If you sew a lot, especially if you sew historical costumes, you’ll have to sew a placket sooner or later. Most plackets aren’t difficult to make but there are some things to keep in mind.
Learn what placket to use for what purpose and to sew six types of historical plackets: hemmed placket, bound placket, extension placket, continuous bound placket, faced placket and a placket in a flat felled seams. Continue reading 6 Ways How To Sew A Placket – Historical Sewing
Learn how to dye with fresh woad leaves without using hazardous chemicals.
After dyeing cotton fabric & clothes blue with red cabbage and black beans, my next natural dye experiment is dyeing cotton fabric blue with homegrown fresh woad leaves. However, I don’t want to use the common woad vat with hazardous chemicals. So after some internet research I found 5 promising natural woad dye recipes without hazardous chemicals: Two of them are traditional fermentation vats, one uses stale urine, one uses salt and one uses vinegar. Continue reading 5 Ways How To Dye With Fresh Woad Leaves
I started the handwoven dress with a cone of beige cotton weaving yarn: I wove the yarn into fabric, washed it, dyed it and then sewed it into a dress. It was a lot of work but I love how my handwoven dress from scratch turned out! 😀 Continue reading How To Make A Handwoven Dress From Scratch
Sew a simple unboned historical peasant bodice with front lacing for historical reenactment or as modern cottagecore lace-up corset top!
In the past, peasants and other working women often wore simple unboned bodices or lightly boned stays. My historical working woman stays are based on antique rural stays. This historical peasant bodice features a low neckline, shoulder straps, spiral lacing at the center front and princess seams at the back. You can make it completely unboned or just lightly boned. Continue reading How To Sew A Historical Peasant Bodice
Because the post about my handsewn Edwardian rayon taffeta dip waist belt is so popular, I’ve written a tutorial how you can make your own Edwardian dip waist belt! 😀 Continue reading How To Make An Edwardian Dip Waist Belt
All these handsewing stitches are similar but they’re not the same! Overhand stitch, overcast stitch, whip stitch and hem stitch – these four stitches are all slanting handsewing stitches. But do you know the difference? Continue reading Overhand, Overcast, Hem & Whip Stitch – What’s The Difference
Learn how to sew an Edwardian-style bra that is so comfy you can wear it instead of a modern bra! 😀 Continue reading How To Sew An Edwardian-Style Bra
My Edwardian hip pad is inspired by antique Edwardian hip pads, like the Scott Ventilated Hip Pad & Bustle. But for a better fit under Edwardian straight-front corsets, I actually used the bottom part of an antique corset to draw the pattern! So my Edwardian hip pad pattern might look different than the typical crescent-shaped Edwardian hip pad patterns that are sold today. But antique Edwardian bustle pads came in various forms like this or this antique hip pad. And I find that this shaped hip pad fits better under Edwardian straight-front (aka S-bend) corsets: It fills out the bum, creates the fashionable wide hips of the Edwardian era without destroying the fashionable straight-front of Edwardian corsets. Continue reading How To Sew An Edwardian Hip Pad
I’ve written up a follow-up to my tutorial on how to dye cotton blue with red cabbage because it’s one of the most popular posts on my blog! 😀 Continue reading How To Dye Cotton Blue With Red Cabbage (No Mordant)
Dye cotton with red hazelnut leaves a beautiful lightfast and washfast green without mordant!
I was so surprised when I found out that red hazelnut leaves dye cotton fabric green! 😀 Despite most plants being green, it’s difficult to dye fabric green with natural dyes. In the past, green fabric was usually first dyed yellow and then over-dyed with blue dye.
But red hazelnut leaves turn cotton fabric green in one step! Continue reading How To Dye Cotton Green With Red Hazelnut Leaves (No Mordant)