>> rob: cor sets, floor length gowns, and heaps of fabric. eighteenth century fashion isn't exactly a good fit for today's lifestyle but it's the perfect fit for one university of alberta student who is determined to stitch together pieces of the past. here's meagan kelly. ???? >> reporter: antique haute couture. the kind of fashion caroline believes never goes out of style. >> well, it's always been sort of my favourite period of costume. i've always just loved the way that it looked. >> reporter: so she made her own closet of 18th century styles, the old-fashioned way. >> the sewing was done all by natural daylight or candle light. i wore this outfit. i sat in one of my hardwooden kitchen chairs to do it. i just used needle, thread, thimble. >> reporter: it was 18th century seamstress or bust. she wore a corset and didn't even bathe when she was busy sewing. >> they were afraid of water, particularly in cities where the water was really dirty, where they had open sewers. one of the styles that's really synonymous with the 18th century, you see it in a lot of the movies, this kind of style. they're both made of silk taffeta. >> reporter: she used 40 metres of fabric, some of it 100 years old. she got her design straight from the source, the museum of london, where centuries-old garments are kept under lock and key. >> you can't make one of these by machine. the exact way they go together, it's physically impossible to do it on a machine. >> reporter: carolyn spent over a thousand hours putting together these garments. in this dress alone, there are 24,000 students. >> yes, my hands are ruined. >> reporter: with fingers turned into human pin cushions, she has a whole new appreciation for a job with little pay and little respect back in the 1700s. >> it took me five months to make these garments working 30 to 40 hours per week. it would take them maybe a couple of weeks. the coat looks rather similar to a men's coat from the period and it's got this neat false waistcoat. >> reporter: it's all in the details, proving you don't need a sewing machine to make fashion that lasts forever. >> for most of human history, clothing has been made by hand and it's almost forgotten today that that's the way that it was done and so i've tried to bring it back. >> rob: that is absolutely amazing work. if you'd like to see those fashions firsthand, the u of a has them on display until april 30th in the human ecology building on campus. >>> well, from corsets to the catwalk, our next story is about one girl's quest to break the mold when it comes to modelling.