Kickstarter – Dragonrose Historical Patterns

This is finally happening!

Julie (or should I link here?) and I have been tossing around these plans for starting a line of historical patterns for a long time. I’m not quite sure how long. I’ve been merrily taking pattern after pattern for a couple of years so that once the infrastructure is in place, we can start putting them into the computer program and working on the grading, making test samples, etc. But first we need the computer program and associated modules, hence the Kickstarter.

Our first pattern, which we’re making available for pre-order as the basis for the Kickstarter, is for the 1867 pink evening gown by Emile Pingat in the collection of the Albany Institute of History and Art.

Evening dress, Pingat, ca. 1867; AIHA 1972.95.2

Julie actually made the first version of the pattern and took it to the Costume Society of America conference in Cleveland this year, where it won the CSA Designer Showcase. (I’m going to be making my own soon as well.)

Dragonrose Historical Patterns will produce patterns that are custom-sized to your measurements, rather than only standard sizes made to fit idealized bodies. (It’s the program module for this function that the Kickstarter is funding.) This will be a huge time-, energy-, and frustration-saver for those sewing at home.

So far, we are only working on this specific pattern. However! I will cautiously make no promises about which specific patterns will come later, but I can tell you that I have in my binder:

• an early 1910s shirtwaist
• a simple white linen dress of the same period
• the gown I wore to Julie’s Hallowedding (ca. 1872)
• a slightly later bustle gown with a cuirass bodice, ca. 1875
• an envelope chemise from the 1910s or 1920s
• an unboned Double Vee corset waist, 1890s
• a mid-1840s fan-front silk dress
• and that’s not including the many interesting garments I know of in various museums but haven’t had the time to pattern yet!