People often say to me “Oh, I can’t believe you do historic sewing.  That must be so complicated!”.  It really isn’t!  Partly this is because it’s just a different skill set, but not a harder one, but partly because the shapes used for a lot of historic garments are actually pretty basic. So what can you make with squares and rectangles and triangles? The oldest extent garment is all squares and rectangles: As is pretty much every tunic and chemise since then, from the middle ages to the early 19th century: Most petticoats are just rectangles of fabric pleated into waistbands: As are mid-19th century skirts, for all their tiers of rectangular ruffles: Fichus and handkerchiefs and buffons and neckerchiefs and pocket handkerchiefs (what’s the difference?  I’ll be discussing them in an upcoming terminology post.) are all made of squares or rectangles or triangles: Muffs are essentially just layers of rectangles:   Many aprons are rectangles: As are many reticules, purses and variants thereof: Plus, there are all the ethnic costumes based on basic shapes …