Lovely reader Ceselha, of the blog “My Stubby Fingers…” pointed me to two books on ladies’ hairstyling, from 1768, entitled ” L’Art de la Coeffure des Dames Francoises,” and a supplement to…
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V61: Favorite 18th Century Shoe Buckles
If you own pair of latchet shoes, eventually you will own a pair of shoe buckles to close them. Shoe buckles were the standard way of fastening one’s footwear in the 18th…
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V60: 1770s Hair Notes
Today’s post is a page out of my dress journal. I went through a great many images, a lot of them fashion plates, and broke down the various parts of the big…
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V49: 18th Century Quilted Petticoats
I am thinking of quilting a petticoat. My mom thinks that’s insane, but it really seems doable, even for an inpatient girl like me. The quilted petticoats in the Colonial Williamsburg book…
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V45: Edwardian Hair Mysteries Solved – Part 4 – Beginning Styling
So far in this series, we’ve covered several aspects of Edwardian hair care and styling preparation, along with a few styling supplements. Now it’s time to put that hair up. Ladies with…
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V42: Edwardian Hair Styling Mysteries Solved – Part 3 – Rats, Switches, and Wiglets
In the last two installments of this series, we took a look at how women prepared their hair for styling. They used some interesting shampoos, along with various methods of crimping and…
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V41: Edwardian Hair Styling Mysteries Solved – Part 2 – Brushing, Crimping, Fire
Last time in Part 1 of this series, I introduced you to some rather “exciting” sounding Edwardian shampoo and hair dressing recipes, taken from “The Manual on Barbering, Hairdressing, Manicuring, Facial Massage,…
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V40: Edwardian Hair Styling Mysteries Solved, 1905 – Part 1 – Shampoo and Other Scary Things
The other day, while washing my hair, I began thinking about hairdressing habits of the past, and how we ladies today treat our hair in *such* a different way from our Edwardian…
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V36: SuperStripe Sunday – Stripes in the 1770s
Met It’s Superbowl Sunday here in America Land. I don’t follow football, so I’ll be burying myself in the sewing loft and trying to accomplish something on the 1912 Titanic gown. Yesterday…
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V33: Only Death and Taxes, in the 18th century
I have done absolutely nothing costume-related in the past couple of days, and that is because I’ve started my 2011 taxes. /groan. ‘Course, taxes in the 18th century were a big deal…
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V26: 18th Century Panniers – examples and ideas
Trouvais.com I’ve been thinking about panniers lately. Pocket hoops. Hip padding. For an upper class impression, it looks like a little side hoop action was still en vogue for the 1770s, so…
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V23: 18th Century Accessories – Embroidered Aprons
Lewis Walpole Library Despite working on a 1912 Titanic gown currently, and having several other projects lined up before I need to start on the Colonial Williamsburg stuff, I just can’t stay…
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V22: More 19teens and Early 1920s Hairstyles {Videos!}
I’ve been talking a lot about hair lately. It seems to be the thing we have the most trouble with. In the first post, “Introduction to Hairstyles in 1912,” I showed contemporary…
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V18: Take the Victorian Button Boot Survey
It’s time for a little “focus group” research, to see what you ladies think about Victorian Button Boots. I’ve had a lot of requests for these, so I’m looking in to the…
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V17: What Real Women Wore in 1912
I get so starry-eyed when I look at evening gowns and haute couture of the 19teens. It’s easy to forget that most women didn’t wear anything even remotely like this. There is…
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V14: Edwardian Shoe Candy
To celebrate the Astoria coming out on Monday, I want to post some of my favorite images of Edwardian shoes. It was such a wonderful time for footwear. Ladies’ shoes were styled…
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V8: Bring On the Edwardians…
1911, the Met As much as I adore musing (or tearing my hair out) over 1770s costume ideas, fabrics, and plans, there are more pressing matters to attend to. The first “big”…
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V6: Favorite Yellow Things of the 18th Century
I decided yesterday to make my Williamsburg jacket and petticoat in bright-ass yellow, a color that was extremely popular in the 18th century. With the boom of all-things-Chinese and far-East in 18th…
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V5: Williamsburg Ensemble #1 Plan
Something like this…but…flouncier. Thanks to all of you who commented on my first post about my Williamsburg costume conundrum, especially Abby, Nicole, and Hallie, I have come upon a plan. Well, really…
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V3: Reconciling Myself to the 1770s
My dear mother and I are planning a trip to Colonial Williamsburg in October of this year. Of course, that means getting all excited about costume possibilities NOW, and planning all the…