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…

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…

Completed: Regency Sleeveless Spencer

Photo by Rebekah Markewich. I'm so pleased with the overall look I've been developing with my regency accessories and this sleeveless spencer has really been the cherry on top, I think. Other accessories seen in the photos include a fichu and bonnet I had made previously, a necklace (actually made from 18th c. beads!) which…

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,…

What to Wear on New Year’s Eve, 1919

In response to the influx of online articles disguised as "what to wear to a 1920s/2020s NYE party" that are really just ads for expensive and poorly made sequined "flapper dresses", I thought it would be interesting (and hopefully educational) to dig up some images of what women would have been wearing on December 31,…

The Regency Redingote Project: Research – Primary Source Images

*Please note that the original title of this project was "The Regency Spencer Project", and that post titles have been updated with the name "The Regency Redingote Project" to reflect the evolution of the project* The first step in starting a new project is research, research and more research. When I teach design I explain…

Quick and Thrifty 18th C. Garters: A Tutorial and Short History

If you used this tutorial, please link to your project in the comments or tag it #quicknthrifty18thcgarters on social media so I can see them! Before the advent of such conveniences as pantyhose (invented in the 1960s) and elastic (natural rubber had been in use for eons by indigenous groups and was later adopted by…