All posts filed under: Miscellenia

The HSF Challenge #17: Robes & Robings

For the Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #17 we’re going to play with words, and their multiple meanings, a little. The challenge, due 26 August, is ‘Robes & Robings’, and you can make anything that could be described as a robe, is usually called by the name robe, or has robings. How does this work? The basic T shape that we call a robe, and its many variants, is one of the most classic shapes for garments. As such, it is found across the dress of millenia and continents, ranging from the costumes of some of the peoples mentioned in the bible, to the foundations of medieval garments, through 18th century banyans, Regency evening robes, 19th century wrappers, some tea gowns, and the early 20th century kimono borrowed from the East. If it looks like what we would call a robe today, it counts for this challenge. What else counts? Thing that are called robes by a reasonable percentage of English-language museums and costume books (because if we use French, everything is a robe!), so the …

What makes a garment historically accurate?

Published by The Dreamstress

One of the questions I ask people to answer with each Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge is how historically accurate their submission is, and the answers have revealed an interesting range of interpretations of what makes a garment historically accurate. I put the question in the facts list because I think it reveals a lot about the intent of a garment, and I hoped it would encourage people to think about historical accuracy and what really is accurate. I don’t actually think all garments need to be historically accurate – there is a time and place for accuracy in a garment. For some of us accuracy is our ultimate goal, others just want to create pretty frocks. For me, as a researcher, sometimes sewing a garment that you know is inaccurate in certain respects can reveal almost as much about a period as sewing a perfectly accurate one would, and so is worthwhile in its own right. I do think it is important to consider what aspects of your item are accurate, and what aren’t, to …

The HSF Challenge #16: Separates

Published by The Dreamstress

Working in museums, one of the things we often talk about is the disparity in what ends up in a museum costume collection compared to what people actually wear. Collections are full of wedding gowns and ballgowns: memories of the grandest moments of our lives. On a day to day basis though, people wear much simpler clothes: practical, interchangeable items. Today this is jeans and t-shirts, but throughout history even the wealthiest have worn simple separates for the less momentous occasions. The Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #16 is all about Separates: items that can be paired with other pieces in your wardrobe to extend a look. My favourite anecdote about separates involves Queen Victoria and her future daughter-in-law Alexandra. On being introduced the Alexandra, the Queen noticed that she wore a skirt with one jacket one day, and the same skirt, with a different jacket, the next day. Victoria was delighted. To her, this indicated a frugal and practical nature: just the thing to balance the son that she and Albert had viewed as overly …