My Favorite Costuming Books! (you need these on your bookshelf)
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- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- A ton of information is available online nowadays on all subjects, including historical costuming. However, I think there are still a handful of books that every costumer should own.
These are books that you will no doubt find yourself returning to over and over. A lot of them contain gridded sewing patterns, or details on extant garments, or sewing instructions on how a specific garment was made, or fabrics used, or even tips about making historical garments for theatrical purposes!
Basically, there is soooo much important information contained within these books, and you are definitely going to want to add these to your bookshelf.
Find these books here
Period Costume for Stage and Screen 1800-1909: www.amazon.com/dp/088734609X/...
I also found it on scribd! www.scribd.com/document/50506...
Period Costume for Stage and Screen 1500-1800 -- The copy I mentioned on archive.org seems to be gone, but I found a not ideal copy on Scribd (the grids are hard to see, but otherwise it's fine): www.scribd.com/document/50497...
Patterns of Fashion from the School of Historical Dress: theschoolofhistoricaldress.org...
Costume in Detail (it's back in stock!): www.amazon.com/dp/0896762173/...
Shoes, Hats, and Fashion Accessories: www.amazon.com/dp/0486401030/...
The Cut of Women's Clothes: www.amazon.com/dp/0571085946/...
Corsets and Crinolines: www.amazon.com/dp/1138665665/...
The Victorian Dressmaker: www.priorattire.co.uk/ourshop...
Prior Attire's youtube: / priorattire
The Voice of Fashion: www.amazon.com/dp/0963651722/...
(click Frances Grimble's name on the listing for her other books)
Costume Close-Up: www.amazon.com/dp/0896762262/...
The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking: www.amazon.com/dp/1624144535/...
All About Cotton: www.amazon.com/dp/0963761234/...
All About Wool: www.amazon.com/dp/0963761226/...
All About Silk: www.amazon.com/dp/096376120X/...
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The Period Costume for Stage and Screen 1500-1800 on archive.org is here!: archive.org/details/periodcostumefor0000hunn/page/6/mode/2up
Thank you!
I’m so excited about patterns of fashion being reprinted!
The "Handknitter's Book of Yarn" and "Handknitter's Book of Wool" sound like the knit/crochet version of All About Wool/Silk/Cotton. I find the "Handknitter's Book of Wool" especially helpful when I'm backing Kickstarter campaigns for yarn made from a specific breed of sheep's wool, as it contains plenty of info on the characteristics of breed-specific wool yarns, and what sorts of knit/crochet projects each kind of wool is best suited for.
My creative artistic outlet is drawing and painting. I love reference books on art history, color mixing, theory, and the emotions of colors. They are helpful to me in my artistic field.
I like that you make notes in your books. Not only dose that jog your memory about how you may have solved a problem. But it could help others in the future understand your process. Like the forever question that you come across always. "Finish in the usual way." thing. Happy sewing!💃
My budget is going to not be happy when The Victorian Dresmaker and Patterns of Fashion 2 come out...but my little sewing heart will be!
I recently got some Viking Age Clothing in Dress and Apron, Cords and Braids and Stitches and Seams which are hard to find in America which is why I got mine from Norway. I would trust the Outlander Simplicity Pattern because of the American Duchess. Also, my book list has gotten bigger which is good and bad.
College student here! It is completely legal to photocopy books from the library AS LONG AS you don't publicly distribute or sell them. So you could photocopy a couple pages from a book for your own personal use and it is completely legal. I use this to get pdf copies of books from the library for school ALL the time.
Although I also highly recommend messaging the publisher and author and letting them know you want a reprint of the book. Who knows, if enough people do perhaps it will actually come back!
I love these sort of lists. It's a great way to decide on how to prioritize book spending. I also love the Shoes, Hats and Fashion accessories book, so much fun to flip through even if you're not planning an outfit. And the Victorian Dressmaker is stunning, can't wait for the hats book to arrive this fall (already pre-ordered).
Another reference/inspiration book I like is 'Victorian Fashions & Costumes From Harper's Bazar 1867-1898'. The fashion plate images are beautiful, but it's the accompaning descriptions that I really love.
One of the things I love about Costume in Detail is that a number of the garments that she illustrates are also in the Patterns of Fashion books, so if you're wondering how the heck to construct some of those things, you can cross-reference them that way.
Corsets and Crinolines was a required book for my uni course. I still refer to it over 10 years later
I don't know if it's different for clothes, I can't imagine why it would be, but I copy crochet patterns from books all the time. You just can't sell the product or repost the pattern without giving credit to the original designer. One time I even called the librarian and asked her to read me the last few lines of the pattern because I didn't have the book centered on the copy machine. She didn't bat an eye. She fetched the book, read me the last few lines, and that was that.
I am so excited for patterns of fashion 2 to come out again, seriously pulling at the bit on that one!
There are clear grid overlays!
Like, a plastic thing you can put on top of a book page?
@@LadyRebeccaFashions Yes! I don't know how easy they would be to keep in place, but that was my first thought when you mentioned not drawing in library books.
@@Eloraurora there's something similar that comes with embroidery hoops for machine embroidery that could be used the same way.
I own almost all those books! I love books. I own most of Francis Grimble's books,both of the American Duchess books. I just bought "Corsets and Crinolines", I have both the "Cut of Women's Clothes" and " The Cut of Men's Clothes"...it would be faster to say the ones I don't have which are the "All About..." fabric reference books.
I really recommend using Thrift Books for buying books instead of Amazon.
Really great video. It's always interesting to see how the book lists vary from one historical costumer to another. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure.
I really must investigate my local library. I don't sew enough original garments yet to justify the expense of some of these books. Currently, most of my sewing is altering the clothes I have to fit my changing shape. When something is too horribly big to wear it's easier to rip out the seams and make it smaller. No wasted expensive fabric, and no loss if it's a total failure. (Goodbye baggy khaki pants, hello pencil skirt)
I found a copy of a Dover Books paperback on "Historic American Costumes" at a library book sale earlier this year. This was a reprint of something originally published in the mid-20th century (no later than the 1950s), and appeared to be geared toward "close enough" approximations of historical costumes for theatrical performances (high school & community theater-level). There were lots of tips on how to adapt then-modern sewing patterns for equivalent garments (f.ex., men's jackets) to achieve the period silhouette.
LOL I cannot afford any more books, but my wish list just got a lot longer!
Thank you. This was so helpful.
I'm so glad! ☺️
I am definitely putting most if not all of these books (with the exception of the 18th century dressmaking book since i already have it!) on my wishlist. Also, if ur interested in books that are more about an archive of fashion history, I recommend the kyoto costume institute’s “fashion: a history from the 18th to the 20th century.” Also if ur interested in jewish fashion, i just got this book called “the jewish wardrobe”, which shows traditional jewish clothing from around the world, and i love it!
Book goals.
Ha! Well, there goes the better part of my fun budget, for this month. :) Both books were already on my list, mind you, but I hadn't realized Costumes in Detail was out of print, and I didn't realize how *much* I needed Period Costume for Stage and Screen until you explained how it actually works!
It looks like Costume in Detail may have recently done a reprint! (Or at least, when I uploaded this video, there were a couple copies available for the regular price on Amazon.) I would jump on it!
Hi Rebecca, I have just received my copy of Shoes, Hats and Fashion Accessories. I love it. Thank you for recommending it. Keep safe and well Lynne 👏❤️👏
They will be reopening the book shop for the School of Historical Dress/ Patterns of Fashion on August 30th.
I've found a number of the Grimble books on Powell's website (a Portland used book store), which had 20 pages worth of costuming books when I checked. There's also Half-Price Books, which has a website with their online catalog. Both are excellent sources for used books.
Hurrah books!!! I want them all!! I enjoy the hunt so I continue watching for things in thrift stores. Though the patterns of fashion will be on my Christmas list lol
Yay! I already own most of your recommendations, but my book wishlist has gained a few more titles thanks ot this video.
When I first started making costumes for our theatre program the library ordered Patterns of Fashion for my use. I fell deeply in love! Hope the new show is going well!
I have the American duchess book I love it and I'm using it for my first dress
I just added several of the books to my Amazon Christmas list! Thanks for the great information!
Rebecca: No book with worth $800.
Me: Tell that to text book companies.
Also, Thrift Books is another great source, and the used books generally are cheaper than many sources. I have a few of these books in my wishlist on there. Whenever they get one of the books on my wishlist in stock I get an email letting me know. There is no guarantee which books they'll get when, but getting an email letting me know that a book I'm trying to find has come in stock is really great.
It is legal to photocopy a small part of a book, for personal use. Copying a few of the patterns is fine. It IS illegal to photocopy the whole book.
Super informative, thank you. Love your energy.
Thank you. I now have a wish list :)
Wonderful list. While I do have a lot of your favorites, I don’t have the accessories book - but I can see that it would also be helpful for period hairstyles! I have the earlier Costumes for Stage and Screen, because I started with Renaissance costumes (as so many of us do), and it’s one of my go-tos, too. Now, thanks to your hint I snagged a $74.99 copy of the 1800+ edition. Hope the purchase actually goes through, and the seller doesn’t come back and say, “oops, it’s gone!” (It’s happened before…) Love your channel.
Ooh, I'm glad you snagged that copy (or at least, hopefully snagged it)! That's the lowest price I've seen on it in ages.
Soooo helpful! Good library you have.there x
Thank you so much.
Thank you
Like I needed more books (Costume in Detail is on it's way).
I'm glad you snagged a copy!
I have a question about The Voice of Fashion and similar drafting systems: do they state which cup size they use or should I just assume a B cup? As a sewing E/F cup (6” difference between HB and FB) I’m thinking it would be best to subtract from my bust measurement and do FBA’s to the resulting patterns.
I wish I could answer your point on adapting to different proportions. Having not used the books, I would suppose that the outer garments are probably based on idealized proportions, with the assumption that the person beneath is using some combination of corsetry and padding to achieve those dimensions. At many points in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, those structures pad out the bust to such an extent that a larger cup size can be advantageous.
But because these drafting systems were invented before bras, it's probably going to be oriented toward these ideal proportions, rather than a cup size, since "cups" as such weren't standardized till later.
Pardon if my answer is kind of clunky. I am speaking outside my own period of interest/expertise, and you probably have more practical sewing experience than I have.
Yeah, as HabitusCraeft said, I believe it's based on ideal proportions. I'm not sure if that was b, or more like c. Another costuber (I want to say maybe catscostumery) did a video where they found some sort of a Victorian size guide that showed all of the idealized proportions for each size of that particular era.
@@LadyRebeccaFashions Cathy Hay referenced a chart on ideal Victorian proportions in one of her Peacock dress videos. The video of making a corset I believe...although I'm sure you would have to pause & blow it up a bit.
nice.
Inter library loan is down due to covid, or was. I ended up pirating Period Costume for Stage and Screen books. There's No way Im paying that much for a used out of print book the publisher won't reprint or ebook.
Oh darn, I didn't realize that about inter library loans! And yeah, it's like, if they reprint, people will gladly give them money, but if they don't want to do that, pirate away!
The library system in my country has been closed since March 2020 and we still don’t have an estimated reopening date. Not that it matters, they don’t have sewing books beyond very basic childrens crafts anyway and won’t buy them as ‘There’s no call for them’ , apparently....😂😂
@@AntelJM oh no, that's so sad that they would take away such a resource! Ours went to curbside pickup of holds only, but that worked fine for me.
Please could you show us how to use the ruler in The Voice of Fashion book. It would be so helpful. Thank you.
I'll add that to my list - that's a good video idea. Thanks!