Customer Reviews

Victorian Costuming, Volume 1: 1840 to 1865

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When I finally found this book, I was hoping for a resource as wonderful as their ELIZABETHAN COSTUMING book. While it's got good information in it, I found the some of the illustrations and multitudinous typos to be distracting. It's also rather dated -- in their section on corsetry, they advise purchasing a corset or alternative -- such as a longline bra or merry widow. We've come a long way, what with the proliferation of pattern companies specializing in period costume! However, this is a good book for someone who is just starting out in Victorian Costuming. While the illustrations appear to have been done in a hurry, they are quite clear, and they do give a bit of a "Reader's Digest" version of what was going on in the time period and how it related to what you'll be making. The instructions are clear. However, it's not as comprehensive as their Elizabethan book.

This book cuts to the basics of Victorian dress and simplifies the concepts. Since there are a lot of conflicts about who wore what when, depending on the author, I found this book very helpful for the ordinary person who just wants to make a outfit!! If you want to "do Dickens" this is great.

For instance, the progression showing the difference in the woman's basic look between 1840 and 1865 is kinda neat. Then you can go plain or fancy Get it.

This book was written in the 1980s, long before the current wealth of commercial Victorian patterns, Victorian sewing and corset-making manuals and reprinted catalogues of original pattern diagrams, and is mainly geared towards the home seamstress/amateur costumer who is interested in attending Dickens Fair [[...]].

The book is black and white, and features hand-drawn illustrations which aren't perfect, but there are a lot of them and they're detailed and decent enough to even be used as pattern diagrams with some tweaking in the mockup phase. I would have loved to have come across this book fifteen years ago when I had no clue about anything Victorian other than I just loved the era. While it only covers the mid-19th century, it does so pretty well for having been published in an era that had few resources on the matter and most of the material has held up over time.

There are many things I really like about this book. It's very approachable, and is geared towards walking someone through the basics and making a dense subject appealing without patronizing or overwhelming the reader. It offers many options to suit the reader's time frame, budget and costume requirements, and is very encouraging with a sort of "do what works for you" message. I also love that it covers the 1840s and doesn't just skip over what seems a very boring decade [but isn't]-- most Victorian costuming materials focus on the more fanciful and 'fun' later hoop and bustle eras. There are also sections with simple hints on how to achieve the appropriate hairstyle of each era, and pattern diagrams for several styles of hats and bonnets.

While I'm more of an intermediate sewer and average historian, this book is still an interesting read and the information is surprisingly accurate and detailed for the most part, yet encapsulated into manageable bits for the beginner. It's a great start for someone looking to get into costume/re-enactment but doesn't want to commit to spending a lot of money just to dabble and see if they're interested. It's also a great resource for someone costuming a low-budget theater or film production. As a more serious enthusiast leaning towards historical accuracy, I still love this book because it was way before its time and was done well. Their sort of making-things-over approach really appeals to my crafting nature, like their instructions on how to recut jackets and such to make them suitable.