My PhD project – Stitching History

I haven’t updated the blog for a while as 2024 and 2025 were years of major change for me. In June, 2024, I received the fantastic news that I’d been awarded a PhD scholarship at the Australian Catholic University in collaboration with industry partner, Sovereign Hill Museums Association. It meant packing up my life in northern NSW and moving 1400km south to Ballarat in Victoria, selling one property, finding a rental for eight months while finding a house to buy, and eventually moving in to a new home in October 2025.

I officially started the PhD in January 2025 while juggling all of the moves. My research project is (currently) titled ‘Increasing the visibility of a key female trade at Sovereign Hill: Interpreting Ballarat’s Gold Rush dressmakers and demonstrating their skills.’ The project is multi-disciplinary and draws on methodologies of social and gender history, recreative practice, and museology.

Sovereign Hill is Australia’s largest and most successful open-air living museum, and the site also includes the Australian Centre for Rare Arts and Forgotten Trades, and the Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections. The living museum represents Ballarat in the first 10 years of the gold rush, from 1852-1862, when tens of thousands of gold-seekers from around the world flocked to the area in the hope of riches. Visitors can explore the Wadawarrung cultural precinct, representing the First Nations people of the area and the impact of colonial settlement; pan for gold as the early prospectors did; tour the gold mine that was established after the alluvial gold ran out; visit businesses along the re-created Main Road; see trades such as blacksmithing, printing, and wheel-wrights at work; and generally explore life as it was lived on the goldfields in the 1850s.

My PhD project brings together many of my interests, in social history, women’s lives in the past, dress history and construction, and museology, particularly in visitor engagement. I also have a personal connection to the history represented at Sovereign Hill, as my Clarke and Russell ancestors were gold miners at nearby Creswick. My great-great-grandmother, Rose Clarke, took in sewing when her husband James became an invalid, and as I hand-stitch items that were likely outsourced to needlewomen in their homes, I imagine her, stitching to earn enough to feed their small children. I am grateful for other sources of income, and electric light!

I have so far identified more than 60 named dressmakers in Ballarat in the period 1853-1862, and another 20+ milliners. It’s fascinating uncovering their stories. although I still have much more to research! I am also working on creating a handling collection of clothing items, using the techniques of the time, and will be developing some patterns for Sovereign Hill volunteers to stitch as part of their impressions if they wish. I have made baby shirts based on the Workwoman’s Guide of 1838 and extant items from the Armidale Folk Museum, and am finishing a cap, based on a pattern from La Mode Illustrée from 1861. I will soon start hand-sewing a dress, based on items in Sovereign Hill’s Centre for Gold Rush Collections. My research has shown that sewing machines probably did not arrive in Ballarat until late 1860, so everything made on the goldfields before then was hand-stitched. I have a lot of stitching to do this year!

An important aspect of the project is researching within the collection of Sovereign Hill’s Centre for Gold Rush Collections. They have an amazing collection of over 150,000 items, including clothing and textiles. I’ve already examined several of the dresses in the collection dating to the 1850s-1860s. including the blue and brown dresses in the image below. As part of my research project, I will be re-creating a dress based on one of the dresses in the collection, using the original techniques.

Images shows three nineteenth century dresses displayed on mannequins, against a backdrop of historic items including framed photographs, a large clock, and furniture. The first dress is a brown-gold in colour, and is 1950s style with a wide pleated bodice over the shoulders that is drawn in to be tightly gathered at the waist. The skirt is full and is displayed over full petticoats or crinoline. The second dress is bright yellow silk, an evening dress in the style of the early 1880s,with a pleated and draped skirt and brown trimmings. The third dress is in the background and is dark blue, in the style ofthe 1850s with a close-fitting bodice, full skirt, and wide sleeves with lace undersleees. — Image courtesy Sovereign Hill, Centre for Gold Rush Collections.

On a much smaller scale, below is my first attempt at making an infant’s shirt, based on instructions from The Workwoman’s Guide of 1838, and extant examples in the Armidale Folk Museum, where I worked before moving south. The instructions are very basic, and I did not allow for the hems on the centre front, so they don’t meet – but re-creative practice is all about learning, and my next shirt is better! I’ll post more details about making these shirts sometime soon.

A fine white cotton shirt, with front and back flaps and small sleeves edged in crocheted lace.

My university colleagues and the Sovereign Hill staff have been incredibly welcoming and supportive. All in all, it’s been a fantastic research opportunity so far, and I’m looking forward to the next two years, and bringing it all together.