silk mourning dress (bodice and skirt) trimmed with black lace and braid.

Made from black silk with an inner petticoat of black cotton tabby fabric. Outer skirt made from seven pieces of silk, machine stitched with raw seams (some of the seam allowances are selvages). Two additional small triangular panels inserted at hem on either side of centre-back seam. Previous stitch holes (machine-made) above (and running parallel to) the pleat on the back of the skirt. Fastened with nine metal hooks. The corresponding eyes attached to waistband are metal wrapped with black thread, whereas the remaining seven eyes, down the length of the slit, are stitched loops. When done up, the waist is 53cm in circumference. In addition, there are three further thread-covered metal eyes on the waistband: on the outside, on either side of the centre-back opening at a distance of 3.5 and 4cm apart. These eyes point upwards, suggesting that an upper garment is meant to fasten onto the eyes (however, there is no evidence of corresponding hooks at the lower back of the bodice). The waistband is a 4cm wide weft-faced, imbalanced tabby woven tape which is folded in half, encapsulating the upper edge of outer silk and petticoat; the tape is brown (possibly formerly black). A c. 4cm wide facing of plain black silk has been set into the slit to cover the gap. The hooks below the waistband have an inner facing of black twill tape (width = 1.4cm). There is a 3-3.5cm deep vertical pleat on either side of the centre-back slit which is stitched in place from the upper edge down to 12cm below the waist. A series of 12cm long narrow darts (total of 54) help to narrow the skirt down towards the waist. These darts continue all the way around the skirt, apart from one flat section at the centre-front (the width of one of the silk panels making up the skirt). There is a stitched cross in white thread on the waistband. There are two lengths of black twill tape attached to either side of the inner waist, for hanging up the skirt (same tape as the one used for facing behind hooks).

Down the left edge of the flat panel of silk at thecentre-front are nine applied decorations which are meant to look like buttons. They are constructed of coiled and plaited black silk double-cord, which is laid onto the surface of the silk and held in place with small tacking stitches. Those 'buttons' only extend down to the horizontal pleat on the lower part of the skirt. Below the pleat, the skirt is decorated with two bands of cord laid out in an undulating pattern. The upper band is 2.5cm and the lower band is 3.5cm wide. The ends of the silk cord are drawn through to the reverse of the silk fabric and are stitched in place.

Petticoat is constructed from seven pieces of fabric joined with machine stitched flat-felled seams.