Instructor Profile:

Elizabeth Stewart Clark

Thanks for coming to meet me! I’m Elizabeth Stewart Clark (though I also answer to Liz), and I’ll be teaching some mid-19th century workshops here at the Costume Classroom.

I’m wife to David, and mother to three children who tend to grow up under my sewing table… our oldest is now 8, and our youngest is due to arrive in late February. We teach at home, and run our family historic clothing and education business with the help of every family member. We publish home sewing patterns for infant’s and children’s historic clothing, as well as dressmaking manuals for teen and adult women. I also travel the country and teach historic dressmaking in person, through our Sewing Academy program. I’m excited to do this on-line with the Costume Classroom!

I’m one of those omnivorous readers—I tend to go through three to five books a week, and we’re very friendly with our local librarians, though I think some days they cringe when they see me at the Reference desk with another stack of odd Inter-Library Loan requests. I very much enjoy music and singing, and have participated in various choirs from the age of ten. I’m lousy at the piano, and even worse at the cello. I also will admit to a penchant for very bad puns, and our whole family adores British TV. I adore hand sewing and embroidery, but am a very lazy knitter.

Age eight seems to be a magical age for those of us who teach here! I dove into sewing at eight, too, but had to wait until ten before my mother turned the sewing machine over to me—she required I be tall enough to reach the foot pedal and the needle plate at the same time. I’m largely self-taught, and I firmly believe that anyone with desire and determination can learn the skills they need to accomplish their sewing goals. I sewed for myself and friends (who bribed me with enough good chocolate) through high school (my freshman Home-Ec project was my peach silk taffeta bridesmaid dress, destined for use in my cousin’s wedding that winter… the instructor cringed until I explained I didn’t need help, just a safer spot to store the silk) and into my starving college student days. Had I realized that there were people out there who didn’t sew at all, but would pay more than chocolate for the skills, I might not have had any starving college days! (Ah, well, they were formative years, and I was nice and thin.)

I discovered historic clothing in 1991, and began to focus on the 1840-1865 era in 1993. Because I choose to work primarily with people who participate in history-heavy recreation, I focus on using and teaching methods consistent with my on-going research of the historic record. I prefer the simplicity and good logic of historic techniques and the results are fantastic!