A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

Eleryth ! You have won my copy of Creating Historical Clothes , congratulations! I wish I could give it to everyone who entered, but unfortunately I only have one. I'll send you a PM on LiveJournal for your address, so I can get it to you.

(Anova Books Group, 2013; 242 pages) To win a copy of  Creating Historical Clothes: Pattern Cutting from Tudor to Victorian times , just comment below! For a more chances, post about this giveaway on your blog, Tumblr, Twitter, or Facebook, and share the link in a new comment! You can enter to win through Friday, December 20th; winner will be drawn on Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised to be sent and asked to review this book. (That's by way of being my disclaimer.) Giving my opinion is one of my favorite pastimes, so I was happy to oblige. Elizabeth Friendship is a serious professional costume designer, and developed her methods of pattern drafting on the job. She imparts these methods to the reader with painstakingly detailed diagrams and instructions. The basic idea is to create a bodice block that fits you, which she then describes how to alter for period-correct seam placement, shaping, etc. The whole book is divided into five chapters - one for the basic blocks, a...

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 ...

I volunteer at the local library book sale (mostly sorting, but I also work the cash box a bit) and at a recent sale I picked up quite a few things for giveaways.  More recently, I hit 30,000 views, so I thought it seemed like a good time to do them!  I decided to divide them into batches of related books, rather than doing them all completely separately, apart from this first one.  The Complete Family Sewing Book is an adorable piece of 1970s kitsch, but it's also a thorough guide to all the sewing techniques and terminology you could possibly want.  A couple of samples below: Just comment to this post before Friday at midnight for a chance to win.