Cloth and Costume 1750 to 1800
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

by Tandy and Charles Hersh

Now in stock!

This is one of the best books ever published on clothing of the second half of the 18th century but since it was first introduced in 1995 has been out of print for over 10 years. Combining detailed photographs of extant garments along with period accounts and quantitative analysis of probate records it provides the reader a complex understanding of how fabrics and accessories were both manufactured and imported into Pennsylvania.

$25.00 softcover, 211 pages, 8 1/2" × 11"

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Costume Close-Up:
Clothing Construction and Patterns 1769-1790

Linda Baumgarten and John Watson

Back in print!

Not just clothing patterns but a detailed examination of the inside of the garments, how the fabric was manufactured and who wore them. A must for the study of costume and a great addition to the bookshelf of a re-enactor.

softcover, 120 pages, 10" × 12"
ISBN number 0-87935-188-8
$24.95

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What Clothes Reveal
The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America

by Linda Baumgarten

Drawing on contemporary written descriptions and on actual costumes of the period, the book analyzes what Americans in the eighteenth century considered fashionable and attractive and how they used clothing to assert status or to identify occupations. The book also examines the myths and meanings of clothing in British and American society, clothing for the entire lifecycle, and a history of clothing alteration. Informative sidebars on a variety of fascinating topics complete the volume.

Linda Baumgarten is curator of textiles and costumes at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, VA.

2002
256 pp. 36 b/w + 355 colorplates, 9" × 12"
Cloth ISBN 0-300-09580-5
$65.00

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Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Fashion in Detail

by Avril Hart and Susan North

This book by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London illustrates many gorgeous garments. Every other page provides a full size color plate of a close up of a detail of a garment. The opposing page gives a line drawing of both sides of the garment so that the seams and stitches may be seen. This comes with an explanation.

$39.95 softcover, 223 pages, 12" × 9"

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Wenches Wives and Servant Girls: A Selection of Advertisements for Female Runaways in American Newspapers, 1770-1783

by Don N. Hagist

In choosing fabrics for our shop it is not just knowing what fabrics are appropriate but what garments may be made of what fabrics. What colors were most common for petticoats for example? Many of the descriptions provided on our fabric pages come from this book. With 400 newspaper descriptions from many American colonies you will find many interesting details not just about their clothes but what items they stole, their bodily appearance, what work they did, and their character. This is one of the best sources of information about poor laboring women in America during the American Revolution!

$14.95 softcover, 265 pages, 6" × 9"

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The Dress of the People
Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England

by John Styles

Combining many written accounts of clothing with full color period illustrations and photographs of swatches printed to scale, this book provides an in depth explanation of clothing of the working poor. Chapters include "Clothing Biographies", "Keeping up Appearances", "Changing Clothes", "Clothing Provincial England: Fabrics", and "Clothes and the Life-cycle". Rarely do books cover specifically the clothing of the working poor but this book provides details found nowhere else.

$50.00 hardcover, 432 pages, 10" × 7"

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Women's Dress during the American Revolution
(A Brigade of the American Revolution publication)

If you knew the original Basic Clothing Guide for Women, you will be impressed by the substantially expanded and updated text in this edition. Features documentation of clothing items and style, updated measuring guides, detailed construction notes, interpretation considerations and many new illustrations as well as a comprehensive bibliography to women's clothing and 18th century women's subjects.

$20.00 softcover, 200 pages, 10" × 6"

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Tartan:
The Highland Habit

by Hugh Cheape

Hugh Cheape, the Head of the Scottish Material Culture Research Center at the National Museums of Scotland, explores the story of tartan from the medieval to the Victorian invention of exclusive clan identity. With the spotlight on Bonnie Prince Charlie's kilt and 'ancient' tartans, the history of the Highlands and its society is brought to life. This new revised edition of the 1995 edition was a best seller for years. This edition has a larger format, more pages, information on women's Highland habit, and new information on the results of dye analysis from an extant kilt.

$17.95 softcover, 112 pages, 159 color, 21 B/W illustrations, 7 1/2" × 6"

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Rural Pennsylvania Clothing

By Ellen J. Gehret

Being a study of the wearing apparel of the German and English inhabitants, both men and women who resided in southeastern Pennsylvania in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Also including sewing instructions and patterns which are profusely illustrated!

This is a reprint of a 1976 book in which Ms. Gehret uses extant clothing to show the fabrics used and construction methods of the Pennsylvania Dutch common folk between 1750-1820. The 309 pages of detailed information, include 315 photographs and illustrations, a bibliography and glossary of early apparel and textile terms. This book includes a good description of linsey woolsey.

$40.00 softcover, 8" × 14"

Hazel's note: Use carefully, noting dating of items for the 18th century. I've made the men's shirt using this pattern but it is important to note that the cuffs on a 1750 to 1785 shirt are usually no more than the width of your thumb about 1/2" wide. Most shirts pictured are 19th century looking at the cuff width.

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Whatever Shall I Wear?

Mara Riley, illustrated by Cathy (Kate) Johnson

Lavishly illustrated with both 18th century cuts and large, clear drawings, many gleaned from period paintings and drawings. Detailed close up drawings of many of the subjects covered; touches on clothing from early century to the Regency/Federal period.

softcover, 56 pages, 8 1/2" × 11"
$12.95

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Had On and Took With Her

Compiled and Edited by Sue Huesken & Karen Mullian

Clothing in female runaway servant advertisements from The Pennsylvania Evening Post as published by Benjamin Towne between 1775-1784.

softcover, 36 pages, 5 1/4" × 8 1/2"
$9.50

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Recreating the American Longhunter 1740-1790

by Joseph Ruckman

An exploration of the life, clothing, and gear of the longhunter of America's frontiers.

From the author's introduction: As the title implies, this book was written for those who are looking for some guidelines on what the 18th century longhunter looked like and the type of equipment he used with an eye toward reproducing it. But rather than limit the reader to appearances, I hope to encourage those who wish to do so to go beyond being 21st century men (and in some cases women) wearing funny clothes and shooting old-fashioned guns and move into the realm of creating their own 18th century character (sometimes called a persona) with a unique history and identity of their own.

softcover, 63 pages, 5 1/4" × 8 1/4"

$9.95

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Tidings from the 18th Century

By Beth Gilgun

Ms. Gilgun animates the mid to late 1700s with her entertaining and informative "letters" to a friend on the frontier. As an accomplished seamstress and goodwife, she covers topics such as daily life, housekeeping, sewing skills and news of the latest goods available in the East Coast markets. Clothing for men, women and children is thoroughly explained with clear, concise instructions from choosing the fabric to cutting and sewing the garments. A great book for re-enactors from 1750 to 1840.

8 1/2" × 11", 285 pages
$32.95

Wm. Booth comment: We have used this book to make several pieces of clothing and find the diagrams and instruction easy to follow and the clothes fit, although you must customize them to the size you need.

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Costume Close-up:
Clothing Construction and Patterns 1769-1790

Linda Baumgarten and John Watson

Out of print.

Not just clothing patterns but a detailed examination of the inside of the garments, how the fabric was manufactured and who wore them. A must for the study of costume and a great addition to the bookshelf of a re-enactor.

10" × 12", 120 pages
ISBN number 0-87935-188-8
$24.95

Fitting & Proper

By Sharon Ann Burnston Out of print!

Early American Clothing: Fitting and Proper provides a rare opportunity to examine the clothing of ordinary 18th century Americans. Over 40 original garments from the collection of the Chester County [Pennsylvania] Historical Society are described and featured in top-quality photographs. In addition, 38 of these garments are rendered as detailed, inch-by-inch graphed patterns by 18th century costume authority Sharon Ann Burnston.

softcover, 122 pages, 9" × 12"
$35.00

Hazel Dickfoss' comment: The clothing diagrams are taken from originals but I have used them to make clothes for myself adjusting to fit my 21st century body.