Colonial Williamsburg Costume Design Center Visit

I had the wonderful opportunity, this past Friday, to tour the Colonial Williamsburg Costume Design Center and thought you'd like to visit along with me. We were able to see finished garments, garments in progress and speak to the talented crafts people that create these costumes. They provided us with a little fact sheet and I'll be quoting from that for some fats. First, there are only 10-13 people staffing the operations unit of the design center at this time, due to cutbacks, and they are responsible for dressing over "600 staff members for 1122 different positions"....mind blowing!!! There are additionaI employees in the laundry, issuance, accessories, research and development and inventory departments. I was very impressed with the obvious enthusiasm these sewers/tailors have for their art...and I was happy to see some younger costumers working there.

Upon entry,we immediately noticed a laundry counter and rotating racks like you'd see in a commercial laundry. The Laundry Counter provides dry cleaning and laundry services for the costumes and inspects/repairs articles daily.

 Then there is an Issuance Dpeartment that  "keeps track both physically and electronically of an inventory of 59,746 costume items". Wow!!!

As we wound our way through the building, we were able to get 'up close and personal' with some costumes and were allowed to touch and ask questions about their process and construction.  This first photo is of George Washington's outfit..one complete and one on the cutting table. 

The wools are from England and luscious!!!

Close up of cuffs

The buttonholes are hand sewn with metallic thread, the pile of brown buttons were all hand wrapped with thread and there were some dorset buttons in upper right corner

 

 

A dress in progress for Martha Washington.  Most of the underskirt is done on machine (they can't keep up otherwise) but the outside layers were hand stitched.

I'm pretty sure I remember them saying the dress was based on an original of Martha's

This delicate silver dress (above) had unique ruffling around the neck and sleeves. It is accomplished with a pinking iron. They would take the metal semi circular metal tools (shown above) and hammer with a mallet...up to five times each punch..to create the lovely scalloped edge. The lady who worked with these said it was 'migraine inducing' when these punches were in use!!!

These "flies" were hand tied on some pre-made trim

An elegant pair

For the common man/woman

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, some undergarments....not sure I'd want to be wearing these, but they are lovely.

It's a shame this was hidden underneath....

Some embroidery techniques.....

Silk ribbon embroidery

 

Some machine tambour work

Hand tambour work

The Accessory Department.....lots of shoes and tricorn hats but I forgot to take a photo of them

Necklaces

Men's wallet

Upstairs was their Inventory Department....lots of fabric, thread, buttons, etc.. Sorry, my phone ran out of juice after this photo! :(

 There was also a Yard Sale going on where the public could purchase retired costumes, shoes, etc. That was extremely popular and had very long lines!!! I hope you enjoyed coming along with me on this adventure; it is an annual event and I'm planning on returning next year.

On to some stitching...I did have a finish this week....Pumpkins for Sale by Sally Rutka. This was the second kit Sally designed for Salty Yarn's Jamboree. It will be a quick FFO since it gets finished on top of a small, provided tin. Stitched over one on 32 ct. Pampas linen with called for threads. I did substitute red for the wagon.

 
Thanks for stopping by and your"twisted threads" of friendship!

Stasi