American Duchess Historic Shoes Blog
How to Scale Up Gridded Sewing Patterns with Adobe Photoshop
If you've been into historical costuming for any amount of time, you will be familiar with many a book featuring gridded (or scaled) sewing patterns. The Tudor Tailor, Patterns of...
The State of the Book (2) Address
Abby works on Cynthia's (Redthreaded) hair while I photographs each step for "The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty," coming July 2019. Hi! I've been a pretty terrible blogger...
The 7 Stages of Piecing
There are very few historical projects I've made over the years that have gone totally smoothly. In fact, I can think of one. Every other gown I've made, and a...
Book Signing Soiree at Lacis Museum of Lace & Textiles
This past weekend we popped over The Hill down to Berkeley to visit on of our favorite shops *ever* - Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles. We were honored to...
The Creature Reborn - Retrimming the Pink Polonaise
Once upon a time I made a pink taffeta polonaise and trimmed it in organza, a very 1770s thing to do. At the time, I tried hand roll hemming and...
1765 Robe a la Bon Bon - Progress on the Gown
The sacque back is looking swell I've been sewing on-and-off on my new sacque for a few weeks now. I only have the weekends to fiddle these days, but luckily...
1760s Robe a la Bon Bon - The Petticoat
Finished sacque petticoat over pocket hoops I've been steadily progressing on my new sacque, using the Simplicity 8578 Robe a la Francaise pattern we released December 2017. Since I already...
A *New* 1760s Robe a la Bon Bon (or Sacque-a-Macarons?)
I have a confession to make. I admit to feeling quite jealous whenever I see Abby dressed in the pink and white 1768 sacque from The American Duchess Guide. To...
What is an 18th Century Milliner / Marchande de Modes?
La Marchande des Modes (The Modiste) - Studio of Francois Boucher - c. 1746. Wallace Collection When you're just starting off in the world of 18th century dress, terminology can...
2017 - Costuming Year in Review
Jane Austen Festival, 2017. Photo by Tony Tumbusch. It's that time - that year-end-year-beginning-blog-post time. This year I feel I was a terrible blogger. One of the side effects of...
CORRECTION - 1780s Cap Pattern - American Duchess Guide
Hi gals! We've been alerted to a flaw in the 1780s cap pattern from "The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking," so before you all tear your pomaded-and-powdered hair...
{Video} Wherein Lauren & Abby Get Racked
...or Racked gets Lauren'd & Abby'd. ;-) In early December, Abby and I took our annual trip to New York City to do *all the things.* One of the things...