Your Wardrobe Unlock'd

Who can enter? What can I enter? What are the prizes? When's the closing date?

Here's everything you need to know to take part in our unique YWU Double Period Project and competition! And you are going to take part this year, aren't you?

You've got a full year from now until our deadline in February 2011, so there's no excuse not to get going, take part and try for one of our fabulous prizes!

What is the Double Period Project?

We have new members joining YWU all the time, so for those of you who are new, let me explain.

YWU is all about encouraging you to make better historical clothing. We discovered last year that we have all sorts of fun when we pick a theme for the year and run a costume competition based on that single pattern, period or portrait. This year we've picked two brief, focussed periods of history, and we hope that at least one will appeal to you.

Those periods are the turbulent Revolutionary period 1770-1789 and the elegant Natural Form of 1876-1882.

We invite you to make something of your own from one or both of these periods and perhaps enter our final competition in February 2011 - but in the meantime, we'll be concentrating more of the articles we publish on these two periods than on any other this year so that you'll have plenty of inspiration and new ideas. This is the other purpose of the DPP: not just a competition, but an excuse to fill YWU's archives with some really in-depth, focussed articles and tutorials to get your teeth into.

What can I make? 

The only thing that all our projects will have in common is the periods we all started with. Some of you will want to strive for historical accuracy; others will want to update the period costume for the modern world or a future or fantasy world; some of you will want to take a theatrical approach and make it a costume for a particular real or fictional character. As long as you make it clear what you had in mind in your accompanying email when you enter (more on that later), we'll be able to judge your entry based on what you were aiming for.

YWU is the costume maker's companion, so make any costume you feel inspired to make. Design it how you like, tweak it as you like, put it together any way you like, just as long as its inspiration fits into the period 1770-89 or 1876-82.

Wow, sounds like a lot of work. How much do I have to make?

If you make an entire outfit from the skin out, as it would have been done in period, the number of garments you'll be making could become overwhelming (especially if you're going Victorian.) We realise that that's a very tall order, so we're also going to open that up to your discretion. Make as many or as few garments as you please, as long as you begin with the period inspiration. A beautiful pair of stays or a fabulous Natural Form era hat will be just as eligible as an entire outfit.

Doll enthusiasts, feel free to make your entry doll sized!

Do I have to enter the competition?

Not at all - we'd love you to get involved and make something whether or not you want to compete, and we'll love it if you just enjoy the articles we publish. You're not obliged to take part at all if you'd prefer not to.

Can you publish an article on stays/pants/plackets/embroidery to help me with my entry?

During the year we'll run as many relevant articles as we can. We're open to requests, but get them in early - it takes time to find a writer, fit it into their schedule, have them write it, edit it and then publish it.

Also, you can always send specific questions to the Editor for the Letters page - especially useful for those annoying issues that only come up when you're halfway finished!

When's the competition deadline?

5pm GMT (that's 12pm EST) Monday February 7th, 2011. You asked for plenty of time - you got it!

Categories and prizes on offer

• Revolution (1770-1789): Beginner
• Revolution (1770-1789): Improver
• Revolution (1770-1789): Experienced
• Natural Form (1876-1882): Beginner
• Natural Form (1876-1882): Improver
• Natural Form (1876-1882): Experienced

You may enter once in each period category. In other words, if you want to do a Revolution entry and a Natural Form entry and submit them both, go ahead, but two entries in the same time period will count as one.

Winners in each category, at each skill level, will receive

• A year's free subscription to YWU, worth $120
• A special "Award Winner" icon to place on their website, blog or forum profile.

Winners in all categories are also eligible for the Grand Prize, a $500 gift voucher for the online store of your choice, such as Amazon. (Note that the prize has almost doubled in value since last year, so the incentive has intensified!)

Corsetry prizes

Entrants in all categories who make a corset or a pair of stays will also be eligible for the Corset Prizes, partly sponsored by Vena Cava Corsetry Supplies of Poole, UK: a $200 gift voucher for the online store of your choice for each of the following...

• Best Revolution era stays
• Best Natural Form era corset

That's a total of nine prizes, and if there's only one entry in a category and skill level, that entry wins by default - so there's no excuse not to have a go!

Who can enter?

You will need to be a YWU and/or Foundations Revealed member, writer or staff member on the closing date in order to enter.

No purchased, rented, or inherited costumes may be entered; the entry must be your own work.

There'll be a range of skill categories to even out the playing field for everyone: Beginners, Improvers and Experienced seamstresses are all encouraged to enter (definitions of each level below).

You're a Beginner if you've been sewing for less than a year in total (if you've made three outfits in your lifetime, the first of which was ten years ago, count that as less than a year when you put your experience together.) If virtually every project you can think of is a completely new experience, you're a Beginner.

You're Experienced if you're a confident sewer who's been making clothes or costumes for more than five years, and/or you make or have made a living from sewing. If you think you could probably make a good job of most costumes, you're Experienced.

Anything between these two counts as Improver - say, if you have some experience and you think you could make a passable effort at a selection of different types of costumes.

For joint entries, the skill level is that of the most experienced person in the group.

These categories can never be completely clear-cut - discuss it with other members in the Forum or email us if you have questions about your skill level. Be as honest as you can!

Remember, you don't have to be a world class costumer to take part! The point of the Project is to get you trying things you wouldn't normally have a go at, and to stretch you a little way outside your comfort zone in a safe environment where we're all working together and supporting each other. Some of you will be able to share your experience and ideas; others will show us your journey along a huge learning curve. Don't ever underestimate yourself and overestimate everyone else! Have a go!

Joint entries

Joint entries of up to three people are welcome, provided that you are all YWU members on the closing date. The skill level of the group is defined as the skill level of the most experienced member. You will need to decide on a spokesperson.

Prizes for joint entries will be awarded to the spokesperson to divide up as s/he sees fit. All members of the group will be able to use the "winner" icons, and any prize subscriptions will be split - four months each for a three-person entry, for example, or six months each for a two-person entry.

Who are the competition judges?

You are! Just as we did with the periods we chose, we'll all be able to vote for the winners.

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How to enter

You will not need to send the garments themselves to us - our members are located all over the world and we'd be as heartbroken as you if your clothes got lost or damaged in the mail. In any case, we're not going to judge them: YOU are!

We're going to ask you to photograph the clothes you make; we'll use these photos and your dress diary or documentation as your entry. Your permission to use those things on the YWU site is granted by entering them, but the copyright on the photos and text remains your own.

You can enter a maximum of ten photos, the filenames being of the form yourusername_1, yourusername_2, etc.

Tip: Check out Vicky Clarke's guide to photographing your costumes to help you make sure they're great pictures, and don't forget to photograph the details you particularly want us to notice!

You'll need to host them yourself at a site like Photobucket or Flickr, or on your own webspace. Photo hosting sites are very easy to use, don't be intimidated if you're not used to them. (Why do we need you to host them? 200 members x 10 photos each = 2000 photos potentially arriving in our inbox - she cannae take it Cap'n!)

We recommend that you keep a "dress diary", perhaps on your online journal if you have one; we'd love to link to it. The great advantage of this is that you can include as many pictures as you like on your journal, over and above the ten picture limit for your main entry. Remember to use a tag on sites like Livejournal so that voters can access your complete dress diary at once without needing to sift through other entries in your journal!

If you're not familiar with the term, a "dress diary" is simply an journal (online in this case) that you keep during the making of an outfit that documents how you made it, what problems you came across and how you solved them, including any making-of pictures, and all your triumphs and tribulations during the project. They're great to look back on and they help us all to learn from each other's experiences!

When to enter

In order to enter we need to receive your entry email by 5pm GMT (that's 12pm EST) on Monday February 7th, 2011. The title of the email should be "DPP Competition" and it should be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The email will need to contain:

• Your name (ie. the name of the maker or makers, clearly indicating the spokesperson for joint entries)
• Your username
• Your email address (if different from the one you're writing from!)
• Your sewing skill level: Beginner/Improver/Experienced
• The category or categories you'd like to enter your efforts into
• The title of your entry - give it a name!
• Brief description of your entry, including anything you'd particularly like us to know about it: inspiration, fabric, unique or historically accurate techniques or materials, any particular challenges you overcame, etc.
• Link to your dress diary, if you've made one

Judging

The winners will be decided by a poll, done in the same way as you chose the period themes before Christmas. The Publisher, Editor, writers and every subscriber at the time of polling will be able to vote. Each member will have one opportunity to vote for each category, and then a chance to vote for the overall Grand Prizewinner.

The number of rounds will depend on how many entries and what types of entries we receive.

And finally...

If you have any questions, drop us a line at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We'll add to this article with the answers to your questions (if relevant to everyone) as well as replying to you personally. Thank you - now go and get your sketchbook out and have some fun!