I’m Bronwyn, and I’ve had a long interest in textile and clothing history. My Honours thesis was on 18th century British worsted textiles, and it involved researching original clothier’s sample books, and spinning and weaving some small reconstructions of fabric types that were lost and forgotten under the impact of the Industrial Revolution.

Although I’ve always enjoyed dressing up and attending events, over the years my interest has evolved and I’ve become increasingly fascinated by the textiles, construction and sewing techniques involved in historic clothing.

This website documents my research-based practice in constructing historic clothing using, as far as possible, historically-accurate techniques. For clothing from the pre-1850 period, prior to the widespread use of sewing machines, this involves using hand-stitching techniques, some of which are quite different to machine-stitching. It’s been an interesting journey, researching these and putting them into practice, and I still have more to learn.

I’m interested in all eras, but currently mostly confine my creating to the general span of the 1780s to the 1920s, with the occasional foray into the 1940s and 1950s.

Since June, 2018 I have volunteered at the local Folk Museum, leading a small team documenting the museum’s clothing collection. In addition to my completed projects, I plan to blog about some of the items in the collection, particularly those which I’d love to recreate. I’m also interested in the making of clothing in rural Australia in the colonial era, and the women who stitched for long hours to create garments.

I’m currently undertaking a Master of History degree with a major in public history/applying history, and about to embark on the major research topic unit in 2024 with the project title: Remaking as embodied research practice: a comparison of two approaches to remaking an 1884 dress.