I think my favourite project of the three years was during our second year where we took part in a collaboration with Castle Howard, a stately home in Yorkshire near where we were studying in Scarborough. We all got to visit the house and choose a portrait that hung in one of the magnificent rooms which we would then recreate the clothing from as accurately as possible.
Myself and my friend Rosie chose this painting of two sisters of the Howard family. We both loved this era and the beautiful crinoline dresses. I chose to make the dress on the left. I was drawn to the crazy sleeves at the hot pink trims.
Once we had picked our portrait and took lots of photos we spent time really studying it. I researched the lady and her family, what life would have been like for a lady of her social class and the clothes of the time. Her name was Katharine Louisa Russell, Viscountess Amberley, the sister of Rosiland who married George Howard to become Countess of Carlisle. She lived from 3 April 1842 – 28 June 1874. Both sisters were heavily involved in women's rights and Katharine was a suffragist who advocated birth control. She was also the mother of philosopher Bertrand Russell.
I looked at the outfit and broke it down thinking about how it would be constructed. Once I had thought about the design I started creating the patterns on the stand. I really enjoy this process. I started with the corset and then the bodice using Jean Hunnisett's book " The cut of women's clothes". I also used this as reference for making the sleeve pattern, chemise and insert. The skirt was made using 3 widths of silk mounted on cotton and was pleated up on the mannequin and the hem shaped on the model. The petticoat was made from grey cotton with a frill at the hem.
The corset was constructed first from white coutil. Also a simple white cotton chemise with lace edging. I was expecting the crinoline to be a challenge but it actually wasn't that bad. Getting the steel through the channels was a bit tricky though! I used "corsets and crinolines" by Norah Waugh for the pattern.
I picked a beautiful pale grey blue silk taffeta from James Hare silks for my dress which turned out to be a really good match to the painting, and a hot pink for the trim. The skirt was made separate from the bodice and attached with hooks and eyes at the waist. I won't go in to too much more detail on construction but I was really pleased with the finished dress. I had throughly enjoyed the whole project and felt it was an accurate representation of the portrait.
Once finished we were able to take the dresses to Castle Howard where they were put on display with the portraits over the summer for the public to see. We were also able to do a photo shoot there which was the perfect back drop for the dresses. Below are some photos of the finished dress.
