One year, a challenge every fortnight (due on the first & 15th of the Month), and at the end of it, 24 fabulous historical garments. Or do the half-marathon, and do either the odd numbered challenges, or the even numbered challenges How it works: Every fortnight in 2014 will feature a themed challenge and we’ll each sew (or knit, or crochet, or tatt, or embroider, or whatever it is you call making a hat, or otherwise create) a historical garment or accessory that fits the theme. I’ll announce the first seven Challenges of HSF ’14 after HSF ’13 Challenges 20-26 close, respectively, and then announce the remaining 17 HSF ’14 Challenges in one big lot in January 2014. I’ll continue to do inspiration posts for the Challenges 8 challenges ahead throughout the year. You can do as many or as few Challenges as you want, though I’d encourage people to aim to do either the full 24 (full marathon) or every other challenge (half marathon, picking either the even numbered challenges or the odd numbered …
Since it will be a new year, the second Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge of 2014 (due Sat Feb 1) will be all about new things: Innovations. Innovation is one of the biggest drivers in new fashions, today, and in the past. New inventions, the introduction of new materials or new styles from abroad all create new trends. Some of these fashions faded quickly, others had a lasting impact on what we wore. To celebrate the way inventions, introductions and discoveries have impacted fashion, make an item that reflects the newest innovations in your era. Because the Historical Sew Fortnightly is about learning as well as creation, I’d really encourage you to share the research you did into your innovation when you present the finished item. There have been innovations in fabric that have changed fashion, like the introduction of Chinese silks into ancient Rome (much to the distress of Roman officials, who worried about the economic impact of all that Roman gold going East to pay for the silk coming West – to the point …
Brown linen is the term used to describe unbleached linen in the 18th and 19th century. ‘Brown’ linen could either be finely woven, high quality linen that would be bleached before being sold, or rough, coarse linen that would be sold brown. Rather than pre-bleaching the linen yarn, cloth was usually woven brown, then sold to bleachers, the price based on the quality of the thread and weave, and then on-sold to fabric merchants and customers. Heavy and course linen would probably remain brown for use in cheaper clothes, as bags and for rough use (in 1803 Merriweather Lewis purchased from Richard Weavill, a Philadelphia upholsterer, 107 yards of brown linen to be made into 8 tents for his cross-continental exploration with William Clark), finer linen cloth would be bleached white. The Impact of the Domestic Linen Industry describes the how the town of Banbridge in the county of Down had grown up from a cluster of houses in 1718 to a prosperous market town 20 years later entirely around the sale of unbleached linen, …
