Your Wardrobe Unlock'd

I love handbags. They are the cherry on the banana split of fashion ensembles. Like hats, they complete and complement your gown. Properly researched, they add credibility to your historic or vintage attire.

Two bags came into my hands a few years ago: two wristlet purses, artfully gathered and sewn onto the highly popular Bakelite bangles of the era. “Cheap, fast and easy” was a phrase applied to high-living flappers, but the same could be said of these bags aswell. I'll show you how to recreate them both.

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!

Vicky Clarke has a mission: to bring back historical fashion that flattered curvy women so well in the past, and make it practical and wearable for our 21st century lifestyles.

The skirt we'll be making in this article is a hybrid of original 1910s design, 1970s revival and design simply intended to flatter the body as it is.

We'll start by drafting a custom skirt block, which we'll then slash and spread to get the pattern we want. There are also instructions for an optional applique panel to accentuate the waist: another nod to the original Edwardian style.

This month Marion McNealy shares with you some of the vintage corset making and fitting books that are online.

The books range from patterning and making an 1857 corset (perfect for the Single Pattern Project!)  to 1920's and 30's corsets, corselettes, brassieres, bandeaux and girdles. We've even got an excellent book from the 1950's for corset saleswomen on fitting a customer and making her feel at ease during the fitting process, still applicable to customers today!

This month we publish the runner up in our essay contest.

Transitional eras fascinate me. In times of rapid social and technological change, what people wear changes dramatically as fashion collides with reality.

One such era is the early 20th Century. The years ending 1914 were named La Belle Epoque as people looked back wistfully upon the era. The graceful long gowns, the carriages, the attentive servants, all faded into autumnal memory after the Great War.

The gorgeous Elizabethan gown is completed after months of work. Everything is beautifully fitted and sewn, the fabrics are near-as-damn-it authentic and just perfect. It looks amazing, but something is missing. That small detail which is always seen in the portraits but never noticed.

You need a piece of needlelace!

This Masterclass will show you how to add that little bit extra to your gorgeous gown. The technique used is Drawn Threadwork and the garment is a pair of Drawn Threadwork Cuffs (pictured right).

The technique is easily transferable to other decorative linen garments such as the ubiquitous Elizabethan Coif, a partlet or embellishment to a shirt or smock. Or you can use the technique for the border of a handkerchief.

The skill is not just restricted to Elizabethan costuming but is seen from very early medieval period right through to the twentieth century and on all kinds of linen items such as caps, Edwardian shirtwaists, collars, aprons and handkerchiefs.

Once you've learned the basics, you can unleash your imagination!