A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

I don't even remember what  I was researching at the time, but as I went browsing through sources from the mid-18th century, I came across the play Polly Honeycombe , written in 1760 by George Coleman the Elder. It's a short farce about a girl who reads so many novels that she interprets her life through their tropes and clichés; unlike you'd expect, she ends up on top and never learns her lesson. In the preface, Coleman shares his mother's criticism of the piece, as well as a long excerpt from a letter she supposedly wrote to him, sharing her experience on a visit to the mercer's to buy fabric for clothes for the general mourning: The goodwoman [the mercer's wife] was sitting alone (the two girls being, it seems, gone to see the scaffolding in Westminster Abbey) industriously employed in making up her own mourning; but her daughters gowns, just come from the Mantua-maker's, lay in the window; and black caps, black fans, black gloves, &c. from the mil...

Last year, I invested in the Kickstarter for Marion McNealy's annotated reprint of the 1924 Corset Cutting & Making , by William D. F. Vincent. And I'm very glad I did, because it's here and it's wonderful! The book starts with an introduction explaining the context of the original - it was probably started before World War I, then set aside for several years, lightly updated, and published - and the amount of work McNealy had to do to turn the rather slapdash content into a useful book. This is followed by a section on the materials and construction methods used in corsetry in the early twentieth century, the latter mostly taken from Vincent's own text. Because the original was intended to be published earlier than 1924, most of the patterns are pre-war. (I don't believe they were dated in the original, but McNealy's dating appears to be very sound.) All in all, the book contains patterns for: 2 fashionable corsets between 1900 and 1910, 3 fa...

A little while ago, I came across NetGalley - a site where ARCs and recently published books are made available (generally upon request). There's a good sampling of history books: not fashion history, which I didn't expect to find, but I find social history in general almost as interesting. Clothes are one facet of understanding a time and place, but there are so many other factors. And I find the clothing more meaningful when I have more context to place them in. The first book I went for was Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families of New York , by Stephen Birmingham, originally published 1967 and republished by Open Road in 2015. One reason I picked it is that I'm always fascinated by my own heritage (typical American); another is that there's something about New York. It's not just the city itself, but where it stands in popular culture - especially early twentieth century pop culture, which I consume frequently and which contains a lot of references that I just ...

I love reading, and like many of you my favorite genre is historical fiction. Studying history and historical fashion makes me want to read about people living during these periods, experiencing events we can only read about in hindsight. Unfortunately, I have to admit that a lot of historical fiction simply doesn't work for me - what I'm looking for is an insight into how actual people of the past thought, even or especially when their thought processes and viewpoints differ from ours. I've started a lot of books that I just take back to the library because the heroine seems like she's been transplanted from our era into the past (and usually because of too many accuracy issues re: clothing. It's a gift and a curse). But the great thing about ereaders is that they facilitate reading classic/historic lit, because so many books have been digitized and are available for free, or for only a couple of dollars. I've downloaded quite a few, and whenever I feel like ...

I'm 26, coming of age into the post-recession world in a field that is largely government- and charity-funded, and therefore dropped half of its workforce just before I was ready to join it. I've done some work in the field and as much as a temp out of it; in the periods of unemployment I've applied to every lower-level history museum job out there, and worked on taking patterns (see my grand project  label) to make a book on 18th century women's dress. I spent the past year writing the explanatory text - my handwriting isn't as good as Janet Arnold's, so it has to be moved off the pattern, which introduces more confusion and explanation - along with an introduction, a description of the progress of women's dress over the course of the century, and a description of the usual construction techniques. In academia, it's not considered sensible to write a book before you have a contract. You're supposed to write a proposal and send it to publishers, ge...

I'm not going to tot up everything I made this year because it's kind of pathetic, but I will tell you what I got for Christmas! - What Clothes Reveal , Linda Baumgarten: no explanation needed. - Seventeenth-Century Women's Dress Patterns, Book I , Susan North and Jenny Tiramani: truly amazing resource that shows off how far technology's progressed.  X-ray pictures of garments that show all the layers of fabric, interlining, and boning; pages of full-color detail photos; delicately-drawn patterns of clothing and bobbin lace and construction steps.  I got an Amazon gift certificate as well - I may use it to buy book two.  I'm not sure when I'm going to get to use them (Dutch settler party at Fort Orange, maybe?), but they are FANTASTIC resources. - Period Costume for Stage & Screen , Jean Hunnisett: I've always been a bit leery of this one because my impression based on the title was that it was about stage/movie costumes, patterned for looks rathe...

I had a few posts queued up to do other batches of books for the giveaway, but the fact that nobody seems to have wanted the Marie Antoinette books made me stop and take a step back.  How's about if I just post the list of books/bundles I intended to post separately?  And if anyone wants them, just drop a line and I'd be happy to send them. - Marie Antoinette, by Hilaire Belloc - Marie Antoinette, by Bernardine Kielty - Having Tea, by Tricia Foley - a really excellent recipe book with amaaaazing pictures and a 1930s vibe - The Moorchild, by Eloise McGraw - one of my favorite YA books, a must-read - Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, by Claire Tomalin - As Her Whimsey Took Her: Critical Essays on the Work of Dorothy L. Sayers, ed. by Margaret P. Hannay - The Annotated Sense and Sensibility, ed. by David M. Shapard, and a copy of P&P if you want it - Knitting from the British Islands, by Alice Starmore and Anne Matheson - McCall's Needlework Treasury (1963) ...

The Marie Antoinette bundle contains two hardcovers, one by Hilaire Belloc and one by Bernardine Kielty.  Belloc's biography was originally written in the very early twentieth century, and it's not an easy read.  However, it's also pro-Marie Antoinette and is considered a classic.  Here's a sample, given on the back cover: She had preserved her carriage, which all who knew her had regarded since her childhood as the chief expression of her soul.  She still moved with solemnity and with that exaggeration but unflinching pose of the head which, in the surroundings of Versailles, had seemed to some so queenly, to others so affected; which here, in her last hours, seemed to all, as she still preserved it, so defiant.  For the rest she was not the same.  Her glance seemed dull and full of weariness; the constant loss of blood which she had suffered during those many weeks spent below ground had paled her so that the artificial, painted red of her cheeks ...

Hey, Kelly!  You've won the Complete Family Sewing Book!  Please email me at aspiring.star@gmail.com with your address, and I can get it to you as soon as possible.

I'd like to take a little break from writing about sewing for a little self-promotion.  Back in very early 2011, I submitted a short story to the Jane Austen Made Me Do It story contest.  I didn't win (and didn't even check to see how many votes mine got, because I am a coward ), and I didn't do anything with the story afterward.  Recently my mother published a book she wrote on Amazon, and I started thinking about all the writing I used to do, and my old dreams of being a full-time writer - well, I have a lot going on (if that can said to be the case when one is unemployed) and the direction my life's taken means that it's a unlikely career!  I tend to write shorter fiction, anyway, so it occurred to me that using Kindle Direct Publishing might be a nice way to go.  So I decided to put up my Austenesque short story, A Worthy Attachment , as a 99-cent ebook, with a few days of promotional freeness for anyone who'd like to take a look.  I think it's cu...

The Ultimate Book Bash , hosted by Austenitis!  All of my answers to her questions below the cut.