Hi Everyone! Welcome back... in this next installment of Sewing A Themed Wardrobe: Colonial Williamsburg, Shari continues with her dainty doll project and a look at fabrics and prints appropriate for the time period.
A little more fashion history from Shari: England and France have a long history of conflict and the birth of high fashion in the 1500s created a whole new rivalry between them. Thanks to the excesses of Louis XIV, who reigned in France from 1643 –1715, France firmly established itself as the undisputed center of fashion in the Western world. Even in colonial America, English and French fashion had become an important means of social and political expression and fashion dolls became the chief means of exporting the latest trends.
Fashion had become so important that dolls were granted diplomatic immunity, and even during times of war, they were declared exempt from embargoes on enemy imports and often given cavalry escorts to their destinations. Who would have thought that the history of such a beloved and innocent child's toy would have had such a political beginning?
In our last video, Shari showed us how to make a mini wooden fashion doll, remniscent of the fashion dolls that had become so popular during the colonial period. In this tutorial, she will show us how to dress these dolls using bits of cloth and trims!
I love that she found a creative use for the Tilda swatches!
The Tilda Creating Memories collection is such a perfect fit for this time period. In the next video you'll notice Collection #4 featured as Shari shows us how she created the Williamsburg pattern. Many of the other Tilda collections feature fabrics highlighted in the Colonial Fabric Swatches PDF. The pink/cream floral in collection #3 and the green floral in Collection #7 would both be great choices for a colonial themed dress!
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