How to Embroider Your Gown

Loretta reports:

I recently attended a Jane Austen Tea at the 1809 Hedge House,
one of three historic properties the Plymouth Antiquarian Society maintains in Plymouth, MA.  You’ll be hearing about it for most of this week, because Executive Director Donna Curtin and her team very kindly answered questions, and allowed me to take photographs.  But as you know, photos are nothing like the real thing—so if you’re in the Northeast U.S., put this on your field trip list.

Today we’re taking a close-up look at a beautiful piece of embroidery that was once a border for a skirt or petticoat.  Because of the length, we had to photograph it in sections (the photos have been cropped a little, too).  Since tambour work was something the lady of the house or her daughters would do, this might be the work of the dress’s owner, whoever she was.  It was not only a ladylike occupation, but a wonderful form of artistic expression.

Why do we have only the border?  Maybe the dress was damaged in some way, or went out of style, and the border was meant to be used in another article of clothing.  Or maybe the work was done by a loved one, and preserved out of sentiment.  Whatever the reason for our having a fragment, we can get an idea of what the complete dress looked like here at the Met Museum. 

A Brief Recess

Loretta & Isabella reporting,

It's that time again – when stars collide, and our deadlines do, too. There are some writers who plan and plot carefully in advance, so that deadlines offer no terrors for them. We, alas, are not among that group.

We're going to take a week off from blogging & tweeting to write furiously on our books, so that we, like the writing lady, left, will one day have cupids deliver crowns of laurels to us. We promise we'll be back here at the blog next Sunday night, with lots of fresh historical delights. Many thanks for understanding!

Laurels for the lady writer, S. Wale delin.; B.Torand sculp. London c. 1750. From the collection of the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

Happy Mother's Day!

Breakfast in Bed, by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), 1897.  Huntington Library, Art Collection, & Botanical Garden.

Breakfast Links: Week of May 6, 2013

Happy Mother's Day! To celebrate, we're serving up our freshest assortment of Breakfast Links, our fav links of the week to other blogs, web sites, articles, and pictures, gathered from around the Twitterverse.
• Edward Gibbon Wakefield twice acquires brides through elopement - or was it kidnapping?
• Everything you know about corsets is false.
• Putting on the pounds: Georgian pound cake.
• The wonderful London Sewing Machine Museum.
• How the latest version of The Great Gatsby still gets flappers wrong.
• A history of the red-and-white striped barber's pole.
• Sifting through the myths surrounding Revolutionary War heroine/legend Molly Pitcher.
• Do you have the right personality to become a secretary in 1959?
• The unfortunate demise of the flying man of Pocklington, 1733.
• How to ride the New York el tracks like a boss, c. 1877.
• Slices of wedding cakes, royal and presidential, become prized by collectors.
• The ecstasy of a modern romantic: dancer Isadora Duncan writes her memoirs, 1927.
• This week in 1813: the Prince Regent is a guest of honor at a grand commemoration dinner for Sir Joshua Reynolds.
• Liquorice: "The spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down."
• A new old look at Mother's Day.
• Bare beauties (almost) from the 1920s.
• Sweet potato (i.e., potato buns that are sweet) bun: 18th c. recipe, plus modern version.
• Under the poodle's fluffy coat is a dog with history of bravery, intelligence, and battlefield know-how.
• Vintage photos: the statues & effigies of Old London.
• Remedies for an unusual case of menstruation in 18th c. England.
• Elegant Merlot-Larcheveque day ensemble, c. 1867.
• How paid newspaper advertising started in Boston, c. 1704.
• When women ruled or influenced the Ottoman Empire: the 16th-17th c. Sultanate of Women.
• The lies you've always been told about the QWERTY keyboard.
• "She that's here interred needs no versifying": unusual 17th c. gravestone, Malden, MA.
• The ghost who ordered a hat, 1900.
• Not your ordinary sampler from the 1870s: the Obsidian Serpent.
• A series of wealthy Van Buren women retain their once semi-rural family home on 14th Street as NYC rises around it.
• Collecting a century of Girl Scout uniforms & memorabilia.
• Quick tip for 1777: If you're a Loyalist trying to pass for a Patriot, talk about "King Hancock" won't work.
• Gorgeous textile sample & swatch books from 19th c. to view online.
• True, or history myth? A deerskin was worth a dollar, hence the origin of the word "buck."
• Polychromed plumes of 1888.
Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls and receive fresh updates daily!

Friday Video: How to Sit in a Bustle

Isabella reporting:

While writing my bustle posts this week (here and here), one question kept popping up: how did women sit down with an enormous false-backside to get in the way?

Coming to the rescue is fellow Nerdy History Girl Jennifer Rosbrugh, who is featured in today's video. Jennifer teaches historical and modern sewing techniques that go into creating beautiful period garments from the Regency, Romantic, Victorian, and Edwardian eras for the costuming and reenacting communities. (Her wonderful web site is here.)

For a 21st c. woman, Jennifer clearly knows her way around a 19th c. bustle. Wearing Victorian undergarments with a replica lobster-tail bustle in the style of 1886, right, she demonstrates how a lady would maneuver a bustle gracefully into a chair.

Sitting in the window is her cat Finley, who has obviously seen it all before and is not impressed. We, however, are. Thank you for sharing the tutorial, Jennifer!

Readers who receive our blog via email might see only a blank rectangle or square in place of the video.  To watch the video, please click here.