History Inspires Creativity
Hannah Harvey of the Manitowoc County Historical Society, left, holds the 19th-century girls’ dress that inspired Lisa Alfsen of Newton to make a doll-sized replica.
A piece of history, in the form of a girls’ dress, lit a fire under Lisa Alfsen of Newton.
“As soon as I saw that dress, I knew I had to reproduce it,” she said.
Made sometime between 1860 and 1870, the dress was shown recently at the Manitowoc County Historical Society’s Community Craft Night.
“Each month we bring out something from our archives to inspire the participants,” said Hannah Harvey, the Society’s living history program coordinator.
On this particular night, Harvey scoured the collection and brought out the cotton dress, faded with age and showing wear on its hem, cuffs and sleeves.
“It’s a very unique piece,” she said. “Very seldom do you find a mid-19th century garment fully intact.”
The print dress is light pink accented with tiny dark-pink stars.
“I love double-pink Civil War fabric and have many different prints, so finding a similar fabric in my stash was not difficult,” Alfsen said.
“What I like about 19th century fabrics is that you often think they’re floral but they’re not,” Harvey said. “When you get up close, they’re stars or geometric shapes.”
Both women have been sewing since their school days.
“The two of us went over the fine details of the dress,” Harvey said. These included the piping, used to strengthen and stabilize the seams during the days before sewing machines; the cartridge pleats, which added volume without bulk; the eye-catching sleeve ruffles; the hand-sewn buttonholes; and the V-shaped piecing in the puffy sleeves, used to add volume.
One of the most challenging parts of making the miniature version was sewing ruffles down the outside of the full Bishop sleeves that gather into a fitted ruffled cuff, Alfsen said.
Alfsen copied the dress in faithful detail, adding growth tucks to the bottom, historically used for lengthening when the girl grew taller, she said.
She also added a personal touch, using tiny white buttons she got from her great-grandmother, who ran a general store at Bonde’s Corners, southwest of Manitowoc.
Take a peek under the doll’s dress and you’ll see other historic details: a quilted petticoat with decorative scallops and white “drawers” edged with lace.
The Manitowoc County Historical Society’s monthly get-together focuses on “arts, crafts and trades that have fallen out of fashion because they have been replaced by machine skills, especially in the digital age,” Harvey said. “It’s as much about community as it is about celebrating heritage crafts.”
Items she has presented to the group have included everything from a beautifully painted box to a Victorian glass centerpiece.
“Once we pulled out a plat book,” Harvey said. “We also showed a book of knitted lace samples. They’re fascinating and delightful. Items from our archives can really spark you to go and create something.”
The Craft Night is free and open to the public from 5 to 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of every month at the Historical Society at 924 Pine Crest Lane, Manitowoc. Participants are encouraged to bring a craft, historic or not.