Lalah - victory may be yours I happen to have a copy of Juanita Leisch's 'Who Wore What?' 1861-1865 - (not my period at all but I helped her with a fashion show at Colonial Williamsburg and it was a kind gift)
I looked in it for pictures of ladies WITH men and in several photographs I see right-over-left buttoning for women while the men's wear is still left-over-right. Note that: there are an equal number of photographs with the women's wear buttoning left over-right as well, so this could be a transition time Hope this helps Sarah Paterson -----Original Message----- I am making garb for a Civil War enactor's girl friend and his mother is driving me crazy. She has some really weird ideas and since she has been playing with this group for a number of years, I just shut up and do what she wants. However, I made the mistake of putting Fray Check on the buttonhole marks on a blouse and it spread out and it shows badly. Having tried everything I can think of to remove it, I am ready to take the blouse apart and make a new left front. Then it occurred to me that it would be easy to use the left side for buttons and put the buttonholes on the right. My friend went crazy saying they never had the buttonholes on the right. I am so sick of the whole thing that I don't want to do any more research. Does anyone know if the buttonholes HAD to be on the left on women's blouses during the Civil War period? Also what kind of hat would be appropriate? I am not going to make her a fez! Thanks for the help Lalah, Never give up, Never surrender _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
