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Creating Costumes for York Castle Museum – by Joanna Rowling and Nikita Lund, Costume Volunteers

This summer, our Costume Volunteers at York Castle Museum have been busy creating replica garments using historic patterns and authentic techniques. The finished costumes are worn by guides and volunteers on our Victorian street, Kirkgate. In this blog entry, volunteers Joanna Rowling and Nikita Lund share their experiences.

Nikita: I am a costume student from Cleveland College of Art and Design. In my role as a Costume Voluteer at York Castle Museum, I’ve made an 1890s blouse in blue with leg of mutton sleeves, standing collar, mother of pearl buttons, with pintucks and lace as embellishment.

The first thing I noticed when getting the pattern pieces was that the fabric was this lovely shade of light blue. When looking at photos from the 1890s, they are all in black and white, which gives that idea that the clothing was dull coloured. I was surprised to find that the clothing from this time was indeed very colourful. In the Victorian street and the collection at the York Castle Museum this colourful era is clearly demonstrated.

As modern vilene interfacing was not used in the 1890s, it was not used in the making of the blouse. With this in mind, I had to find another way to make the collar stand up straight. Upon doing research, I found by added bias binding to the seam this gave the collar the strength to stand up.

I did some research into the 1890s for ideas of embellishment before I started making the blouse by looking at photos from this era. I found that some of the lace on blouses were pleated, so I pleated the lace that went at the seam of the yoke. I added pintucks to the cuffs and the collar, which I found challenging as I needed to add in the extra fabric that was need for the pin tucks into the pattern. I did many samples before I got it right!

Click the images below to view in full.

Joanna: I am currently about to go into my 2nd year studying Costume Interpretation with Design at Cleveland College of Art and Design, and over the summer I began volunteering at York Castle Museum’s sewing group. This involved making 1890s blouses and skirts for the volunteers on the museum’s Victorian street to wear.

I found the blouses a lot of fun to make as each one is very individual and everyone seems to choose details and intricacies to make them different from each other. This included lots of of pintucks, lace trim and ribbon that gives each one some character.

Pintucks in particular I found the most fun because they can look so crisp, neat and delicate and were a common characteristic of many garments from the decade. Working on these garments has enhanced my skills – practising embellishment techniques, working from a pattern/finished garment, and working to a deadline.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience because it was good practise garment making. It’s also great knowing that the garments I have made will be worn frequently on Kirkgate by the museum’s volunteers.

The atmosphere of the sewing group was very welcoming and everyone was so friendly and willing to teach and learn from each other – I’d definitely encourage anyone who has an interest in sewing to volunteer!

Click here to find out more about becoming a volunteer at York Museums Trust.