Your Wardrobe Unlock'd

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

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

Tucks were a favorite decoration from the 1820s to Teens: here's how to create a mid-19th c.-style tucked petticoat, start to finish.

In Part II, we look at the numerous skirt supports that the early Victorian woman wore to hold out her skirts and look fashionable.

Studying the undergarments of a transitional period in which styles shifted slowly but dramatically.

Gina Barrett shows us how to make Deaths' Head buttons, one type of the many different type of  passementerie buttons. 

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

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.

Charles Frederick Worth is remembered as the father of haute couture, and Suzi Clarke has a couple of treasures of his to show us...

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

Soutache is a fantastic looking Victorian trim. Even better, it offers a huge visual impact with relatively little work attached to it!

Jema Hewitt shows by example how to design fantastical Steampunk outfits without resorting to the same old clichés.

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

Jason gives detailed instructions on constructing the period trousers he showed us how to draft last month.

Christina translates some gorgeous but cryptic Victorian instructions into modern-style knitting and crochet diagrams, and then tries them out.

Step-by-step instructions, with photos, for recreating five late Victorian evening hairstyles. All are suitable for the Natural Form era and DPP.

I'm back with a tailoring topic that some of you requested and I'm more than happy to supply: how to cut and sew a pair of gentlemen's trousers. 

A wonderful example of fashionable US Victorian day dress, composed of polonaise and trained skirt. Part 2 features the complete pattern.

I have the honor to own my great-grandmother’s 1875 wedding dress. The more I look closely at this heirloom, the more fascinating it is!

Lynn continues her series on Natural Form Era Victorian hairpieces by showing step-by-step how to create a curly hairpiece, pin curls and curly bangs.