The dress is made with a separate bodice and skirt and features the large, right-angle bustle typical of the mid 1880s.

The dress was made by a competent but unskilled sewer using a pattern illustrated in the Butterick Pattern Catalogue printed in 1886. The catalogue survived in the O’Reilly family home (Point Ellis House) in Victoria, and although the dress was found in Chilliwack, it too may have come from the O’Reilly home.