Sewing and Stuff

 

My classmates and I have been starting to work on our project for Arva Flour Mill. We have decided that we are going to create an interactive timeline. We looked at materials from the mill at Western's archives last week and we are going to visit the mill itself tomorrow.

In my spare time, I have been learning how to sew 18th and early 19th century clothing, mostly with youtube videos and other online sources. I really enjoy researching fashion from this period. I have already completed several projects, two neckerchiefs, a petticoat (worn as an outer skirt in this period) and a bedgown. I also have several projects in progress. Right now I am making a second bedgown out of linen. I found a linen dress at a thrift store a while ago, which had some bleach stains/fading at the shoulder, so I didn't feel bad about cutting it up. I have finished a large part of the bedgown at this point.

Here is an image of the dress from ebay, I didn't take a picture before I cut it up but this is it.


Pictures of the completed bedgown, the bedgown I am currently working on (made from the material from the dress above), and the petticoat I made previously

I want to make an early 19th century style petticoat (skirt) to go with the early 19th century style shortgown I made, but I am running into some difficulty finding information about how to construct one. Unfortunately, I am not sure that there are any surviving examples of exactly what I am looking for. There are a couple of underpetticoats surviving from the period and there are a few skirts that are part of ensembles with separate fitted bodices, but I can't really be sure whether they would have been constructed in exactly the same way. I will probably end up using them as guidelines, but I have gotten sidetracked by indecision about the important question of how wide a hem circumfrence I need, which determines which piece of fabric I can use.



Comments

  1. erincFebruary 6, 2026 at 5:08 PM

    Hey Helen, it's so nice to hear that you have time to persue your interests outside of your program. I hope the garments turn out well and improve your knowledge!

    ReplyDelete
  2. History Unleashed with Grace and DixieFebruary 10, 2026 at 5:07 PM

    I love that you have enough passion for this that you've actually created something. That's amazing! Nothing like hands on experience to really understand something.

    ReplyDelete

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