The fourth Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge for 2014, due March 1, is the first repeat of a ’13 Challenge theme: Under It All. This theme is all about the foundations to a garment: the things that go under it to provide the right shape and support, and to protect your fancy outer garments from sweat and grime. What could you make? Chemises and shifts: Corsets (and stays and jumps, but not, of course, swiss waists): Petticoats and slips: Drawers and pantalets and tap pants: Hoopskirts and bustles and bum rumps: Plus garters and stockings and lots of other little bits! To sum it up, if it goes under your garments, it qualifies! For more inspiration, I have some pinterest boards with undergarments sorted by date: 1700-1750   1750-1790 1790-1820 1820-40 1840-70 1870-80 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920-40

Just in time for that rosiest and most romantic of holidays, the theme of the Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #3, due Sat 15 Feb, is Pink. Pink is an interesting choice for a historical based colour challenge, because pink is, in itself, a fairly modern concept as a colour in the West.  More than a few hundred years ago, the shades that we might term pink were considered variants of red or brown.  To make pink even trickier, when you look at older garments and older illustrations of garments, it’s hard to tell if a fabric was intended to be a pinkish tone, or has faded to that from brown or red. So, in choosing inspiration for your pink item, and your pink materials, you’ll have to use your own discretion to decide if your colour is a shade of pink, and if that pink would have been appropriate to your timeperiod and the status of the wearer, as such things matter to you. To give you a jumpstart, I’ve created a pinterest board of …