Sacque gown, partially deconstructed, 1765-69 – National Trust NT 1350856 It’s commonly known that 18th century dress textiles were made and remade and remade again. A great many extant gowns in museum…
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Jane Austen Goes to Ikea – Slow Progress
Slow progress on this 1790s gown, but it’ll {eventually} come together in time for JA Fest in July. Jane Austen Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, is 10 weeks away and I got nothin’.…
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Simplicity 8411 – A New 18th Century Pattern!
Howdy! After many moons we finally get to announce the release of our new collaboration with Simplicity Patterns – Simplicity 8411. Now right off the bat many of you will be rolling…
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Guts – Inspecting the Insides of 18th Century Garments
Vintage Textile, c. 1780s (click through for more). This is the waist edge at the center back of the bodice. Lauren here > Historical costuming is a journey. It starts with an…
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The 1790s “Jane Austen Goes to Ikea” Gown – The Corset
Ikea does it again – Ingmarie curtains >> This year is 1790s year. After completing all the book projects, Abby and I can finally settle into share-able projects. Both of us are…
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Research: We See What We Want to See; We See What We Know
Dress research is one of the great pleasures of the historical costuming hobby, and it’s also a necessity. We all start off along this interest in old clothes knowing nothing, then slowly…
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Sacque-spiration – Robes a la Francaise to Admire
Hi! We are currently stitching along on our most complex book project, the 1760s sacque. While we can’t show you the whole big crazy thing quite yet, we’d like to share with…
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The “State of the Book” Address – Updates and Progress
Well it’s been a couple months now since we announced the writing of our 18th century sewing book, which now has an official title: “The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking:…
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What The Heck Is This 18th Century Dress?
I keep a Pinterest Board called “Historical Costuming Weirdness,” wherein I pin all the things I find that don’t match up nicely with what we think we know about historical dress *right…
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Finding Inspiration in the 1790s with Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
Self Portrait by Vigee-Lebrun, 1791 Those of you who have been following for awhile will know I’m not a huge fan of, well, anything with an empire waist. I just can’t seem…
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DIY Hair Powder Shaker, or, DIY Powdered Sugar Shaker (depending on your Pinterest Mood)
Hello Lovelies! Abby here – Today, I wish to speak with you about Arts & Crafts, while attempting to teach ya’ll something that will make Pinterest go crazy with excitement! …maybe….? I…
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Rufflecon 2016!!!
Hello lovelies! Lauren and I are currently off on a new adventure together – first was China & now we’re off to Stamford, Connecticut for Rufflecon! (this is the part where I do…
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Spotlight: New “Fraser” Early 18th Century Leather Shoes
Lauren reporting – As you all know, this year we’ve opened all of our new Fall/Winter historic styles for pre-order at the same time. We’ve also made the pre-order period longer –…
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Introducing our Fall Collection of Historic Shoes – Pre-Orders Open!
It’s a big day! For the first time, we’re presenting our entire Fall collection all at once. Intense. This year we have new offerings in several of our historic categories. There’s “Fraser”…
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The Red Dress Project: Challenges
Lauren reporting > I’ve been working on-and-off on The Red Dress, the Robe de Cour pattern for Simplicity. I am making the master pattern in paper, but I am also responsible for…
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Our Big Announcement!
Hello Lovelies! As many of you know (but maybe some of you don’t) we announced last Friday via our weekly Facebook LiveCast (2pm Pacific Time/5 pm Eastern) that American Duchess has signed…
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My Big Fat Yellow English Gown – Finito!
Lauren here – Doesn’t it just feel *so good* to best a cranky project, wear it, and love it? I’d been working on my yellow English Gown for most of 2016 and…
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My 1740s “Mutton Chop” Cap
The Athenaeum – Lettice Mary Banks (William Hoare – ) English 1746 It’s getting down to the wire on Costume College preparations. Most of my major projects are a few steps from…
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Simplicity 18th Century Stays – Adding Boning
I’ve been MIA on the Simplicity 18th Century Pattern Hacks lately, due to moving, but I’m back! Time for more helpful hacks and hints for constructing Simplicity 8161 and 8162 in a…
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And It Was All Yellow…
You’re going to think I’m all-over-the-place right now, and you would be right. Projects here, projects there, moving house, moving business, omg! It’s been stressy, for sure, but this is also the…