Beth Battles (M.A. ’26, Curatorship and B.A. ’18, Fashion Design) investigated home sewing and the home sewing pattern industry in an Independent Study class and transformed her findings into a Curatorship capstone exhibition at IU Collections, A Stitch in Time: Home Sewing of the 1960s and 1970s. With guidance from the Elizabeth Sage Historic Costume Collection, Beth selected 16 Sage Collection pieces to display on dress forms, accompanied by home sewing patterns, textbooks, and published materials. “A Stitch in Time” examines the home sewing industry’s heyday in the 1960s and early 1970s that was fostered by simple pattern designs with fewer pieces reflective of the growing preference for looser, naturalistic silhouettes. Home sewing also empowered the home sewer to modify patterns to fit her body shape and aesthetic preferences.
While the Sage Collection at IU holds an incredible array of haute couture, historic fashion, and the Glenn Close Costume Collection, it is also a social history collection that includes everyday dress objects, such as jeans, T-shirts, tennis shoes, uniforms, and clothing sewn in the home from commercial patterns.
For more information about The Sage Collection, please visit their webpage.
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