Daniel Ziarnik-Case creates costumes for New Ipswich town picnic

Since October, Daniel Ziarnik-Case has been busy, putting his sewing machine into overtime to make a total of 42 costumes patterned after 1770s fashion for a dress-up photo event at the New Ipswich town picnic this weekend.

The picnic will be Sunday on the lawn of the Barrett House on Main Street in New Ipswich. The photo event will be $10, and put on by the Historical Society, of which Ziarnik-Case is the vice president.

Ziarnik-Case is a veteran to costume-making. He started regularly sewing at 12, and still makes some of his own clothes. He also makes his own elaborate Halloween costumes. When he New Ipswich Historical Society decided to offer an event for the town’s 275th anniversary featuring Polaroid photos in vintage fashion, Ziarnik-Case was put to the task. Originally, he said he was asked to make 12 outfits — six of various sizes for children to adults for both men and women — but Ziarnik-Case admitted that he tends to always seek to “go a little bit above.”

Ziarnik-Case said he has been around sewers his whole life, starting with his grandmothers. One worked in a commercial factory, and the other sewed as a hobby.

“They taught me how to set up the machine, and then mostly just let me be creative,” Ziarnik-Case said.

He said one of his earlier memories of sewing was helping to make a bookworm costume for himself and his cousin to participate in a fall festival parade where the theme was reading. Later, he would put his skills to use in his school’s theater department, creating mostly simple pants and shirts as costumes.

Ziarnik-Case still often makes his own clothes — “They fit better,” he noted — but he has also gotten into making Halloween costumes for both himself and friends, often very elaborate pieces.

“I wasn’t finding costumes that I liked in the stores,” Ziarnik-Case said. “Halloween is my favorite. Every year I pick something I want, but I try to go a little bit above.”

He has been the Red Death from “The Phantom of the Opera” — a costume that he said was the result of hours of hand-sewing 100 yards of trim — the Adam West version of Batman and Stede Bonnet, the gentleman pirate from the show “Our Flag Means Death.”

He has also made many costumes for friends, including creating Sally from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” and a Donald Duck costume for a friend who works for Disney.

When Ziarnik-Case set to making the 1770s clothes for the Historical Society, he sourced most of his materials from a company in Fall River, Mass., that sells recycled fabrics, in order to get vintage fabrics. While 275-year-old fabric was out of reach, Ziarnik-Case said he still wanted to have historic fabrics, and purchased various vintage patterns. One fabric he sourced was produced in the 1970s, as part of the country’s Bicentennial celebrations.

“I tried to get historic fabric for this historic project,” Ziarnik-Case said.

His dresses and shirts, though from the same few patterns, are in different colors, though he said he intentionally chose colors that would have been achievable back then.

“People tend to think of the past in black and white. But these are all colors you would have seen,” Ziarnik-Case said.

He chose two different patterns for the dresses, one a more-plain prairie dress, and one a more-Colonial style. For the men, he made farmer garb typical of what might be worn in New Ipswich at that time. The clothes range in size from child to adult, and have open or adjustable backs so that a variety of sizes can fit into a single garment.

Families will be able to keep a Polaroid, but the same picture will also be scanned into the Historical Society’s record. The Historical Society also plans to offer an event later in the year for regular family portraits, which will also be part of the town’s record.

“History in New Ipswich didn’t stop in 1910, and yet that’s about the newest thing we have,” said Ziarnik-Case. “We’re trying to fill in those gaps.

Ziarnik-Case said he plans to keep two of the outfits he made — one made with a designer vintage fabric and the other with sentimental fabric he bought to make masks for his brother’s wedding — and gift the rest to the Historical Society for use in future events.

The New Ipswich town anniversary picnic will be Sunday, July 27, in collaboration with Historic New England. The picnic will be from noon to 3 p.m. on the lawn of the Barrett House on Main Street. People can bring their own picnic lunches, blankets or chairs. There will be lawn games, live music and open house tours of the first floor of the Barrett House.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.