The Bowes Museum Blog

My name is Charlotte Cameron and I am one of the new ICON HLF textile conservation interns at the Bowes Museum. I recently finished the MPhil Textile Conservation program at the Centre for Textile Conservation (CTC) at the University of Glasgow. I have a strong interest in textiles, particularly historic costume, and prior to studying the MPhil obtained a BA (hons) in Costume Interpretation at Wimbledon College of Art, University of the Arts London. My internship will be for a year and offers many exciting opportunities to further develop my knowledge and practical experience working with textiles.

Figure 1. Charlotte working on a headdress and orange blossom sprig part of a 1920s wedding dress ensemble (CALMG:1999.80) from the Tullie House collection

Since starting at the Bowes, I have been involved in the conservation of several costumes which will be used in an exciting redisplay at Tullie House and Gardens Museum in Carlisle. One particular object, a Victorian mourning dress dated c.1860s (CALMG:2014.76.1), has been the focus of recent treatment primarily involving stitching repairs. The dress, made of silk, had a large number of very small holes along the hem and to areas of the bodice and sleeve cuff (fig.2).

Figure 2. Line drawing of CALMG:2014.76.1 showing location of areas of loss in red

1. Close up image of buttonhole damage at bodice front
2. Small holes along fold of pleat at waistband
3. Small holes along hem

Each of these required supports and a method learnt from classmates at the CTC has proven to be extremely useful for inserting patches, which would otherwise be a very fiddly and challenging task. The method was learnt by a student interning at the Palais Galleria in Paris and utilises long beading needles to assist in the insertion of small patches of support fabric between the top silk layer and lining.

Figure 3. Diagrams illustrating the method used to insert small patches into areas of loss on CALMG:2014.76.1

1. Area of loss in fabric
2. Indicate size of patch with placement of pins
3. Stitch into each corner of patch with beading needles
4. Insert patch slowly using placement of pins as a guide for each needle
5. Pull the patch through and pull out threads. The patch can then be couched into place.

The treatment for this object has now been completed and in total conservation work and documentation took 46 hours, with the majority of that being lots and lots of conservation stitching! (Naturally, historic silk is very fragile and so this treatment was time consuming and carried out by a trained conservator.)

After treatment images:

(From left) Figure 4.  Bodice after conservation stitching. Figure 5. Areas of loss along pleat edge have been supported with stitching. Figure 6. Laid couching stitches at skirt hem.

The next step for all completed costumes will be to mount them onto either transparent acrylic mannequins, similar to those used in the Bowes fashion gallery, or traditional stockman mannequins. It is going to be a very busy but exciting few months here in the textile conservation department, with a wide variety of historic costume to work on from the 18^th Century to the mid-20^th Century. I hope to further develop my conservation skills during my time as an intern, to work with materials such as leather, fur and feather are often found within textile collection but which I have not yet gained experience. There are already a number of exciting upcoming projects in the works which I hope to write blogposts and share on the Bowes social media in the future.

For further reading on the stitching method discussed above:

Staphany Cheng, “Behind the Scenes: Conservation of Power of Pattern,” published February 25, 2019, https://unframed.lacma.org/2019/02/25/behind-scenes-conservation-power-pattern

Written by Charlotte Cameron, Textile Conservation Intern, Heritage Fund & ICON Intern in the Conservation Department at The Bowes Museum.