The theme for the Historical Sew Monthly Challenge #9 is Brown: make something in any shade of brown. Brown is not generally my favourite colour, but I’m getting quite ambitious about this challenge, and have actually gotten very excited as I’ve researched it, so I may come around to brown yet!  And I’ve found so many beautiful things in finding pieces for the inspiration post! Brown should be an easy one for everyone to do, because brown has been such a popular colour throughout history: there is almost no period, no people, no rank or station that hasn’t worn brown.  Hopefully  there will be entries to represent all sorts of periods, places, levels of stations, and all shades of brown! And now, for some inspiration… True browns are less common in Medieval illustrations than they were in Medieval clothing, simply because the illustrators went for bright shades for visual effect, and coloured illuminations are more likely to depict the upper classes, where brighter colours were a status symbol.  Plus, some colours  have faded to brown …

After a big drop in submissions between Challenge #3 & Challenge #4  (the  HSM War & Peace challenge), submission numbers held steady for Challenge #5: Practicality.  Perfectly steady in fact – there were exactly the same number of submissions for both challenge, which does please my sense of order (though I’d like it even more if there were more submissions!) I was really excited about the entries for the Practicality challenge, because I think practicality is so often overlooked in historical costuming: we forget that people had to live and work in their clothing, and that most people actually worked really hard. I made an item that didn’t seem that practical from a modern viewpoint – a white 1910s blouse, but which was actually a revolution in practicality (Separates!  Washability!  Ready-to-wear!  Ease of fit!).  And I road tested it’s practicality by wearing it to clean the house, 1910s style. Obviously I love what I made, but I’ve also been delighted with the other entries – I’ve learned things, been inspired, been envious, been motivated to …