A couple of years ago I’ve already published a tutorial on how to dye cotton fabric blue with black beans using DIY iron mordant and a cold dyeing process. This is now a different method to dye cotton gray blue with black beans. You don’t need to mordant the fabric before dyeing it with black beans! 😀 And because it’s a hot dyeing method, it’s also a lot faster. Continue reading How To Dye Cotton With Black Beans (No Mordant)
The favorite hairstyle of Edwardian women was the pompadour hairstyle. They wore it as an everyday hairstyle and for balls and evening soirees. The basic Edwardian pompadour hairstyle is high over the forehead and close at the back with a bun at the top of the head.
Pompadour hairstyles became popular in the late Victorian and early Edwardian era. Almost all Edwardian women wore a variation of the pompadour coiffure. Continue reading 50 Edwardian Pompadour Gibson Girl Hairstyles
Learn how to make 34 historical types of seams. For historical costumes and modern clothing!
The Victorians had a seam for every purpose! The following 34 historical types of seams have already been used since the Victorian era. While some types of seams are even older and have been used since the Middle Ages. You can use the following 34 historical seam finishes for your Victorian and Edwardian clothing. But of course you can also use them for your modern clothing! Continue reading 34 Types of Seams – Historical Sewing
This bum roll pattern is suitable for the 18th century and early Victorian era (1830s and 1840s) particularly for working class wear. It creates a fashionable bell-shape, especially when you wear it with tucked and corded petticoats. Continue reading How To Sew A Bum Roll
17 natural materials you can use to make your own candle wicks at home! Learn how to make your own candle wicks with natural materials. The following 17 natural DIY candle wicks are all natural, sustainable, non-toxic (not treated with chemicals like store-bought candle wicks), easy to make, cheap, readily available and of course work as wicks for candles and oil lamps! You probably have the materials for your homemade candle wicks lying around the house or you can simply collect them in nature.
I love to make homemade candles and oil lamps with DIY candle wicks! Continue reading 17 Natural Materials To Make DIY Candle Wicks
In the Edwardian era, there were 5 ways to attach ruffles: with a receiving tuck, flat felled seam, finishing braid, French seam or whipped gathers. The first four can be sewn on a sewing machine, while the last one is sewn by hand. All these techniques have in common that the right and wrong side of your skirt looks tidy: there are no raw edges on the wrong side and the skirt is also much more durable than if you‘d use zigzagged or serged seams to attach ruffles. Continue reading 5 Ways To Attach Ruffles – Historical & Heirloom Sewing
Turning jeans into a denim skirt is very popular at the moment. But there’s not just one way how to turn old jeans into a cute skirt: you can make a 6- or 8-gore denim skirt, a pleated denim skirt, a distressed denim skirt … And you can also embellish your DIY refashioned denim skirt with beads, fabric applique, metal chains and fabric paint! Continue reading 9 Creative Ways To Turn Jeans Into A Skirt
Turn an old, ugly, ill-fitting cardigan into a cute vintage cardigan any Gibson Girl would wear proudly!
Knit sweaters and cardigans were a popular choice of Gibson Girls for casual wear and sports around 1900. Continue reading Gibson Girl Cardigan Refashion Tutorial
Sewing buttonholes on the bias grain of fabric is difficult. If you try to sew buttonholes on the true bias the fabric stretches and the bias buttonhole looks distorted. But there’s a trick how you can sew perfect buttonholes on the bias!
In the Edwardian era, buttonholes were often on the bias grain of fabric. Bias buttonholes with silk ribbon threaded through them decorated necklines and hems of Edwardian lingerie. My next sewing project was an Edwardian combination suit with 144 buttonholes on the bias. And because I didn’t want to sew all these 144 bias buttonholes by hand, I had to think of something to sew the bias buttonholes on my sewing machine! Continue reading How To Sew Buttonholes On The Bias
5 step-by-step tutorials from the Edwardian era on how to make an everyday Edwardian Gibson Girl updo.
The pompadour was the typical everyday hairstyle of every Edwardian woman. Below are 5 Edwardian tutorials on how to create a basic pompadour hairstyle. Continue reading 5 Ways To Make An Edwardian Gibson Girl Updo