Updating my website

I was wandering around my website the other day, looking for something that simply wasn't there! I had created a Pattern Details page, and somehow forgotten to finish it. So off to work I went, and now all of my patterns have at least *some* details given.

As I mentioned earlier, my 1825 - 1830 Day dress has been revamped so that all sizes 2 - 30 now come in the same pattern. I am selling the old stock on eBay - I only have a couple of size Small left. They are listed at 1/3 the original price.

I also have a few corset patterns on eBay at a discount.

What is a Mantua-Maker?

Very briefly: A mantua maker is a dressmaker or seamstress.

The mantua was a fashionable style of gown in the late 1600's. While the mantua was popular, women gained the legal right to make this loose, flowing gown. Before this time, women could make underwear, but only male tailors were allowed to make upper class clothing and corsets - by law! Women won the right to make unboned gowns during this period, and these women were know as mantua-makers.

These women quickly branched out to hats and accessories, then to other types of clothing. Since the unboned mantua was popular for only a couple of decades, expanding was necessary for the female dressmakers' survival, no matter how much the tailors complained.

The term mantua-maker was used for a fashionable dress designer/creator long after the mantua was forgotten, even as late as the 1890's. It was replaced by the more modern term of modiste.

I shouldn't complain about Texas so much. The sunsets here can be spectacular! Here is a photo taken from my front porch.

New patterns are finally online

The new patterns are now on my website. My apologies for being so slow; Texas summers make me feel like cold molasses - stiff and sticky! I like Texas in the spring, I love Texas in the fall. Winters are often quite comfortable. But summer is grim, grimy, gooey. And it is only June! Time to stop whining and start working. ;-)

I have accomplished a little beyond the new patterns. The old 1825 - 1830 Day dress has been revamped so that all sizes 2 - 30 now come in the same pattern.

And I wrote a FAQ for my website! If you have questions I haven't addressed, please let me know.

For the curious, here is a glimpse of my sewing room.

Creating Historical Sewing Patterns

My newest pattern is now ready to ship, so I thought I'd tell you a little about the pattern making process.

To create my patterns, I research everything related I can get my hands on. I love to do research, and often forget to create the pattern because the history is too fascinating. I go through my collection of Victorian patterns, photographs, magazines, catalogs and books, and the reprints by Dover. I pour over books by reliable costume historians, such as Janet Arnold, Nancy Bradfield, and Francis Grimble. I try to find a drawing of a pattern, even if it's only an inch tall. Then I recreate the pattern on my CAD program, grade it out from the original (usually) size 2 and test it. Usually several times. I write out instructions for each step, keeping in mind how the original seamstresses did it, if I was able to find their instructions. When it works, I print it out and put it on my website. I hope other people enjoy using my patterns as much as I enjoyed researching them! Look for my patterns at http://www.mantua-maker.com/.

When I can get hold of existing garments, I do draft from them. My Whistlestop Polonaise is taken from a polonaise in my collection, and I borrowed two of Animal X's collection, years ago, and drafted from them - the Mantlet and the 1820's Day Dress. I've drafted corsets and other undergarments from museum examples that I was allowed to study and measure. I have a couple of very boring bodices that I use to study sewing techniques.

My newest pattern is:

1875 -1890
Mystic Mine Basque
Ideal as a dinner bodice, a walking jacket or as part of a riding habit.
Two lengths of coat style sleeves, three styles of necklines.
Pointed or cutaway front, or with an overlap.
Narrow or wide box pleats in back.

This pattern comes in sizes 2 - 30, all included in one package, and retails for $23.00 USD.

Back on Track for the Walking Skirt

I've been much too distracted by other things, but I'm finally sewing on the walking skirt. Between my day job (which is very part time, and not paying even a bean), finishing up the two bodices, and selling odds on eBay (I'm a packrat, so that is less painful than I thought it would be), I've just been hopping. The Mystic Mine Basque is now on my website, and the You Bet Bodice is almost ready to go.

So, I've started sewing again. Unfortunately, Texas is having a heat wave, and electricity is expensive, so I keep the A/C at 83. My problem is that my sewing room is very dark, and half an hour after I turn on the lights, I'm cooking! Off to the computer, where I can work in the dark with half the hot flashes.

I did iron the fabric during a thunderstorm, when it cooled off for a few hours. It's amazing how a meager 4 degrees can make such a difference! I felt quite spry that day.

I thought I'd introduce you to the man in my life. He's getting old (aren't we all!) and he's been blind for years. I must tell you, a blind cat is the ideal companion for a seamstress. He can rarely FIND trouble to get into! It doesn't slow him down much, except that he only jumps up on certain things, usually where I am sitting. Strangely enough, he'd been blind for a couple of years before I realized it. I knew he was acting odder and odder, but until he ran into a wall, I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I took him to the vet, and she said Ocular Degeneration. We were both amazed. But for me, I'm happy I can leave projects on the table and not worry about him eating the fringe or the silk flowers.

Mystic Mine Basque

Hurray! Suzie has sent the instructions back, and I've made all the changes! By June 1st, I'll have a brand new pattern printed up and ready to go live!

This is the Mystic Mine Basque, named after a retired gold mine in California, and after my cat, Mystic. A little from the first page:

Style and elegance were critical to the Victorian fashionable mentality. Even middle class women aimed to achieve some sort of panache in their mode of dress, if only with a few ribbons. But the most obtainable part of dress was the style itself.

By the early 1870’s, patterns were available through mail order, and everyday sorts of women’s magazines were publishing pattern supplements in most issues, sometimes in the form of a tiny line drawing of pattern pieces, sometimes as whole – but single sized – patterns. These full sized magazine patterns had the disadvantage of having five or ten patterns on the same sheet of paper, with all of the dashed and dotted lines crossing and crisscrossing like an ancient city’s road map. As insane as these sheets appeared, they made a ghost of high fashion available to all home seamstresses. One of the sources for this pattern is the supplemental pattern sheet in the July 25, 1874 issue of Harper’s Bazar. (They changed the spelling many years later.)

The basque featured in this pattern is an example of an easily available bodice. It has the fashionably pointed front, and the sexy longer drapery at the back. It was stylish for walking, traveling, or as part of a riding habit. With more expensive fabric, it was appropriate for a formal dinner, or even a ball.

This pattern has two variations in the neckline: the standing collar and a square evening gown neckline. The sleeves may be cut three quarter length for reception or dinner wear; or full length for day wear; or they may be left off altogether for evening or ballroom wear. The back pleats may be single or double, wide or narrow. The front may be pointed or cut away, or it may be extended across the bust in an overlap.

New bodice patterns coming soon!

Well, I did go sew, but not on my walking skirt. I realized I had a basque sitting on my sewing table that I *must* finish (or I'd never get around to it) before I started the skirt. Now I have three bodice patterns ready to roll, as soon as I hear from my last proof-reader, Suzanne Garcia, a very dear, and *very* busy friend.

I want to share with you here the bodice I just finished in my best fabric. This is the You Bet Bodice, and it is made in the ballroom version out of the most gorgeous teal-green, dragon and phoenix encrusted silk. It fits over any size bustle, which quite honestly amazed me - I thought that the back would cling too close to the hips. I made it with the You Bet neckline, but it also comes with a square neckine and a high neck with collar option, and with sleeves.

I'm going to make part of the walking skirt with this fabric, the shirred and scalloped bit. I have just enough left, and that was what inspired me to finish this bodice.