Making Victorian Costumes for Women

First of all, I agree with C.F.'s excellent review of the book. The book is put together in a similar format to Jean Hunnisetts Period Costume for Stage & Screen. A representative style is chosen for 7 different periods from the 1840s to the 1890s & shown in both finished form & a pattern layout, with extensive illustrated instructions for each step. The author had access to the costume collection of Hull Museum & Victorian fashion periodicals for her clothing sources. The book also includes sections on sewing instructions & making some undergarments. All of the graphed patterns are sized to fit a 34-24-36 figure. The corset shown as "Victorian" is totally wrong. It's straight, with no gores for shaping the bust & hips. I don't think it would give a proper silhouette under Victorian costumes. There are no instructions for making a Victorian corset or crinoline in the book. The author suggests purchasing them. I would look in "Corsets & Crinolines" by Norah Waugh for how to make underpinnings. The book seems to be focused on making Victorian "Costume" rather than "Reproduction Victorian Clothing". That's not really a bad thing, but I don't think the book is worth the $49 price for what is in it. I paid about half that price & think it's ok for $25. I would still go to Jean Hunnisett or Janet Arnold for more accurate pattern drafts.

Overall, pretty good... great resource material, very well done. Absolutely love the layout-- big clear color pics, walks you through things, spans several 19th century style eras. Aimed more at beginners than the intermediate to expert historian/enthusiast, but still plenty of fun stuff. Includes basic pattern diagrams, which I always love. Bit plain, but they're decent. The meh-- wish there had been photos of the bustle pad & dress improver described in a brief tutorial rather than just instructions. Some of the repro dresses are terrific, and some seem a bit off. The torso is really long on the midcentury ones, the elliptical crinoline in particular. Not sure if that was just how it sat on the mannequin, but the skirt could have been moved up at least 4 inches. Not sure if a modern-silhouette dress form was used, some it could pass, others the modern proportions were obvious. My biggest pet peeve was the picture of the repro corset. It was a modern fashion piece, shaped like a tube, barely boned and made in red/black fashion fabric. Just, no. Borrow a period one for the photo. I didn't agree with some of the fabrics chosen for the repros and some of the material was a bit uneven [not enough about petticoats/underpinnings, later era dresses way too plain], but most had a good aesthetic. Overall I think this book is a yes for someone starting out in re-enacting or costumers. Good overall summaries with period reference pictures shown, and walks you through basic construction of the garments. Looking forward to the Edwardian version of this that comes out soon.

The book took longer to arrive than most Amazon orders, but worth the wait. It covered trends, making it easier to date historical styles. Patterns are clear, sizable, and easily alterable.

Full of pictures. There are reduced size patterns for projects and they are best enlarged manually using pattern paper with metric squares. Enlarging using photocopier will not give accurate measurement.

I've only had a chance to have a quick glance through the book right now but it looks great. I'm looking forward to trying my hand at making some of these dresses. The step by step instructions on how to make these dresses seems comprehensive but I'll only really know for sure when I take the plunge and start making one.

This is a good reference book for those staring out on their sewing journey. It covers tools you will need, materials to be used and then provides patterns and instructions for sewing some garments. I have found it to be really useful and a great basis to start from.

this book gave knowledge, advice and wonderful patterns that it made very clear how to upsize to a size 10. added enough extra material though as I am in between sizes and it worked great. I have a dummy that I have set to my exact measurments and this helped so much with the construction even though you don't really need to do so if you follow the simple way they use to make the outfits.

This was my second book in a series and again, absolutely amazing and definitely worth the money for anyone making costumes or as a reference aid xoxo