Period Patterning: 1850s-60s, and a press release!

1850s and 60s were due this week, so i have some great images of period pattern projects from those decades. A reader commented on a previous period patterning post, asking why often they are only half-forms for these projects. I'll paste my answer here, just for the record:

All of the students have the option to make the entire dress (and, they often do for asymmetrical designs, or sometimes particular styles in which they want to do the whole thing for whatever reason), but we only require half the gown; there are several reasons for the common half-form choice.

The main one being cost and time, in terms of the graduate students' responsibilities. Grad students don't have a lot of disposable income, usually, and especially in some of these periods where dresses are so voluminous, being able to purchase half as much yardage (or to choose silk taffeta over acetate because you don't need as much) is a huge incentive to do the half form.

And, time's always precious, so doing half saves a certain amount of time as well. Our students come in to the program usually with a great deal of sewing experience behind them, and are well-versed in skills like installing closures and hand-finishing of complete garments--these projects are exercises in pattern development from draping, drafting, and experimentation.

You have the crux of it when you say "great for practice," though. Many students love the freedom of the half-form, work for work's sake. They say they enjoy the lack of expectation of a finished piece, in that it inspires them to take more risks with draping, patterning, and experimentation.

They keep their work--some of them have brought the half-forms to interviews along with portfolios as a tangible example of their work (which, is rare to have when all of your actualized projects are the properties of theatres' costume collections, not your own).

( Without further ado, click for two pix! )

And, my article, cowritten with Dixon Reynolds of SUNY-Fredonia, is out in this month's edition of Sightlines, on the Creature Creation Costume Symposium held at Ohio University back in August. Of course, y'all all read about it "behind the scenes" here back when it happened, but the article's worth a look, too, for a more formally-articulated perspective.