Oregon City Textile Con

Marge Harding's Historic Textile, Fashion, and Living History Conference was a blast!  I'm definitely going back next time, ideally with more batteries for the camera, and a larger budget for fabric--Oregon City being conveniently near to a certain Pendelton Woolen outlet.

I got to take classes from Eileen Trestain (who let us handle and drool-over-but-not-on awesome historic quilts) and Carolann Schmidt (who's invisible mending methods have already come in handy).  There were talks from Carolann, Liz Clark, and Marge Harding, and a plethora of original garments to study.  Rotating displays on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday featured over three dozen unique articles each, from the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries.  The small, yet dangerous, dealer's room included very reasonably priced reproduction fabric, period-appropriate cashmere shawls, magazines and fashion plates, patterns, reference books, and even original garments.

On Saturday afternoon, were we allowed to handle some fifty dresses and wrappers, dated 1815 to 1915, taking closer looks at construction methods, repairs, alterations, material, trim, and style elements.  That evening, dinner included a fashion show of attendee's reproduction apparel, in which the 1870s contingent really blew the rest of us out of the water.

Although I didn't make it to the nearby McLoughlin House (closed on Sundays), the Stevens-Crawford House Museum put on a special display of gowns to coincide with the conference.

Now to put my notes in order, and hopefully label the 1445 photographs I took...