Workshop Review: Taking Patterns from Historical Garments

This workshop was hosted by Costume Society of America and it was held in Seattle, WA at the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art on Saturday, July 24th. The focus of this 6 hour workshop was to impart to us how to take patterns from extant garments without damaging the garment itself. The workshop leader, Shelley Foote, is a former costume historian with the Smithsonian’s Division of Social History — now retired. She’s also the president-elect for CSA. She had met Janet Arnold on one occassion and learned Janet’s method for taking patterns, which (as is the way with all things) she adapted to work for her own approach.

I took this course because I have a few Victorian pieces which I want to convert into patterns without damaging the original garment. I’ve been holding on to these pieces for some time, and the one for-study garment is quickly disintegrating and needs to be done something with before it’s too late. I also decided to fly up to Seattle for a day because I wanted the networking opportunities.

As expected, there were costuming enthusiasts of all types and levels at the course. Some were historians or curators, others theater, yet others were living history re-enactors, and some were “I just love to sew” enthusiasts. It’s always fun when the student body is mixed because then you get a wider scope in terms of approaches, ideas, and uses.

The actual instruction part was quite clear and took perhaps 30 minutes, including the fun anecdotes. Shelley handed out her notes and some examples. What I found particularly of value had more to do with general education usage, what the patternmaker needs to be aware of, and of course an idea of an approach that I think will work best for me.

I was downright giddy when I immediately began falling back on the stuff I’ve learned through my classwork at Santa Monica. (It’s always nice to have it pointed out that you haven’t been wasting your time or money!) Specically, pattern making and basic construction techniques. Looking at the sample garment I could use for the workshop, I first off created a pattern card. That was not in the instructions but on this I can note all the materials used for each layer, seam types, etc. This also helped to guide me so that I didn’t accidentally leave out any pieces. That was not in the instructions, but came from the pattern making classes. Next up was the identification of the seams and types of stitches used. Again, directly from the classes but heavily supplimented with all the embellishment stuff I’ve been looking over for the past year or two. I was able to identify that the smocking used on the front was American Smocking, as opposed to English Smocking, and then could actually explain the differences to the lady I was working with as well as gave a brief overview of why I thought that. I was happy with my geeking out moment there. heh.

In short, I walked out of that class not so much armed with how Janet Arnold did her work, but it completely re-affirmed that being educated in terms of pattern making needs as well construction methods is invaluable. It also helped point out holes in where I’m still weak: knowing more about when various methods and manners of constructoin and drafting were vogue and/or invented.

I also walked out with a new idea on how I was going to approach the patterning process in a manner that compliments the way I think and problem solve.

All in all, an excellent workshop for a variety of reasons!