Historical Pattern Archive: Women’s Clothing 1837-1969

This book includes a good selection of patterns for 1840/50/60/70/80's that gives a really good idea of how dresses were made. You should be able to find these same these dresses in museum books, or Art of Dress, 300 Years of Fashion, Fashion in Detail, that provide color combinations and fabrics used during the time. This book helps makes sense of Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion books.Thank you to the authors for preserving a bit of history.

One of the best comprehensive historical pattern drafting books ever. Thanks bunches.

Nice, easy transfer instructions. Perfect for my granddaughter to create clothes from each decade.

Informative and useful

A solid book to have on the shelf if you study or make historical clothing. It is geared more towards theatre use with pattern paired with a nice drawing of the garment. It has a solid range of time periods and styles. I'm happy to have it on my bookshelf. I loved scaled patterns. As a clothing historian I miss having pictures of the actual garment and information on where the garment is located. I do appreciate that they are from otherwise unseen sources though, I just like knowing where to find it. The clothing historian in me was also disappointed by the vague dating of the garments. Everything was listed as C. 1870 for example when some of the garments were very clearly late 1870's natural form styles. I also wasnt sold on the dating of the dresses in the dresses labed as 1840s. From the line drawings they looked more 1860s.

Every day I look at this, and everyday I learn something. I only wish for more, especially for after 1900.

ContentsAcknowledgementsUsing these patterns: Talks about the grid measurements, grain-lines, seam allowances. This is very straight forward and simple.IntroductionEvery chapter picks a different year to focus on from PRE1850-1960's.This book works for those practiced in working with grided patterns.All Ilustrations are in black and white. Which I wish would have color as some of the details tend to get flushed out with that color scheme.I gave the book 3 stars, as this is a decent book and it does what it states it would. Which is provide Historical Pattern for the years 1837-1969. So, here are my honest thoughts, I have all of Patterns of Fashion and this does not hold up to those. Seeing as the price is similar I would take one of those over this book. Especially if you already have it pinned down which era you like the most. I was underwhelmed by a lot of the patterns as this was not a stand out collection presented.The book does not go into under-structures, which ones were used and the illustrations do not show how the garments look with the under=structures illustrated. Which I think would have been good for those not so well versed in historical fashion but want to get into it. It does cover fabric used and there are some sewing instructions although not in depth or for beginners.Is this a must have book for historical clothing no.So, is it worth it? I would pass on this, although not a bad book it does not provide what similar priced books do.GlossaryContributionsBibliographyIndex

Yes, i know. That's what our teachers used to write on our homework in elementary school. They Were Right.This book provides patterns for historical gowns....and some VERY basic instructions for their construction. There is also at least one sketch of each gown. So far, so good. What is does NOT have, is any photographs, or any sort of provenance on any of the gowns, which is kinda sad, since looking for information on who might have worn that gown....or when? That's half the fun of costume research.The sketches which accompany the patterns are a bit awkward (the 1860 pink silk gown looks like it has spent the last 50 years in a plastic garment bag. A small one)On the good side however...The patterns seem to be very well drafted, THANKFULLY, they are not all stacked atop one another, as Victorian ladies magazines were inclined to do. I never have really understood that...i mean, i do, but then again...no. Just...no.I would be very interested in buying an expanded edition of this book; one which included some photographs (especially of trims and embroidery, or fastenings), provenance on the various gowns, some expanded notes on construction as well as on the condition of the gowns.

The media could not be loaded.  Firstly, it’s a lovely book. Patterns look fantastic and there’s a large range of them, 83 of them in fact! As someone else’s mentioned there are no page numbers but but that’s ok if you can look past it. I would have given it 5* for the book and it’s contents itself but I have given three for the quality of the book pages and how it arrived to me.The packaging the book arrived in was fine so it must have been beaten around pre packing. It’s a new book but has been scuffed front side and back. It is also paperback (which is fine, what I was expecting) however it’s the type of paperback that has what feels like printer paper pages not glossy pages so the life of the book will be significantly less if it’s going to get some solid use. If I had of known this I think I would have spent a bit more money on getting a better quality print.

good beginner book

Molto bello e dettagliato per capire i tagli d’epoca

great patterns that have already been double checked with toiles by the author! not to mention how many there are oml

First - Why label it 1837 - 1969? All patterns are dated circa rounded to a year ending in zero. There is no indication of a closer date even with the more recent patterns, no sign of the dates 1837 or 1969.Second - The table of contents, chapter headings and index refer to non-existent page numbers. Not one pattern page is numbered [nor the pages containing the chapter headings] - hope you have plenty of bookmarks to hand.