ILC Dover seamstresses


The ILC Dover seamstresses were a group of women who worked for the International Latex Corporation. The seamstresses played a key role in the construction of the space suits for the Apollo program. Employed as skilled garment workers, these women were responsible for sewing along with executing the complex cutting, glueing, molding, and latex processes that went into the construction of the Apollo space suit.
Some of the women had been recruited from the Playtex division of ILC, while other came from nearby clothing and luggage manufacturers. Many had learned the sewing trade from their mothers or in high school home economics classes. However to succeed at ILC, the women had to be willing to learn new sewing techniques, perform their tasks at a slow pace, work with novel textiles, and perform to exacting standards.
The space suits functioned as individual, personalized space crafts designed to keep a human alive in the environment of space or the lunar surface. The production line at ILC followed NASA-mandated engineering guidelines that were significantly stricter than typical clothing manufacturing processes. Tolerance for variation in the stitches were less than 1/64 of an inch from the seam.

Women known to have worked on the Apollo space suits

  • Iona Allen
  • Delema Austin
  • Julia Avery
  • Doris Boisey
  • Velma Breeding
  • Julia Brown
  • Francine Burris
  • Jane Butchin
  • Ethel Collins
  • Delema Comegys
  • Henrietta Crawford
  • Lillie Elliott
  • Ruth Embert
  • Evelyn Everett
  • Hazel Fellows
  • Eleanor Foraker
  • Madeline Ivory
  • Evelyn Kibler
  • Beverly Killen
  • Anna Lee Minner
  • Roberta Pilkenton
  • Ruth Anna Ratledge
  • Sue Roberts
  • Gail Smith
  • Arlene Thalen
  • Joanne Thompson
  • Mary Todd
  • Michelle Trice
  • Ceil Webb
  • Jeanne Wilson
  • Clyde Wosylkowski
  • Delores Zeroles

Collections

"" Hagley Digital Archives. See interviews with Roberta Pilkenton, Gail Smith, Eleanor Foraker, and Iona Allen.
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, . See photographs of women working on the Apollo A7L spacesuit at the International Latex Corporation Federica, Delaware that were released in 1968.

Additional sources