Your Wardrobe Unlock'd

Lynn McMasters shows you how to make three different styles of 1912 straw hats, just in time to go down with the ship in fabulous style!

Janyce Hill has once again consulted her collection of antique magazines to pass on authentic, specific 1912 fashion trends & styles.

Monique begins a series on drafting a pattern and constructing a 1906 Summer shirtwaist, with tucked front, high collar and elbow sleeves.

Sunny finishes her deciphering of a black velvet Teens evening gown, with the bodice opening and velvet tabard.

Sunny continues her examination and deciphering of a black velvet Teens evening gown, focusing on the bodice and sleeves.

Gina Barrett shares with us the easy method for making yards and yards of tassel and pom-pom trim for your Victorian gowns.

 Janyce Hill of the Vintage Pattern Lending Library gives us the fashion forecast for October, November and December 1912.

Sunny continues her examination of a black velvet evening gown with many of the characteristics of Teens high fashion.

Janyce gives us the fashion forecast for summer 1912, including wedding fashions drawn from magazines of that year.

Sunny examines a very complicated early Teens black velvet evening gown with  many of the characteristics of high fashion in this era.

How to create stand-alone miniature works of textile art with cord, thread and a few pins.

What books would have influenced fashion choices for a lady of 1912? What dress advice would a "stout" lady have been given?

Last month, Sunny covered how the lower half of the dress was patterned and constructed. This time, she examines the bodice.

No matter how good a garment is, it can always be improved by adding some lace. Izabela looks at Punto in Aria and bobbin lace.

In our first Teens Double Period Project article, Sunny examines a fashionable striped wool dress from 1909 - 1914 in her collection.

The Winterthur Collection  has many fantastic historical clothing and accessory catalogs. Here's the best  from 1850-1919

You can easily picture your spectacular new gown trailing behind you as you make a grand entrance... but what about the dust?

Last month I analyzed the skirt of a lingerie dress. This month I'll be looking at the associated blouse. In the Belle Époque literature the garment we're discussing goes by many names: waist, shirt-waist, lingerie waist, and lingerie blouse. I've chosen the term "lingerie blouse" because "blouse" is the only one of those terms that's still in use now for a vaguely similar garment.

Analyzing, in exhaustive detail, the construction of a lingerie dress from about 1904.

Lingerie dresses and tailor-mades embody the dichotomies of the Belle Époque period. On one side, the lingerie dress is the essence of frilly ultra-femininity; contrast with it the equally popular severely tailored suit for the active, emancipated woman.

In this article, we dive into the finer points of a beautiful surviving piece of pure frou-frou.

You've been asking us for more information about using color and line in clothing. In response, we have hit the library and consulted period texts in order to find you the most relevant (and entertaining!) information directly from history.

In this excerpted chapter from Color Harmony in Dress, by George Ashdown Audsley (1912), you'll find out whether you're a Fair Blonde, Ruddy Blonde, Pale Brunette or Florid Brunette. Which colours suit you best, and which colours are best left only to trim your bonnet sparingly? Now you'll know!