Doing a Good Turn
“How do you get such nice edges?” asked a fellow seamstress recently. Here’s how I answered: Logic dictates you can't get good edges without straight stitches. Although, even after fifty years of...
Outside the Lines
The posts in this category are just what its label says, i.e., every single thing ever written without categorization. If you want to read straight through from the very beginning, go to the last page and work your way through backwards. The most recent posts are always added at the top of the first page.
Perfection, Thou Art a Heartless Mistress
As I neared the final few stitches attaching the skirt to the bodice of Maddie's slip, an awful truth dawned. Something was very wrong. The skirt didn't so much hang in beautiful...
Magical Math for Doll Costumers
On any given day, doll costuming runs the gamut from origami to arts and crafts to pin the tail on the donkey. And for those of us who should be locked away...
New Fashion Plates
Something special for this month - three fashion plates, circa 1864, that can NOT be found on Pinterest. The second two appear to have Huret furniture in them, which I think is...
Maddie’s Underthings Part III
Calculating the spacing between tucks, so that they’re perfectly even and so the hem appears to be one of the tucks, is a mathematical nightmare riddled with second guessing and the occasional...
Underthings Pattern by Sheryl Williams
Sheryl Williams has seen more antique doll clothing in her life than most of the rest of us combined. That's why I trust her to be historically accurate. Her patterns also fit...
A Paper Doll Treat
These paper dolls are from the June 1865 issue of Gazette de la Poupée. I did my best to retouch the fold lines. But I'll give you both the before, and after,...
The Grand Magasins of Paris
A remarkable coincidence exists in French history. On each July 14th since 1880, Bastille day has been celebrated. What's not been memorialized is the quiet entrance, on this same day, of a...
The Peace of Quiet
“What on earth do you think about all that time?” My husband is nothing if not astonished by his typically impatient wife, painstakingly sewing row after row of tiny tucks, without the distraction...
Felicity is a Redhead!
I knew the minute I set eyes on this fiery little soul that her hair should be red. I was lucky enough to find her a perfectly sized wig with braids and...