I was hired by the Parthenon to help with their 2020 exhibit on suffrage. The first task was to design and make try-on clothes for visitors, especially for school groups so the students could get to better experience what clothing styles were like on August 18, 1920, when the 19th amendment was ratified in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

I was also hired to fit the vintage clothing onto dress forms. I dyed silk to make an pink underdress/slip for the cream cotton dress so that it popped forward from the tan toile of the dress form. Next, we could not find a dress form small enough nor with the right shape for the long coat, so I took an existing Styrofoam form and shaved it down with a belt sander. It took a few tries to achieve the strange, very petite, corseted shape that the coat would button over. I made lightweight sleeve-filler-arms from wired and stuffed pantyhose to help fill out both the jacket and the dress. I also fitted petticoats under the flag dress, and a black skirt we had in costume storage under the vintage jacket.