PASSION FOR 18TH CENTURY FASHION

Dr Christine Millar has two twin passions in life: her work as an anaesthetist at Memorial Hospital Belleville, and sewing 18th century gowns. Her intricate recreations of dresses and court suits from the 1700s to the early 1900s are a way for her to decompress after 24-hour shifts at the hospital. 

"There is something about working with a needle and thread and patiently putting things together, slowly, that helped take away the stress of work."

All images courtesy Sewstine.

Growing up, she was always drawn to historical gowns, princess dresses and the sumptuous decadence of 18th- century fashion. She initially started making costumes for the cosplay scene at Comic-Con in New York, but came to realise that her favourite projects were derived from the costumes in historical dramas and movies such as Sleepy Hollow. Soon after, she became hooked on historical gown making - reading books, watching videos and teaching herself the techniques while studying medicine. 

"I love the 1740s to the 1780s and the 1880s to the 1900s. I think there is a certain silhouette I like, and I love the high drama of the costumes of these years. But it's not just that—I love the embroidery and the decadence of the style of the 1700s. In particular, the 1740s to the 1780s embroidery is very floral, very naturalistic, versus the more stylized flowers from different eras, so I keep embroidering more and more from that era."

Taking anywhere from 180 hours for a simpler gown, to 450 hours for a full gentleman's court suit, Christine seamlessly blends modern technology such as digitising patterns and digital machine embroidery with historically accurate sewing techniques. For example, while she adores sewing, spending hours hand embroidering historical designs doesn't hold the same appeal for her, so she programmes the designs on a computer and has her embroidery machines stitch it out for her. 

Don't let the machine embroidered aspect fool you into thinking this is a quick fix when it comes to historical garment sewing! Christine generously shares her progress via her Instagram account, blog, and YouTube channel, under the name 'Sewstine' and the amount of work she puts into each piece is astounding. Watch her digitize a piece of historical embroidery in this video:

Follow Sewstine on Instagram to see more of Christine's historically inspired handiwork, or visit her website: www.sewstine.com

We're delighted that Christine took part in our recent My Life in Clothes online talk, alongside Claire Wilcox, Kristína Šipulová and Amber Butchart. Sewstine discussed her process of taking an idea or a historical image, digitising it, recreating it, and then wearing it.

My Life in Clothes took place on Wednesday 9th February 2022. Find out how to catch up on all our online talks here: