Museum Moments - Textile Storage Tips from The Army Museum

This Museum Moment features the work of staff and volunteers at the Army Museum. Chara Kingston, Collections Manager, welcomed me into their space recently to share some of their handy storage solutions. Chara has been coming up with creative ways to improve textile storage and has involved her volunteers in the process. 

She contacted local hotels to ask for donations. Thanks to kind donations from the Prince George Hotel and the Westin Halifax, bed sheets and pillowcases are being transformed into effective storage solutions.

Tip: adding tags to the exterior and including the accession number, object name, description, and image of the artifact will help you locate an item in storage quickly.

The bed sheets were cut into three pieces and folded over to create casings (Chara calls them ponchos) for the uniforms. The sides were sewn in place. Another option is to add ties to the sides with scrap pieces of fabric if a part of the garment needs more room, such as a dress with ruffles. Pillowcases were used for smaller items, such as boots and helmets. 

Another clever storage solution is for hats. One way to prevent the brim from bending is to create a base for the hat to rest on. Do you have wrapping paper rolls or paper towel rolls at home? Why not use them to construct the base. Wrap it in bubble wrap and then add a layer of acid-free tissue paper or muslin. It's that easy!

We understand the importance of finding cost effective solutions for storage and hope that these tips were helpful! Thanks again to the Army Museum for sharing. Follow the museum on Facebook to learn more about the process!