What's YOUR Isabella Project? Making Replicas of Museum Favorites - with Sarah Walsh | CoCoVid 2020
Channel: Timesmith Dress History
Date: 2020-08-02

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Welcome to this CoCoVid talk! 

Have you ever come across a gown or ensemble held in a museum and felt you simply HAD to make it for yourself?

In some situations, you might be able to examine or even handle the garment(s) and learn about their construction.

But what do you do if you can't see the garment(s) up-close, or even visit the museum in which they are held?

How do you get started? Who do you ask for help? What questions do you need answered? 

Rebecca Olds and Sarah Walsh have both been in your shoes and are here to talk about what worked, and what didn't, when they tackled very different projects - Rebecca with leading a team to re-create the Isabella MacTavish Fraser wedding gown, Sarah Walsh in making her replica of the purple striped French gown owned by LACMA.

We'll share our strategies and tips, to help YOU turn your dream project into a reality. 

Our heartfelt thanks go to our friends in the historical communities who wholly heartedly supported and assisted us. Without them, these replica gowns would not have been made.

YOUR FRIENDS WILL HELP YOU MAKE YOUR DREAM PROJECT HAPPEN AND SUCCEED. 

SARAH’S GOWN PROJECT

The original 1785 purple and white striped gown is at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art:  https://collections.lacma.org/node/214644. 

Weaver: Vanntha Ngorn, a member of Colour Silk Cambodia (https://colorsilkcommunity.wixsite.com/colorsilk-cambodia)

REBECCA’S GOWN PROJECT

The original 1785 red hard tartan wedding gown of Isabella MacTavish Fraser is on long term display at the Inverness Museum & Art Gallery.

Historical contexts: https://youtu.be/SE1G6ckl9lo
Mini-documentary by American Duchess: https://youtu.be/43ZTV_YxlgI 
Pattern by American Duchess: https://www.americanduchess.com/collections/books-and-patterns/products/isabella-mactavish-fraser-pattern-pdf 
Weaver: Prickly Thistle Scotland Ltd (https://www.instagram.com/pricklytartan/)

PEOPLE, SOCIAL MEDIA, BOOKS MENTIONED: 

* Katherine Caron-Greig (https://www.instagram.com/koshka_sews/and https://www.koshka-the-cat.com)
* "The Dress Detective" by Alexandra Kim and Ingrid Mida (https://amzn.to/2EKBdy6)
* The '18th Century Sewing' group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/18thcenturysewing/
* The '18th c sewing" group on Facebook (research based): https://www.facebook.com/groups/618389418346204/

ABOUT US: 

REBECCA OLDS  @timesmithdressmaking on Instagram

Rebecca is an historical dressmaker and independent practice-based researcher specialising in the study of women’s garments, underpinnings and millinery in England and Scotland from approximately 1690-1790. She applies her research and tests her understanding of period construction techniques through re-creation or re-construction of extant objects held in public and private collections. She is currently researching non-elite women’s dress in Scotland during the eighteenth century. 

Rebecca started this YouTube channel in the run-up to the Isabella re-creation demonstration at the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh, back in June 2019, and is now using this platform to share more of her research and reconstruction projects. (Further profile and contact details are below.) 


SARAH WALSH  @founding.mother on Instagram

Sarah is a school librarian by profession and has been sewing for about 25 years. She learned how to sew on her mother's ancient Singer Featherweight and has done a great deal of costuming and modern clothing construction by machine from commercial patterns. In 2016, after playing Abigail Adams in the musical “1776,” she had the opportunity to begin portraying Abigail in living history re-enactments. At that point, she narrowed her focus and started learning historical dressmaking techniques, including draping and millinery, with the goal of creating a full wardrobe suitable to the different stages in Abigail's rather extraordinary life. 

Sarah's work in living history can be followed on Instagram as @founding.mother and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FoundingMother/. 

She is also a co-founder of the virtual educational program "Living History Live" (https://www.facebook.com/livinghistorylive/), launched during COVID-19 school closures in 2020, which aims to bring living history to the classroom and beyond. 

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Human-made subtitles by Lynn Intini, added 28th August 2020. ❤️

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MUSIC:  Mozart - Rondo alla Turca (from Motion Array)

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ABOUT TIMESMITH DRESSMAKING: 

I am Rebecca Olds, an independent scholar in the field of Dress History, specialising in original practice reconstruction of extant garments of the eighteenth century.  

Maker | Teacher | Researcher | Consultant 
https://www.timesmith.co.uk 
Business enquiries:  rebecca@timesmith.co.uk 

Copyright Rebecca Olds 2020