1780s Dress Restoration
One of my projects with the DeYoung Museum of San Francisco was to help with the restoration of a 1780 Dress that someone had hacked the sleeves off of. I guess when shopping for a dress that is over 200 years old you expect there to be some damage. I first traced the embroidery pattern onto another piece of paper. Then I made a sleeve pattern and traced it onto muslin so that I could embroider only what was needed. The muslin was then painted to match the water marks and aging of the original muslin dress. After spending considerable time doing the crewel embroidery, I then gleefully took a sweater shaver and shaved part of the embroidery off to match the wear and moth damage of the dress. Someone else then made the sleeves and basted them onto the dress for exhibition at the Legion of Honor.