Welcome, costume nerds!

All dressed up for the ball!

My name is Heather, and I LOVE to sew early 19th century costumes.

From my earliest memories I have been drawn to women’s fashions of the past in some way.

As a girl I could think of nothing better than to slap together a PB&J and tuck in to the couch after school with a cold glass of milk to watch Little House on the Prairie. One year a relative gave me some hand-me-down clothes and I was so excited to see that one of the dresses looked just like Laura’s – a white and blue calico with ruffles at the sleeves and oh so much gathered goodness. The very next day I put my hair in braids, attached matching ribbons, and put on my favorite shoes – orange Chuck Taylor high tops – and marched off to school proud as a peacock in my prairie dress. If I could have got my hands on one of those leather book carriers I would have wrapped up my three ring binder and swung it along too, but one can’t always find the period accessories required.

Sometime in my youth Jane Austen entered my life and I was never the same again. I have read and re-read her books every year for the better part of three decades, and watch the movie adaptations constantly, drooling over the costumes.

I’m not sure exactly how or when it happened, but I started to find costumers who kept blogs about their costume projects, and I was so inspired! Eventually I took the plunge and began to sew my own costumes too. My first two years of sewing was off and on because it was incredibly frustrating. I pulled out twice as many stitches as I put in, and it was so hard to get things to fit right. Gradually I sought out instruction, resources for historical supplies, and found friends in pursuit of the same hobby. I finally feel like I’m hitting a stride, and it is so rewarding! If you are thinking of taking this journey, I encourage you to make a start. You will learn way more by doing than just reading about it.

I’ve still go SO MUCH to learn, so I’m hoping that by starting this blog I can help myself and others find the confidence and resources needed to keep pursuing historical costuming, whether as a serious study or just for adult dress-up fun.

A sort of disclaimer…

As with many costumers who have been blessed (cursed?) with this obsession, I am constantly learning about history and period-correct sewing techniques and materials. Not everything you see here will be 100% historically accurate – I do not claim to be a scholar or expert in any way. This is my hobby, and while I want to be as close to an authentic reproduction as I can be because I choose to go that route, I’m bound to get things wrong because I am still learning. (If you are a scholar and see something wrong, by all means please tell me, I welcome the critique!) If I wander away from something I know is not period correct for economic, taste, availability or other reasons, I shall do my best to point that out.