The Vintage Nerd Sews

As I put the finishing touches on my round gown, I was ready to dive headfirst back in to the 18th century. There's something addicting about the peacefulness hand sewing brings me. I wasn't quite ready to tackle my Francaise yet--there are a lot of things that need done first, including remaking my dressmaker's mannequin. Instead, I thought I'd take a rather sharp fork in the road and head the opposite direction, taking a gander at menswear. When my husband was considering joining in on the early American costuming shenanigans a couple of years ago, I had made him a checked linen shirt. However, we never got much further than that, and his historical interests are considerably more modern. I still wanted to try my hand at menswear, but I didn't want to force him into it either, so I decided that I should work with what I had: me! I don't see many women in the historical costuming community making menswear. Perhaps its because few of our men share our interest e

My modern sewing machine has been in the shop for the last couple of weeks, and was finished and ready for pickup just a couple of days before Christmas. While I was there, it was a moment of love at first sight with this Morris & Co quilting cotton. I grabbed a couple of yards and whipped up this sweet little jacket using Janet Arnold's pattern again. I went with View D this time, with the swallowtail back, and added lacing. It goes remarkably well with my wool sage petticoat (pardon the wrinkles--I pulled it out of the trunk for a few quick photos). I had to eke out the pattern as I got the least possible yardage, but it was well worth it to match up the pattern at the back and center the stomacher. I'd like to get some green silk ribbon to add a bit of flair to the stomacher so I can wear it pinned in as well. Nicely centered pattern on the stomacher As ever, I can only hope for opportunities to wear this in the upcoming year!

  Sewing tools are essential to the process of creating garments, and they always have been. The housewife (sometimes written hussif) has been around for hundreds of years and used by all kinds of people. Military forces the world over issue them to their soldiers, and sewists keep these useful little bundles on hand.  My housewife isn't 100% period correct: I used store-bought seam binding just to make things easier on myself. Most of the fabrics are cottons and linens I used in making my 18th century wardrobe. The only outlier is the cream and blue diagonal plaid, which was a 1940s work shirt. I think it goes with the color palette of the rest of the fabrics, though! What's most important, however, is what's inside.  In the topmost pocket, I keep my dress pins. Most housewifes have a piece of felt with pins sewn above this pocket, but as I have a pin pillow already, I just store my dress pins here. My pin pillow has received an upgrade since these photos were taken, and i

 For my round gown, I knew I wanted to dress it up a bit. The first thing that jumped to mind was to make simple engageantes and a tucker from fine white cotton. I also decided that I would use velvet ribbon to add a pop of color in the form of trim on a bergere hat.  I looked at the diagrams in both Costume Close-Up and the American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking for the engageantes, and then cut a shape somewhere between the two from a cotton batiste. Cut and pressed to be hemmed I hemmed the bottom, and gathered the long edge. This I attached to a cotton twill band, which was measured to fit the circumference of the gown sleeve.  Finished result! After attaching the engageantes, I realized that I had gone perhaps too simple. You do see cotton or linen on occasion, but I've not seen a completely unadorned single set before. I did find a beautiful set of linen engageantes on the Larsdatter linkspages, unadorned and simple, but double-layered, and was immediately convi