Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2013 - 48

Crow recommends using silk or insect specimen pins when
pinning through antique textiles because they are very thin and
do not leave holes in the fabric.
Broken seams and holes were commonplace on many of
the dresses. Seams were mended by hand using undyed thread.
For garments with small holes, Crow's team used human hair or
fine threads taken from silk organdy fabric to carefully weave
over the holes. For larger holes, a patch of silk organdy was
placed behind the hole and carefully stitched into place.
In addition to the garments, several pieces of jewelry
needed to be repaired for display. Belgian costume designer
Rita Geerts served as a jewelry artisan on the project, repairing
and restoring many pieces for the show.
A small handful of the garments needed major repair
work. One such garment was a show-stopping cream colored,
paper satin silk wedding gown from 1869. The gown was in
good condition except for the decorative tulle panel on the
front of the skirt and on the sleeves. The tulle needed to be
completely replaced. Graduate student Fan Zhang took on this
complicated task to restore the gown to its original beauty. She
did this by taking a long rectangular piece of white silk tulle and
gathering it at the waist before painstakingly stitching it onto the
front panel of the large skirt. The skirt had decorative rows of

Carving a dress form to fit the
measurements of Victorian
waistlines.

Once carved, the dress forms were
vacuumed and sealed with two coats of
white glue. The sealed dress forms were
then padded with polyester batting, and
the black jersey covers were replaced.
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theatre design

& technology

s u m m e r 2013

horizontal silk piping that needed to be accurately stitched on
top of the tulle. The sleeves had a similar treatment. The result
was beautiful and well worth Zhang's effort. Not only was the
gown prominently featured in the wedding dress section of the
exhibit, but it graced the cover of the exhibition catalog as well.

MOUNTING THE GARMENTS
Crow and project director Anna Knuttel worked together to get
some grant money to buy special dress forms for the exhibit.
Twenty-five foam dress forms with removable black jersey covers were purchased from Roxy Display. Finding foam mannequins that could be modified by carving the foam was crucial
since the majority of the antique dresses in the exhibit had tiny
waistlines that were much smaller than the smallest dress form.
"It was intimidating at first to carve these dress forms," Crow
said, "but it was a necessity since today's modern silhouette is so
different from those in the collection." Costume design student
Angela Armijo carved many of the dress forms for the exhibit. "I
started by measuring the dress, specifically the neck, bust, waist,
and hips since those areas usually needed to be shaved down
the most," Armijo explained. "Many of the mid-century dresses
had sleeves that prevented the arms from moving up past the
shoulder line. For those dresses, I carved the shoulders until
they were rounded."
Armijo's carving process started by removing the dress
forms' black jersey covers and then using a large, serrated
knife to carve the foam to the dimensions needed for each
dress. Once carved, the dress forms were vacuumed and sealed
with two coats of white glue. The sealed dress forms were then
padded with polyester batting, and the black jersey covers were
replaced. Carving the dress forms was not an exact science,
and it was difficult to achieve a perfectly sculpted form. Fortunately, the polyester batting could be used to further refine a
mannequin's shape while its dress was being mounted.
It was important to have a dedicated workspace for carving the foam that was far enough removed from the garment
storage area to prevent the dust created in the carving process
from getting on the garments. Dust masks were worn by the
workers in this area to protect themselves from the dust as
well. The important final step was protecting the garments from
any gases given off by the foam. This was the purpose of sealing
the dress forms with glue after carving them and covering them
with a layer of polyester batting.
The final modification involved placing a bodice on each
dress form and fitting the dress form to it. Padding was added
underneath the jersey cover until any loose space between the
bodice and the dress form was filled. Crow explained, "The
bodice really tells you how it wants to be shaped. [We added]
enough fiberfill under the garment to create a firm shape,
being careful not to strain the seams too much. Particularly
for the bust line area, always make sure that it fits where the
bust sits and where the bust darts release." The bodice was
then removed and set aside so that work could be done on
the skirt's understructure.

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