Saturday Sartorial Cinema: “Pattern for Smartness” (1948)

This week's installment of Saturday Sartorial Cinema is an approximately 18 minute 1948 film called "Pattern for Smartness" by Simplicity Pattern Company. I chose this one because it is not only amusing, it can be educational for anyone stuck at home and attempting to learn to sew clothing for the first time. The educational parts…

Research: Guide to Sewing Slips

This post is meant to complement a project I am working on for my other blog, What Would Nancy Drew Wear? I am replacing a wardrobe staple, a bias-cut (silk) slip. Even though I am using a modern pattern, I wanted to consult my vintage sewing manuals to see what advice they had to offer…

Self-Fashioning and Jane Austen 2: The Mystery of the Surplice Gown

This is a series of posts exploring quotes from Jane Austen's letters which reference fashion and dress. "I have had my new gown made up, and it really makes a very superb surplice. I am sorry to say that my new coloured gown is very much washed out, though I charged everybody to take great…

Self-Fashioning and Jane Austen 1

Dear readers, my spring semester is a few weeks shy of being over, and I have barely been able to post because of a research project I am working on. I have been doing a content analysis of Jane Austen's letters to explore how she navigated her identity through dress. I cannot write more here,…

Saturday Sartorial Cinema 1: The $20 Miracle [Dress]

I often forget that I don't just have to post about what I'm studying and making, but that I can share all the interesting and educational media I come across as well. One place I frequent to find videos about fashion and dress history is Youtube. There are a few channels which regularly post older…

Wet Cleaning an Infant Shirt for Conservation Part 1

Dear readers, the beginning of the semester has swept me away as usual and here it is a third of the way through and I haven't written anything here since winter break. Since I have several reports from last semester that I would like to discuss here, I am going to try to take an…

Review of My S&S Patterns Chemise and Short Stays

It is amazing that these little garments were about 10 years in the making, since I first bought the patterns in college (undergraduate, that is). I started the chemise in 2010 and completed it in the fall of 2012. I've since made one in a week, easily, as a birthday gift for a friend, so…