The Age of Napoleon
Costume from Revolution to Empire: 1789-1815

New!

by Katell le Bourhis, General Editor

Just about every page of this book includes at least one full color picture showing everything from high fashion to working sailor. This collection of essays includes such topics as American Women and French Fashion, Uniforms in the Napoleonic Era and Silk from Lyon.

$39.95 softcover, 270 pages, 9" × 12"

Add The Age of Napoleon to Cart

Cloth and Costume 1750 to 1800
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

by Tandy and Charles Hersh

This is one of the best books ever published on clothing of the second half of the 18th century. 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"

Add Cloth and Costume to Cart

The People of Red River:
A Costume Guide

Barry and Judy Mc Pherson

Just in time for the 2012 bicentennial ceremonies commemorating the war of 1812 there is now an excellent costume guide available. Over the years, Barry and Judy McPherson collected costume and textile information from primary sources that have only been available to them and those they know. Now, with the support and encouragement of the Dept. of Culture & Heritage, Province of Manitoba in Canada, a portion of their work is now available to all. This full color guide contains a many plates drawn from sources in Scotland, Ireland and throughout North America. Accompanying these plates is an outstanding collection of art developed by Janet La France that serves not only as part of a costume guide, but also as an introduction to the People of Red River. Along with an extensive textile and costume glossary and a bibliography this will help the authenticity of early 19th century historic interpreters.

softcover, 109 pages, 10 1/2" × 8"
ISBN number 978-0-9813420-0-9
$39.00

Add The People of Red River to Cart

Fabric of Society
A Century of People and their Clothes 1770-1870
Essays Inspired by the Collections at Platt Hall

By Jane Tozer and Sarah Levitt

This is a newly reprinted and revised edition of a book first published in 1983. Included are many full color and detailed images of garments at Platt Hall, England. Among the many essays of note is one on the early 19th century gents in which various knots are pictured for neckcloths from 1818. Another essay is on a printed linen bed gown from 1760-70. One more to point out is one of working class clothing.

Softcover, 163 pages, 11 1/2" × 8 1/4"
ISBN number 0-901673-77-3
$28.00

Add Fabric of Society to Cart

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"

Add Wenches Wives and Servant Girls to Cart

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. John Styles is also the author of Threads of Feeling.

$50.00 hardcover, 432 pages, 10" × 7"

Add The Dress of the People to Cart

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"

Add Women's Dress to Cart

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.

Add Rural Pennsylvania Clothing to Cart

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

Add Whatever Shall I Wear? to Cart

Walk Softly...
Moccasins in the Context of Primary Documents (and selected other Sources)

by Cathy Johnson

This is an overview of extant moccasins, and period descriptions of how they looked, were used, who wore them and how they were decorated. Inside you will find many primary quotes, sketches of extant moccasins, and drawings from paintings from both the 18th and 19th centuries. Instructions are provided how to create a pattern, sew them together, choose the correct thread, and choose the correct leather for a simple pair of center-seam moccasins.

softcover, 35 pages, 5 1/4" × 8 1/4"

$8.95

Add Walk Softly to Cart

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

Add The American Longhunter to Cart

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.

Add Tidings from the 18th Century to Cart

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.