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Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Chemises
Every girl needs chemises. They should be made of fine but firmly-woven white cotton for the 1840s, 50s, and 60s, and tend to sit either on the very edge of the shoulder joint, or entirely off the...
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Why We Blame Helen: Or, What Happens When You Improve
Sewing historic clothing for living history use is an odd hobby, when you stop and think about it. We spend an awfully lot of time trying to suss out the fine details and nuances of a clothing system...
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Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Tucked Front Chemises
Gathered chemises are perfectly lovely, but sometimes it’s fun to do something that’s both period-correct, and a little fun! Fine tucking across the front of a chemise is one option. It takes no more...
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Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Chemise Finishing
With the plackets in two chemises finished, we’re nearing the finish line on all four! The majority of chemises with fullness at mid-century seem to be handled with gathering to fit a yoke or band....
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Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Supportive Measures
In the midst of kitting up with chemises, drawers, petticoats, dresses, and all the other pretty things of a functional living history wardrobe, one element often overlooked or skipped “in the...
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On the Care and Feeding of Your Sewing Friend
Image from Library of Congress We all of us have a Sewing Friend at some point in our sewing days… that Kind Friend with more experience that we have at the moment, who has a broader grasp on the...
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Tuck Into a New Year (Growth Tuck Tutorial!)
Growth tucks in children’s clothing are a great way to add versatility and foil the wee beasties who insist on growing nearly every single day, despite bread-and-water rations and heavy books on their...
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Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Petticoat Evaluation
I do have a small stack of petticoats the girls inherit from one another. Because each was made with period techniques and decent fabric, I have some evaluation to do, to see if I can recycle any of...
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Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Petticoats, or Making A Mend
In the Petticoat Evaluation post, I discovered a petticoat I’d made for our oldest years ago that just needed a bit of repair and button movement to make it suited for our youngest this season. Said...
View ArticleMahaffie Sunbonnet Sewing Review
Only a few weeks after we debuted the new free sunbonnet pattern, made possible by the lovely folks at Mahaffie Stage Stop and Historic Farm, one of our lovely Sewing Academy readers and long-time...
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Getting Better: A Short, Encouraging Rant.
by George P A Healy, MET collection When it comes to replicating mid-19th century items for living history use, the closer we can get to the original, the better. But sometimes, we hit a wall. We’re...
View ArticleCorsetry Toolkits!
I’m working on finishing up a full (and largely positive) review of the new RedThreaded 1860s corset, but while I’m finishing up, I wanted to share some tool resources that can help you dive into...
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Vintage Sewing Advice & Why It’s Not Stupid
Herself About every six months, a short piece from Mary Brooks Picken rolls around the sewing interwebs, to great and derisive guffaws. About every six months, I get crabby about that. Now, Mary Picken...
View ArticleTesting: RedThreaded’s 1860s Gored Corset Pattern
Redthreaded has been making quality historical corsets for quite some time, but their home-sewing patterns are a newer addition to their lines. It’s rare I use a commercial pattern, but it is time to...
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Ten Things That Make You Look Historic
Look Like History, No Matter Where You Are! (My Middlest Girl, at a museum event in December.) We talk a lot about a goal of replicating the Original Cast: those people who actually lived during our...
View ArticleQuality Standards
Recently, I was contacted by someone who bought children’s clothing items from a maker who publicizes themselves as “historically accurate” and holds forth as an authority. Normally, I’d be celebrating...
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