Blanche Payne was born in 1897 in Thayer, Kansas. She earned a bachelor's degree in home economics from Kansas State Teacher's College in 1916 and a master of arts degree in clothing from Columbia University in 1924. Payne taught high school English and home economics classes in Kiowa, Kansas, and Lewiston, Idaho, before servng as a student nurse at Camp Lewis, Washington in 1918. In 1919 she joined the faculty at Arizona State Teachers College, where she taught classes in textiles and clothing. From 1924 to 1926 Payne taught clothing classes at high schools in New York City, studied draping with French designer Madame Geo, and started her own design business.

Payne joined the University of Washington faculty in 1927, where she taught costume and apparel design in the School of Home Economics. In 1929 she took a leave of absence to study flat pattern at the Mitchell School of Design in New York City, then extended her leave until 1930 to travel through Central Europe and the Balkans surveying folk costume in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Albania, and Yugoslavia. Payne resumed her duties at the University of Washington in 1931 but returned to Yugoslavia in 1936 to 1937 for additional study. Her research focused on the regions of South Serbia (Macedonia), Croatia, Bosnia, North Serbia, and Dalmatia. In addition to exploring museum collections, Payne visited remote villages, markets, and festivals throughout the country to study and photograph peasant costumes. She also augmented her studies by drafting patterns from the clothing she encountered.

Payne's Yugoslav research failed to result in a full-length publication due to the prohibitive costs of publishing and the destruction of some of her color plates during World War II. However, in 1965 Payne published a textbook entitled , which described the evolution of fashion from 3000 B.C. to 1900. The book contained detailed descriptions of historical and cultural fashions together with renditions of small-scale garment patterns that she meticulously drafted from various museum collections. In researching her book, Payne spent two years avidly collecting illustrations. Considered a foremost resource in the study of costume history, the text reflected her teaching philosophy that the study of original artifacts is of essential importance in understanding good design.

In addition to her intensive research on clothing and historic costume, Payne supervised work on the Textile and Costume Study Collection housed in the University of Washington School of Home Economics. As part of her studies of non-Western folk dress and embroidery technique, she collected original ethnic costumes along with textile and embroidery examples. She used her Balkan research as a valuable source for studying ethnic dress in its original context and to provide her students with primary source material for the study of modern costume construction and fine craftsmanship.

During the 1960s Payne consulted for the Brooklyn Museum, work that included a research trip to Europe to find costumes from the House of Worth for an exhibition. Payne retired from the University of Washington in 1966 and died in 1972.