Sitting here in my studio listening to the History web site regarding the civil war it inspires me to learn more on this era and what agendas where set into play during that time. As an artist I look at the styles and tools that where used in this era.  Dress and the material and how it was sewn together plays a part in my mind.  Currently I am looking at purchasing two books on this type of clothing.  On Dover publications:  Victorian Women’s Fashion Photos  and Historic English Clothing , Civil War Era Fashion although these only briefly touch on this particular interest I think this would provide some fuel to the fire so to speak! I have sewn 2 different costumes for my 15-year old daughter one in the form of a cape from the 1800s and another in the form of a dress (victorian era) for her school play ,a Charles Dickens classic Scrooge that was modified to have her as the lead.   Why they had to modify it well that be the directors view, we thought she could have pulled it off as a guy but..... that is an issue for another day.

Just looking on the web today you can find loads of beautiful costumes that people have made!  Fantasy to re-enactments.  Harry Potter, Dumbledor, S Snipe, to Victorian splendor.  I would like to take some of the practices of costume design and produce something that is not dated and has no time associated with it.  To create something that can be warn in any time and added to the wardrobe without it being costume looking.

Now I don’t think that I am going to do this full time but I do want to practice taking one pattern and turn it in to something that can be usable.