HSM July ’22: Regency Bodiced Petticoat Research

For the Historical Sew Monthly July challenge I am making a bodiced petticoat. The challenge's theme is "geometry." I had already started this garment as part of my ongoing thesis research, but I will need it for an event later this month to go under my newest regency gown. Having this type of deadline is…

Completed: LM 115 Regency Long Stays (HSM ’22 #1)

This post is a summary of my more long-winded, narrative-style posts about these stays as a work-in-progress: toile, #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5. Progress photos from these posts have not been re-posted here. These stays were sewn in preparation for my thesis work, for which I am recreating a ca. 1810-1815 dress in order…

Examining Early 19th C. Long Stays II: Thread Analysis

Click here to read my previous post on the Fiber/Fabric Analysis of these stays. Thread morphology is made up of multiple aspects that can be analyzed: fiber, number of plies and cords, direction of spin for a ply, and direction of twist (the direction individual and multiple plies are twisted together). On non-historical threads one can…

Examining Early 19th C. Long Stays: Fiber/Fabric Analysis

Part of the preparation of my thesis work involves making a pair of long stays appropriate for around 1810-1815. I lucked out when one of my thesis committee members offered up an extant pair that I could examine. My outside committee member, who has been a wonderful mentor since my undergraduate studies, had found them…

Independent Study: 5 Regency Dresses

If you've been on my instagram lately, you might have seen the sneak peeks I've been giving of my independent study this semester. Well, here is the reveal! The Historical Society of Old Yarmouth is allowing me to study 5 late 18th century and early 19th century dresses which they recently acquired. Here are my…

Wet Cleaning an Infant Shirt for Conservation Part 2: IDing and Dating the Object

23 SEP-22 OCT 2019Supervisor: Professor Rebecca Kelly for TMD 538, University of Rhode Island I had some hunches about what period this shirt might be from based on the pieces being cut from geometric shapes. It resembled my 1810s chemise I made, as well as patterns I have seen for reproducing 18th century Western European…

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,…