#historical garments

[sewlastcentury]

The two newest patterns that I have in testing right now, based on antique plus-size garments...

c. 1909 eleven-gore polka-dotted cotton day skirt The size as-is is a 37”/94cm waist with 60”/152cm+ hips, and ungathered it’s a 46.5”/118cm waist. It was made for a very short person, so I’ve provided the original length (32”/81cm) as well as an extended version (40”/102cm) on the pattern for whatever you need. On Etsy here.

c. 1915-17 silk day dress with beading This has a 60” (152cm) bust and 45.5” (116cm) waist and was made for a relatively tall person. On Etsy here.

Both are now up on Etsy!

[costumedump]

Gustav III's Masquerade Costume

Worn During His Assassination At The Royal Opera House, Stockholm

Midnight, 16th Of March, 1792

The Royal Armoury

Stockholm, Sweden

[erendur]

@peasant-player. I had to reblog the Iron Age murder cloak !

Someone living in Sweden during the Iron Age wore this cloak. Unfortunately, they wore it while they were murdered: forensic analysis found the holes in the cloak match how stabs would have penetrated the folds of the cloak when it was being worn.

Dating to 360 to 100 BCE, is also the oldest known example of a houndstooth pattern!

[trendynewsnow]

Isabelle de Borchgrave: Pioneer of Paper Fashion Art

Isabelle de Borchgrave: Celebrated Artist of Paper Fashion Isabelle de Borchgrave, a renowned Belgian artist and designer, known for her exquisite life-size paper recreations of historical garments, passed away on October 17 at her home in Brussels. She was 78 years old. The cause of her death was cancer, as confirmed by her son, Nicolas de Borchgrave. Ms. de Borchgrave had already established a…

[jagzii]

" I will be the first to admit I’ve been pretty biased against Corsets. I mean, come on, the first time I saw a corset was in Pirates of the Caribbean, and Elizabeth Swan took a bit of a dive after being laced up in one. I didn’t know the people to blame in that scenario, realistically, would be the woman lacing her in rather than the article of clothing itself. Moreover, with the media being full of bizarre images of body modification caused by corset wear, I was even more put off by the garment. Quite frankly, I, like most other people, saw them as nothing more than symbols of the patriarchy–an instrument of control forcing women to conform to whatever weird standards of beauty were in vogue."

Read the rest here: https://open.substack.com/pub/ananyajagoorie/p/lace-me-in?r=7dcr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

[sewingsillythings]

[die-rosastrasse]

Ball gown, 1840-41

Maker: Unknown

From the collection of Wien Museum

[sewlastcentury]

Aaand two more patterns from antique garments!

1890s silk faille evening skirt with a 34" / 86cm waist. On Etsy here!

c. 1870 cotton sateen day dress with a 50” (127cm) bust and 39” (99cm) waist! (It fits the 48”/122cm-bust mannequin very well.) On Etsy here!

I'm finishing up digitization on these, but tester slots are currently open! Once the patterns are finished, I'll put them up on Etsy with the others. <3

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

Evening dress by the House of Worth, c.1880. From the "Fashioned by Sargent" exhibit at the MFA Boston, October 2023

photo by me (@edwardian-girl-next-door)

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

I have some gorgeous shot taffeta that is just waiting for the right project to come along. Every time I see work like this, I want to start stitching

[fashion-plates]

Met Costume Institute

Walking dress. British. ca. 1830

[fashionsfromhistory]

Ball Gown

Late 1860s

European

The MET (Accession Number: 1981.49.3a–c)

[digitalfashionmuseum]

Black wool dress and coat with a fur collar, 1970, American.

By Oscar de la Renta.

Chicago Historical Society.

[nevershootamockingbird]

[ image one: a color photograph of thirty large loops of dyed thread, hanging over two lines outside. They range in colors, including shades of blue, purple, red, yellow, green, and blue. 

images two and three: two color photographs of swatches of different colored fabrics. 

image four: a color photo of different colored thread on seventeen spools. 

image five: a color photo of dozens of looped and twisted yarn, hanging on pegs.  / end id ]

YOU KNOW WHAT BOTHERS ME

when fantasy books describe the cloth of Quant Farmpeople’s clothing as “homespun” or “rough homespun”

“homespun” as opposed to what??? EVERYTHING WAS SPUN AT HOME

they didn’t have fucking spinning factories, your pseudo-medieval farmwife is lucky if she has a fucking spinning wheel, otherwise she’s spinning every single thread her family wears on a drop spindle NO ONE ELSE WAS DOING THE SPINNING unless you go out of your way to establish a certain baseline of industrialization in your fake medieval fantasy land.

and “rough”??? lol just because it’s farm clothes? bitch cloth was valuable as fuck because of the labor involved ain’t no self-respecting woman gonna waste fiber and ALL THAT FUCKING TIME spinning shitty yarn to weave into shitty cloth she’s gonna make GOOD QUALITY SHIT for her family, and considering that women were doing fiber prep/spinning/weaving for like 80% of their waking time up until very recently in world history, literally every woman has the skills necessary to produce some TERRIFYINGLY GOOD QUALITY THREADS

come to think of it i’ve never read a fantasy novel that talks about textile production at all??? like it’s even worse than the “where are all the farms” problem like where are people getting the cloth if no one’s doing the spinning and weaving??? kmart???

[postcard-from-the-past]

Folklore garments from Zlosela, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Croatian vintage postcard

[arthistoryanimalia]

In celebration of seeing the first fireflies of the season:

Furisode with Fireflies and Irises Japan, Edo period, 18th century silk crepe, paste-resist dyed, embroidery National Museum of Japanese History (photographed on display at The Life of Animals in Japanese Art exhbition at the National Gallery of Art DC in 2019)