Paper short abstract:

This paper researches how reconstruction of clothing can be a method of preserving the knowledge of historic sewing and tailoring techniques. Exploring documentation of the research with photography, written descriptions and video to get a representation of how they ones were crafted.

Paper long abstract:

Reconstruction of historic garments has not previously taken a very big place in academia, but the last few years have seen a change with more scholars focusing their research on historical objects and research through reconstruction.

This paper focuses on how reconstruction of two late eighteenth century dresses can be a way of preserving the craft knowledge of the tailors who ones made the extant. The first extant garment was a dress consisting of a separate jacket and petticoat made of wool. The second a dress consisting of a bodice and skirt made of silk. The different materials and original usages of the dresses show different approaches to how they were made. The wool dress has courser linings and linen threads for most of the construction, whilst the silk dress has more delicate linings and trimmings and is almost completely sewn with silk thread.

Both the reconstructions were done with the techniques used over 200 years ago on the extants, trying to get as close as possible to the original constructions. This was documented in three ways; a thorough written documentation on each step and in which order to sew for all the garment pieces, the petticoat and skirt was further documented with photography and the jacket and bodice construction was documented via video. The research has shown different methods for documenting reconstructions. Which technique best fitted depends on the final use of the documentation as they show different sides of the reconstruction.