American Duchess Historic Shoes Blog
Vintage 12-in-12 and a Great Many New Old Patterns
Yesterday was a glorious day: I got my hands on 43 vintage dress patterns from the 1950s and early 60s. All of them are fab, some more my style than...
Making a Workable Dress Form - or - The Violent Transformation of Franken-Lilly
This is Lilly straight out of the box. Lilly is a dress display mannequin, as opposed to a dressmaker's form. She has a nice jersey cover over a molded, hard...
On Wiglets and Hair Pieces, Part 1
I say "Part 1" because this is a work in progress. I would also like to say up front that I am not a hair genius, in fact I suck...
Revolution Dress - About Those Stays
The Dreamstress asked me to share a little about the stays I've been working on. Those extra grommets at the bottom are me messing up. Ignore those, pls. :-) I...
Revolution Dress - A Better Idea of What the Heck I'm Doing
The idea of how this gown, "the Revolution Dress," is going to come together has been milling around in my head for a couple weeks now, in a somewhat nebulous...
Revolution Dress - Undies!
This is just a quick post on underwear, in all its glory. As you know, I've started this latest 18th c. gown project with the basics, a proper set of...
18th Century Figurines - Capodimonte and the Crown N Mark
Who doesn't love little Georgian figurines? Visit an antiques fair and you'll see literally thousands of the little things, all in various degree of quality. They became extremely popular in...
The Revolution Dress - Beginnings, Again
Last time, I wrote about a new 18th c. project concerning a Robe Retroussee dans les Poches, but since then the project has been morphing and smooshing around trying to...
Starting Small on a Big New 18th c. Project
I finally have a new 18th c. project in mind, yay! I want to make a striped red Robe a l'Anglaise, but to be worn either polonaise'd (verb) or "dans...
Back From the Dead , and Some Shoe News
I haven't been blogging, I'm sorry, but I've been SO ill. I do have things to tell you guys about - the Madame X gown I didn't get to wear,...
Historical Footwear - News, and Looking at Edwardian Styles
Wishbone straps on a c. 1900 white kid pump The results of the Historical Footwear poll are in, and the Edwardian pumps took first, followed by a foot-and-foot race between...
New Vintage Hat Finds
I love hats, didn't you know? I picked up three gorgeous vintage hats last weekend, for the Boutique on Etsy. The hardest thing about this "job," this acquiring of vintage...