Christmas 2009

I just HAVE to blog about my Christmas presents. I've not been able to stop looking at them since I opened the packages.

1)  Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques by Jill Salen
                    This has some really wonderful pictures and patterns.  I can't wait to use them. I'm really eyeing the late 19th century patterns. It's completely worth the full price if you're any kind of costumer.

2)   60 Civil War-Era Fashion Patterns by Kristina Seleshanko
                     This book covers all of the 1860's, not just the American Civil War years. It has a nice collection of women's and children's patterns throughout the era. It's around $12 on Amazon.com, another good buy.

3)   Civil War Ladies: Fashion and Needle-Arts of the Early 1860's
                       It's REALLY HEAVY. A collection of patterns and pictures from Peterson's Magazine 1861-1864. There are many, many great pictures but not a whole lot of instructions/patterns for clothing. It also has piano music from the era and other accessories that would be nice to have with the wardrobe. :)

4)   The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Collette Wolff
                      This one's a wonderful buy. I've not been sewing for a long time, so there are lots of techniques I would never have figured out without this book. Ideas out the wazzoo and lots of pictures make it easy to understand. It's going to pair really well with the next book.....

5)   Reconstruction Era Fashions by Francis Grimble
                         BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are so many good things about the book, I can't begin to name them all. This is one of my favorite time periods for clothing and it is a nice reference for all sorts of things. It has LOTS AND LOTS of ideas for the surrounding periods. I CAN"T WAIT TO START SEWING!!!!


Other than the books, I got socks and dishes for my hopechest. It was a really nice Christmas overall. I hope you all did too :)