Re: [h-cost] Review? Women's Costume 1877-1885: The Complete Dress and Cloak ...
In a message dated 10/7/2005 10:23:11 A.M. Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Yes, it is the original scale patterns and illustrations from tailoring and fitting instructions originally printed. Unless the late Jean Hunnisett has a successor to carry on her Period Costume for Stage and Screen series of books, I doubt we will see any more books on historic patterns scaled to fit the modern wearer. And because the information on the Princess line of this period is so difficult to come by, it is a good source of information. I would be lost without it during my current design and build of Doll's House. It also contains a detailed account of etiquette regarding the proper time and place for different fashions of the time IE. Traveling, visiting, promenading, opera, mourning (all three degrees), etc. Cheryl Odom ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] Review? Women's Costume 1877-1885: The Complete Dress and Cloak Cutter
The new edition of Hecklinger's _Dress and Cloak Cutter_? It's typical of my old friend Robb Shep's books. (He recently moved back to San Francisco, in a neighborhood near mine! But Fred Struthers is still distributing Robb's books from Fort Bragg, for those who want to buy direct; the URL is www.rlshep.com.) The _Dress and Cloak Cutter_ contains a solid selection of women's pattern drafts primarily oriented to tailored clothes, probably drawn to true scale but I haven't done the math to check. Anyway it includes all the period drafting instructions and a supplementary section on clothing etiquette. If you want sizing, our two-volume anthology _Fashions of the Gilded Age_, which contains several hundred patterns for women's garments from 1877 through 1882, includes many patterns that use an apportioning scale system. Volume 2 also includes a dressmaking manual with information drawn from many sources. Both volumes contain extensive quotes from fashion columns and other sources on construction, fabrics, trimmings, what was worn when, etc. Paper patterns, in the sense of Butterick et al, are just not a suitable production format for a book. Basically you've got a trade-off. You can buy individual full-sized patterns in modern sizes and get the convenience of that. Or you can buy a book, and enlarge and size the patterns (even if they are drawn to _a_ modern size, it's not necessarily the wearer's). And you get a much larger range of styles at a lower per-pattern price. But book and full-size pattern publishing formats can't do all the same things; think of a book's sizing and binding issues. Aside from the shelving issues that make a book larger than 8 1/2” by 11” significantly harder to sell to both bookstores and libraries, the more you put into a book for each pattern, the fewer patterns will fit in it. You also have to realize that if you want a book that is a direct reprint of an original source (like most of Robb's) or based on original sources (like ours), there is not an infinite number of original sources. The further back you go, the fewer there are. The best books in English with women’s clothing patterns that I know of (and I’ve been collecting for decades) are the Hecklinger that Robb reprinted (and Robb’s also collected for decades), and an extremely rare US source that we used for parts of _Fashions of the Gilded Age_. The German book that we used as a source for the apportioning scale patterns, and some others, is a bigger (many more patterns) and IMO a better book than Hecklinger’s. But, we had to pay a professional technical translator quite a lot. And I still had supervise her very closely using my knowledge of period patterns and clothing, and what's left of my college German. And there isn't an infinite number of foreign sources either, nor are they, as a general rule, hugely different from the ones in English. Fran Lavolta Press Books of Historic Patterns http://www.lavoltapress.com Does anyone have this title, or have comments on the contents? The description says pattern diagrams and illustrations but I'm wondering if it has real intructions or if it's just copies of old scale diagrams that I have to interpret myself. (Like a lot of other books) Dawn ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] Review? Women's Costume 1877-1885: The Complete Dress and Cloak ...
In a message dated 10/7/2005 7:49:21 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I just have no idea how to assemble clothing from this era without it looking like a bad home ec project. * Oh c'mon! I'm sure your skills are more then adequate. The way I was taught: One thing is, you have to trace all sewing lines and not rely on even seam allowances like a commercial pattern. Indeed, if the bodice is flat lined, as they usually are, the best way is to trace on the flat lining, and then hand baste the lining to the fashion fabric while each piece is flat on a table [FLAT lining after all] right on [or just outside] the traced sewing lines. This way you can see the sewing lines on both sides of each pattern piece. [If the fabric was thick, we would baste right on the traced lines, and sew just to the outside of them...to make up for the thickness of the layers of fabric.] You then line pieces up by sticking a pin through the two pieces being sewn together to line them up. Then using ANOTHER pin to pin it in place before you take out the pin you used to line it up. Lots of balance marks help. The other non-modern thing is you must set sleeves into the armseye. None of this sewing the sleeve seams and underarm seam at the same time stuff. Again using the line-up-with-a-pin method and matching seams if they match and lots of balance marks. My friend who used to work with me on period movies would hand bast in sleeves after pinning if they were difficult, like Gigot or leg o' mutton sleeves, before sewing them in by machinebut you don't NEED to do this. All this basting is of course pulled out later. And of course clipping the allowance of curved seams so they will lay flat when pressed open is a must. I once saw a pair of 1890s bodices obviously made by the same TOC seamstress. The insides were beautiful. The curved seams of the 6 piece backs were scallopednot just clipped...like they were clipped every inch or so and the right angles of the clipped seam allowance cut off in curves. Then pressed open. Then the raw scalloped edges were bound in narrow magenta seam binding. THEN a bone, covered in brown glazed cotton, was cross stitched down the center of each seam, to the seam allowance, with magenta thread. All those scalloped and bound and boned seams converging to about an inch apart at the waist was a thing of beauty! The front was just 2 pieces [as usual] with 2 darts on each side of CF under the bust, again with boning cross stitch down each dart that was clipped just once at the waist. This is the way to do it. Time consuming? A bit. But, y'knowif you're gonna do it anyway. ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] Review? Women's Costume 1877-1885: The Complete Dress and Cloak ...
Ok, I just gotta ask. first of all, what is a TOC seamstress? then more importantly, was the seam binding sewed to the scallops in scallops or was it straight following where the seam was or would be? thanks, Kitty [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 10/7/2005 7:49:21 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I once saw a pair of 1890s bodices obviously made by the same TOC seamstress. The insides were beautiful. The curved seams of the 6 piece backs were scallopednot just clipped...like they were clipped every inch or so and the right angles of the clipped seam allowance cut off in curves. Then pressed open. Then the raw scalloped edges were bound in narrow magenta seam binding. THEN a bone, covered in brown glazed cotton, was cross stitched down the center of each seam, to the seam allowance, with magenta thread. All those scalloped and bound and boned seams converging to about an inch apart at the waist was a thing of beauty! The front was just 2 pieces [as usual] with 2 darts on each side of CF under the bust, again with boning cross stitch down each dart that was clipped just once at the waist. This is the way to do it. Time consuming? A bit. But, y'knowif you're gonna do it anyway. ___ ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
