Customer Reviews

Sewing Victorian Doll Clothes: Authentic Costumes from Museum Collections

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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The book is a must-have for anyone wanting to sew reproduction clothing for dolls.  This book includes wonderful color plates of the antique dolls chosen for the study.   You can clearly see every detail of the wardrobe.   There are many underwear items included : corsets, hoops, bustles, etc.   There is a large detailed explaination of each dress, listed by the color plate.   Then, there is a large section which not only tells you how to sew a duplicate of the original, but which includes much useful information about the period of time the dress represents.  Finally, there is a wonderful bibliography and an excellent section on how to hand sew the items, carefully detailing descriptions of each stitch used.

Ms. Hamilton's Victorian Doll Clothes is a wonderful historical book of costumes for dolls. There are interesting facts about the people who preserved the garments, and indepth descriptions of the construction of the clothes. There are 16 patterns, starting with a simple but beautiful early Victorian dress and continuing to the more complex. These are not for the faint of heart or an amature. If you have some experience, it is well worth the effort. If you don't, The instructions are thorough enough to give it a go.

I have now tried most of the patterns in this wonderful book, and even with my limited sewing skills, I have been very pleased with my results. I have particularly enjoyed the tips for constructing clothes without patterns. The simple smock dress idea works well for my Ginnys, as well as for my composition baby dolls and small antique bisque dolls. I'm looking forward to learning to make hats and purses. I have a stack of old leather gloves just waiting to be made into the darling shoes pictured in the last chapter of the book.

Sewing Victorian Doll Clothes is a wonderful source book for historical costumes with a wide range of workable patterns.
It is a wonderful reference for the doll collector who is interested in recreating historically correct clothes for china or bisque dolls. The range of styles in broad, and the instructions are clear even for the novice at sewing. Without question, this is one of the finest books on this subject that it is possible to find. It is worth every dollar spent.

Whether you sew doll clothes or Victorian costumes, this book is the best resource to have! It covers the entire Victorian era, describing the chosen costumes in great detail. It discusses the general shapes of each period, what undergarments were used, what fabrics were popular, what details to add, what accessories to use.

There is a wonderful section on handsewing, showing you how to use period sewing techniques, plus sewing specific to the Victorian period, such as piping. Another section shows you how to finish your seams -- French seams, flat felling, etc. The patterns are clear and easy to size up or down. The diagrams are excellent, clearly showing you each step.

I make oaak fashion dolls, and sew Victorian costume for myself, and I find myself opening this book at some point during every project!

This is a wonderful book with many illustrations. There are extensive patterns, wonderful details, could go a little more in-depth with the patterns and have a little more variety of Victorian clothing. A wonderful book, it is a must for the heirloom sewing library!

Sewing details for difficult projects are clearly explained but need to have basic sewing skills. Not for novice designers

Easy to understand instructions and historical background make this how to book a pleasure. This one is a keeper.

This is an interesting book with nice colored photos of Victorian doll dresses. The book has lengthy descriptions of the dresses. The book gives instructions on how to sew the dress and the notions and fabrics needed. I like this book and I am looking forward to delving in to it. It is a good resource book if you want to learn how to sew Victorian doll clothes. There is another book that that I think is outstanding and that is Les Petites Dames de Mode by Joh R Burbidge. Les Petites has gorgeous pictures of dolls dressed in clothes from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. There are no instructions on how to make the clothes but the pictures of the dresses are beautiful.