A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

I haven't written anything here in a while! The main reason is that I started to take a pattern from a corset at work to share, as I don't have one in my notebook already for the 1830s, and then started considering whether that's against policy, so decided I should stop until I discussed it with someone ... and then didn't ... and then, you know, the museum was closed and we all had to go home. So. In the meantime, I have  been working on Mimic of Modes patterns! (Everything's 50% off this week!) You may have noticed if you follow this blog's page on Facebook. I've made: The Very Easy Crinoline I don't know how much demand there is for this, given that crinolines can be purchased easily from Pin Up Girl and Unique Vintage and other shops, but I wanted more practice figuring out how to grade patterns and write instructions. There is also an excellent vintage clothing store here in Oneonta, and I purchased a whole bunch of things to pattern in the fu...

I've been in a reading/writing/sewing slump for a good handful of months now, due to a number of factors: - The last dress I tried to make for myself ended up looking terrible, due to the fabric being too polyestery and stiff for the design, and to the fact that the cut of the bodice is really bad for someone this short-waisted. - I've been gaining weight, slowly enough that I didn't really notice until suddenly it hit me that I was dissatisfied with all my clothes because they were just  too tight to be comfortable or look good. I'm working on the weight issue, but I just can't gather the will to sew any new clothes for work. - Cameo is deceptively difficult, at least in the Made to Fit custom sizing module. My pattern files keep becoming uneditable, which is obviously a problem if you're still in the working-draft stages! - For a while, I was being really active in a few historical fashion Facebook groups, and the neverending fight to get good contribu...

And what a great birthday it is! For this morning, as I came here to post a link to the Amazon US page for Regency Women's Dress , as it's now pre-orderable ... ... I noticed that I'm listed as the #1 new release in Textile & Costume ! Based, I assume, on preorders from my Facebook announcements! ( Amazon UK ) ( Amazon France ) What a really fantastic birthday present! I seriously grinned at the screen for a moment. The sites all say October but I've been assured that the publishing date is September 17 everywhere. Exciting!! Who'd have thought the "grand project" (see post tags) would have really come to this!

No substantive post this week - and there won't be one next week, either. Probably  you will get one the week after. (I had a great idea for one that I've lost, but I'm sure it will come back to me ... while I'm at work, when I'm holding a pastry bag of frosting instead of a pen.) This is because the deadline for my manuscript - Regency Women's Dress , you may recall - is coming up very quickly. The good news: having to send in the text and pictures means that we're getting closer to the point where the book will be actually available , which is of course a good thing. The unsettling news: are you crazy?! I have to get it all perfectly finished and submitted! Which means that I'm spending all of my time on writing, rewriting, consulting about the illustrations, and redrafting the patterns in ink, and sadly don't have time to write a great post. (If you should want to see what I've posted about most of the patterns I've taken, check out ...

Hello, all! I have a series of meaty posts in the works, but they're not quite ready yet, so let me tell you about the most recent visit I made for patterning at the Albany Institute. I've really been concentrating on outerwear, as there are so many extant gowns with interesting construction or trims or sleeves or cuts, but because I had the opportunity I took patterns from two chemises. They appeared to be on opposite ends of the book's era: one is very geometric, cut with shoulder straps forming a square neckline, while the other has body and sleeves gathered into a band to form a wide neckline. (Pictured above is the latter.) I'm not sure if they will actually appear in the finished book - it depends on how many gowns I want to include, and probably how much leeway there will be for adding more patterns than expected ... wouldn't a book of shifts/chemises, corsets, petticoats, and drawers be great? Hmm. One of the things that really attracted me to this...

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 always make too many plans - but compared to my past output, what I've done this year is so outstanding that it makes me think I can decide which pieces I need to build a basic and versatile wardrobe, based on the events I've gone to this year (which is, again, an astounding amount compared to how many I attended in previous years, mainly thanks to Julie ). Detail of bodice I sketched at FIT, that sparked my love for the style - My muslin gown makes me happy enough that I don't feel the need to replace it yet. However, I do feel most comfortable at this point with the 18th century methods of construction and my ability to get a good fit for that sort of bodice, so if I do make the jump from cotton to silk it's likely going to be for a 1780 pleated-back and closed-front gown based on one I've patterned, with plenty of pinked trim. (Must buy pinking shears.) - What surprises me when I think of it, for some reason, is that Victorian events have been the most...

(* until I become a big name and they let me pattern at the Met and I do a second edition of the book with MMA 1991.6.1a, b  in it**) (** and until I start patterning outerwear and underwear, so maybe this was a poor choice of title) I actually made a visit prior to this one that was intended to be the last, but it transpired that I could not pattern four gowns and a petticoat in a day, so the second round of New York State Historical Association (at the Farmer's Museum) patterning took two visits.  Since I never posted about the last one, I'll condense them here. This is (the back of) a gown for a quite pregnant woman.  In my opinion, it was cut down from a gown or sacque that was made in the mid-to-late 1770s to fit with the styles of the late 1790s - I would have simply considered it a fashionable update, except that there are a few aspects that are decidedly unfashionable and the front shaping implies that it's for maternity wear.  And there's a small ho...

This was perhaps my penultimate patterning trip for the first book I intend to put out.  (The last one I have planned will be on the 28th, but I suppose it's possible that I could come across another venue and make another afterward.)  Yesterday I drove down to Historic Cherry Hill to take the pattern of a pretty pink silk spencer, ca. 1795, and to re-examine the petticoat of a gown I'd patterned before, as I didn't have the shaping of the top quite right.  This pattern may be one of my favorites - I like seeing the differences between similarly-cut gowns and sacques, but it's really nice to take the pattern of something very unlike what's come before, not to mention unlike what's in previously-published books. It has an adorable peplum. Afterward, I went to the Schenectady County Historical Society museum in the lovely stockade district to see Underlying Structures: What Shaped the Victorian Woman?   The exhibition shows a wonderful array of later Vict...

I'm strongly considering joining the curtain-along.  I want to make a demi-polonaise , because it fascinates me!  (There are a few more examples of them in the coming plates.)  It will give me a chance to try out the polonaise skirt shape and some trim types before I make an actual polonaise with my Williamsburg fabric.  Also, I'm not quite happy with the shape of my stays, and I'm a bit nervous that if I make something with a bodice it won't fit when I get around to making better ca. 1785 stays. Detail of the Cherry Hill gown back Last Friday I visited Historic Cherry Hill to pattern a ca. 1780 closed-front gown with sleeves en pagode and a matching petticoat; Monday, I went to the Albany Institute and had a marathon all-day session patterning two rather similar gowns (not as pointed in the front, though), one of which has a matching but waistbandless petticoat with self-fabric trim, the other with loops inside to pull up the skirt, as well as a jacket, a s...

Short update on my patterning!  As I'm working on getting eighteenth century patterns first (so that I could, theoretically, finish writing one book and have it started on the road to publication while I work on taking patterns for the next), I have to work hard to find extant garments - there are very few left in the area.  So far, I have sourced and am making appointments to pattern: Fitted jacket, French, in a pinkish brocaded silk - ca. 1740? Mantua of mustard-gold damasked silk, ca. 1750, possibly slightly altered Embroidered stomacher, date uncertain Damasked silk dressing gown, early to mid-century Gold silk petticoat, heavily quilted with all-over pattern, no longer on waistband Silk petticoat, quilted with overlapping scale pattern in body, border of something else, 1750-1775? White silk taffeta sacque and petticoat, brocaded with polychrome floral bunches, trimmed with self-fabric and fly-fringe, 1760-1773 (previously patterned) Gowns (anglaises): ...

So I've arranged to come in on Monday to the Chapman and start taking patterns!  I'm so excited - this project has been in the works in my mind for a long time and it was starting to feel a bit like a pipe dream.  I'd prefer to work in chronological order, starting with the eighteenth century, but the Chapman doesn't have anything that early, so my first pattern will be of a ca. 1845 mourning dress (very like the one in the first photo on my last post).  The second will be of a pink evening dress that's been confusing me - in an effort to figure out its date, I tried sketching it as though it were being worn.  What I got was kind of a hot mess that got me nowhere, and I realized I had a problem. These days, photographing a dress on a mannequin ( à la Costume Close-Up) would seem to be the best option to accompany a pattern.  Unfortunately, I don't know where there are any mannequins that will fit Victorian clothing - you may remember the issues with Great, Str...

I don’t talk very much about this project o’mine, because everyone knows the stereotype of the person who makes loads of plans to do something amazing and talks about it incessantly but never gets around to doing it.  I don’t want to fall into that trap!  But I do think about it a lot of the time.  A mannequin I dressed with a partner at FIT When I was taking a class in sketching extant clothing and dressing mannequins at FIT, I liked to joke that my ambition was to be the next Janet Arnold.  My sketches went from scale versions of the study garments to full-on patterns with directions.  I even did an extra one because I wanted to make the dress.  While I was researching my thesis, I took a couple of really quick patterns of garments that weren’t technically related to my topic.  (I’m glad I did, that set of stays made up very quickly.)  Then, when I was interning at the Albany Institute, it suddenly struck me that it would be a fan...