Yorktown Victory Center guests in June can assist staff in creating garments for display at the new American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, which is planned to replace the center in 2016.
A monthlong series of programs — called “Fashion in Colonial Virginia” month — planned for Jamestown Settlement and the Yorktown Victory Center will focus on clothing from 1607 to the American Revolution. Each museum will offer interpretive programs showing how clothing was made and how it showed status.
One daily program at the Yorktown Victory Center will offer guests the opportunity to cut and sew military uniform fabric for the new museum.
At Jamestown Settlement, daily programs include:
- 11 a.m.: A program in the re-created colonial fort will educate guests on clothing worn by the upper, middle and lower classes. Clothing and accessories were used to reflect colonists’ social status.
- 1:30 p.m.: The Powhatan Indian village interpreters will fashion clothing from deerskin and adorn it with shells and bones. Interpreters will also show how Indians decorated their bodies with paint.
- 3 p.m.: Visitor at the ships’ pier will learn about sailors clothing, including what would have been brought on extended voyages like the 144-day trip to Jamestown in 1607.
Daily programs at the Yorktown Victory Center include:
- 10:35 a.m.: Guests at the re-created 1780s farm will learn how farmers repaired and redyed worn clothing.
- 12:35 p.m.: Historical tailors will help visitors cut and stitch fabric for display at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.
- 2 p.m.: Visitors can learn how to make an epaulette, which soldiers wore to show their rank. Guests will also learn differences in officer and enlisted soldier clothing.
Periodically, guests will be able to process plant fiber for cloth, learn how to make plant-based dye, watch lye soap laundering and watch interpreters make clothing. Sewing tools — bone needles, a flax, break, scotch and hatchel, and spinning wheel — will be on display at the Powhatan Indian village and the 1708 farm.
Residents of James City and York counties, the City of Williamsburg, and College of William & Mary students receive free admission with proof of residency or a student identification card. For more information, visit the museums’ website, or call 757-253-4838.
