Note for those looking to add the Patterns of Fashion books to their collection- hold off. They’re currently very expensive, but they’re about to come down in price and be much more accessible to buy. This is because the School of Historical Dress (the one that Janet Arnold worked at) has recently gotten the publishing rights back to all of the books. And they’re about to reprint them all, and I believe some or all of them will have colour too! The latest one is no 5, which I definitely recommend, because it focuses on undergarments, from shifts to stays, corsets and bum pads, petticoats, combinations, you name it. The School of Historical Dress is still compiling these books (5 is the most recent, and it’s not old at all), using both the prior research of Janet Arnold and the work of the currents heads of the School. So hold off on buying any of the PoF books for now (except for no 5, which is so recent that the School published it themselves and is therefore easily available) because you’ll be kicking yourself when the new editions come out at less than a third (maybe even a quarter!) of the price of what you’d be paying now (especially for PoF 1, which is VERY expensive last I checked).
So glad I saw this. I was soooo tempted to buy volume 1 on Amazon this week! Then I checked and the one I want is to be released in weeks. Days practically! The savings are more than half!
I still prefer paper books for reference. When I’m in the middle of something I don’t have time to fight with google about keys words. Some historical sewing methods aren’t easy to explain. It’s a great list I being a book addicted want all of them!!
While watching I just thought, Yep used that, used that. I wrote my MA dissertation on stays and the information was so useful. A lot of them I have kept for my own dressmaking purposes. I much prefer physical books to online books.
my partner's mum unexpectedly asked me what i wanted for my birthday last week and i mentioned a few of the books in this video. she got me Mandy Barrington's Stays and Corsets Vol 2 and i ended up spending all weekend absolutely lost in it making one of the patterns, it was quite a lot of work but the resulting mockup really impressed me, especially since i'm very inexperienced with sewing. would highly recommend if you're okay with doing lots of basic maths and drawing lots of tiny lines
Well I started this video thinking "great, this means I can take some of those expensive books out of my wishlist!" and instead I ended up adding a few more, which I guess means I was doing a pretty good job on my research so far? 😂
Good to know that the first two categories are already in my possession...other than the two corset books. The first two books really are sooooooo worth it! An antique shop owner had a copy of “Costume in Detail” that she let me peruse...although it was not to leave her sight. It was interesting to track down a copy for myself but worthwhile.
@@toricide515 yes my library actually had some of these books, and I wouldn't consider my library to be that great, particularly for the arts and historical things.
@@CraftySheryl that's always great! When I was in uni, the best thing was that they could get books from across campus, on pretty much any subject. If it related to something that was taught in any given course at the University, they could get it. It's a shame I can't use that library anymore since graduating 😭
I’m amused about you commenting about how much you haven’t done. Girl, you’ve accomplished so much at a young age. You have lots of years ahead to explore other eras!
As someone who owns the Mandy Barrington book, I would like to let people know that the patterns always come out too big on me. I suggest going a measurement or two down.
Oh, that's interesting! Something that might help with this...the corset pattern will be drafted to the measurements you "give" but when wearing a corset, you usually want it to slightly change those measurements....so maybe a slightly smaller bust size because you want some push up, or a smaller waist. So you'd want to make those adjustments to your measurements before working them through the drafting process (if that makes sense.) So say you want to have a 26" waist when wearing the corset, but your actual measurement it 28". You'll want to work with the 26" measurement and not your actual measurement when drafting the pattern. Maybe you already do that, but for anyone else reading, this is good to keep in mind (I sometimes forget!)
Turns out I already own several of these. I've only just started trying to sew 19th century fashions, but my long standing love of historical fashion caused me to buy several of these over the years just to have. Of course now there are a few more I'd like to get.
Thank you for this video. I love to buy sewing books but it is not always easy to chose. For the people who love biais cut dresses from the 1930's, I highly recommand the book Madeleine Vionnet by Betty Kirke, which countains patterns of Vionnet dresses and valuable informations about how to treat the fabric so it does not look weird once sewn in the biais. It is very expensive, but I do not regret my purchase, since I found in the book informations that are not on the internet. Plus, Vionnet patterns are very difficult to guess just by looking at the dress. Betty Kirke spent years and years examining Vionnet dresses and recreating Vionnet's patterns using the same process as Vionnet (playing with fabric on a doll). If you can sew a Vionnet dress, you can sew any biais cut dress of the thirties, since Vionnet is the absolute queen of biais cut and everyone copied her patterns in the twenties and thirties. I use this book to make my own biais cut wedding dress and I love it.
I was lucky enough to grab this book when it first came out before the price skyrocketed. I never regretted it. It’s like a master class in a book. Have you seen the Japanese book that someone wrote to accompany it that actually has the scaled patterns? Although the text is in Japanese, the drawings are very helpful if you are trying to figure out the construction of Vionnet dresses.
You can also check out the book ‘Vionnet’ by bunka fashion college, where they test out the patterning! I also highly recommend the 1930s Fashion Sourcebook (updated version - I think 2021) by Charlotte Fiell. Not Patterns, but lots of lovely pictures and references to look at. There is also a 20s and 40s version… I am just waiting for her to do a 1950s Sourcebook!
nice to see Janet Arnold on the list, she taught me at college and was a really lovely person. You could do with adding Jean Hunnisett's books to your list - they are really good.
Thank you so much for this video! For years I've been dreaming of learning more about historic dress with the view of making something eventually and been browsing books but I've never been sure what was worth investing in. Pretty books is an expensive hobby! So thank you so much for taking the time to create such an informative video!
Note for those looking to add the patterns of fashion books to their collection- hold off. They,re currently very expensive, but they,re about to come down in price and be much more accessible to buy
I can’t wait to watch and get some books from the library!! I have been really interested in making historical clothes! Edit: I have the authentic Victorian fashion from the library right now!
Me, someone who can't resist a shiny new costuming book, needs this video to be reminded that I have some in my library that are VERY pertinent to my next project :facepalm: Thank you, that was definitely very helpful !
A lot of these books would be available in our local libraries too! Question for anyone reading - does anyone know of any good resources for understanding 1950's fashion, particularly formal wear and undergarments? Particularly tulle petticoats? Thank you! ☺
I still prefer paper books for reference. When I,am in the middle of something I don,t have time to fight with google about keys words.some historical sewing methods aren,t easy to explain. It,s a great list I being a book addicted want all of them!!
Thank you for this great video! I added some of these to my must-have list. Good to know that I at least own one of them, due to my wonderful sister who bought me one for Christmas. So my collection starts lol.
Oh, wonderful! I've been wondering about the Stays & Corsets set for quite some time, now. It seemed like something that would be useful to me, but I hadn't heard it come up, on costube.
Thanks, and I love the inclusion of free resources at the end! I've been using Gallica BNF and the Austrian National Library myself, plus a couple others. Your list might convince me to finally spend a little money on books though. Or maybe not a little. We'll see.
Are you French? Because I sometimes feel nobody knows about Gallica except French people, and even those don't know how valuable it is. I could spend my life looking through all those magazines and books...
@@margotonnotogrambeee Nope, i'm an American studying at a university in Germany! I found Gallica bc I spend way too much time on pinterest :p But yes, it is a fantastic resource, and I've been looking for more sites like it
Consider Assembil's How Patterns Work, taking you from drafting through slopers/blocks and fitting to the final cut, in depth. Major subsections are seams and volume.
I just need to add Gallica (the French equivalent to archive.org, where you can take closeups in better quality, download entire documents or just details, entirely for free): gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/presse-et-revues/presse-de-mode?mode=desktop That's the link for fashion magazines from the late 18th century up to 1950, most are in French, a few are in Spanish. If you search specifically for costume history (Histoire du costume or costume), you can find old books talking about that too. There are also photos, newspapers, etc... They have almost digitalized the whole BNF (French National Library), so have a look at it. Everything is in French, but I'm sure the website is understandable for non-french speakers.
Most of these books have been on my wishlist forever and I never knew if they were any good. Sadly when I finally ordered a bunch in January none of them could be delivered so now I'm just waiting
Are those catalogs on the top shelf ,? ? For thousands of pictures of fashions and lingerie, department store catalogs from 1890s to 1990s have them. Unfortunately, color pictures didn't appear until the 1930s. Great that you have books with color photos and drawings. They show so much. I have about 300 paper doll cutouts books. I love the ones with the fashion models including some of the period lingerie. I also have some that have already been cutout. ( lingerie for that time period).
In these moments I really pity, that I don't speak English on an insanly high level... Unfortunatey most of these books don't have Hungarian translation :(
Same for German... but I noticed that you don't really use a high level of English in general, you just need the specific vocabulary. I've learned a lot of it with just watching Costube :)
They are based on English/American historical dress so I’m not surprised :/ maybe you’ll be able to read it anyways, since I don’t think the vocabulary is that advanced (other than technical terms like stays etc), and there’s diagrams etc!! Good luck :) (also maybe there are some super cool Hungarian dress making books that are only in that language that you could take advantage of :) )
This was fascinating! I saw several books I’d like to get. I agree, there’s nothing like a physical book. It’s with you all the time, no recharging, no computer light problems, none of that. I do have this one sketchbook of clothes from 1920-1960 that I’ve had for years. It’s been very helpful. Right now, though, it’s in a box as I’ve been concentrating on more contemporary things. I’ll have to get it out and reconnect. By the way, I recognized one of the pictures in your Kyoto book. The lady carrying a tray. It’s called, “The Beautiful Chocolate Girl” by Jean-Etienne Liotard (1743).
I have A few vintage clothing and fashion books. Don't find much use for books with a lot of verbiage and no useful photos. One authentic photo is better than a 10,000 words.
Very helpful, thanks! Also, that's very much not how you pronounce Kyoto, I'm afraid, it's Kyo-to but you pronounce the o's like you're going to say 'top' but you leave the p off. 😃
Note for those looking to add the Patterns of Fashion books to their collection- hold off. They’re currently very expensive, but they’re about to come down in price and be much more accessible to buy.
This is because the School of Historical Dress (the one that Janet Arnold worked at) has recently gotten the publishing rights back to all of the books. And they’re about to reprint them all, and I believe some or all of them will have colour too! The latest one is no 5, which I definitely recommend, because it focuses on undergarments, from shifts to stays, corsets and bum pads, petticoats, combinations, you name it. The School of Historical Dress is still compiling these books (5 is the most recent, and it’s not old at all), using both the prior research of Janet Arnold and the work of the currents heads of the School.
So hold off on buying any of the PoF books for now (except for no 5, which is so recent that the School published it themselves and is therefore easily available) because you’ll be kicking yourself when the new editions come out at less than a third (maybe even a quarter!) of the price of what you’d be paying now (especially for PoF 1, which is VERY expensive last I checked).
Less expensive, & more profit goes to the author/editor's mission? WIN!
?!.
Lipstick lips lip balm glommed gloomy glom ?!.
So glad I saw this. I was soooo tempted to buy volume 1 on Amazon this week! Then I checked and the one I want is to be released in weeks. Days practically! The savings are more than half!
I still prefer paper books for reference. When I’m in the middle of something I don’t have time to fight with google about keys words. Some historical sewing methods aren’t easy to explain. It’s a great list I being a book addicted want all of them!!
This is so very true!
While watching I just thought, Yep used that, used that. I wrote my MA dissertation on stays and the information was so useful. A lot of them I have kept for my own dressmaking purposes. I much prefer physical books to online books.
my partner's mum unexpectedly asked me what i wanted for my birthday last week and i mentioned a few of the books in this video. she got me Mandy Barrington's Stays and Corsets Vol 2 and i ended up spending all weekend absolutely lost in it making one of the patterns, it was quite a lot of work but the resulting mockup really impressed me, especially since i'm very inexperienced with sewing. would highly recommend if you're okay with doing lots of basic maths and drawing lots of tiny lines
Well I started this video thinking "great, this means I can take some of those expensive books out of my wishlist!" and instead I ended up adding a few more, which I guess means I was doing a pretty good job on my research so far? 😂
Good to know that the first two categories are already in my possession...other than the two corset books.
The first two books really are sooooooo worth it! An antique shop owner had a copy of “Costume in Detail” that she let me peruse...although it was not to leave her sight. It was interesting to track down a copy for myself but worthwhile.
I love the way you filmed this! It has so much information without becoming overwhelming or dull
Aw, yay! I was hoping to do this! ❤️
This is great - some of these books can be quite expensive, after all
I borrow them from the library
@@toricide515 yes my library actually had some of these books, and I wouldn't consider my library to be that great, particularly for the arts and historical things.
Plus, most libraries have a service called “inter-library loan” where they can borrow books from other library systems all around the US for you.
@@CraftySheryl yes in Australia too! I'm always annoying the librarians by ordering in lots of books 😅📚
@@CraftySheryl that's always great! When I was in uni, the best thing was that they could get books from across campus, on pretty much any subject. If it related to something that was taught in any given course at the University, they could get it. It's a shame I can't use that library anymore since graduating 😭
I’m amused about you commenting about how much you haven’t done. Girl, you’ve accomplished so much at a young age. You have lots of years ahead to explore other eras!
Haha, valid point I suppose! :)
As someone who owns the Mandy Barrington book, I would like to let people know that the patterns always come out too big on me. I suggest going a measurement or two down.
Oh, that's interesting! Something that might help with this...the corset pattern will be drafted to the measurements you "give" but when wearing a corset, you usually want it to slightly change those measurements....so maybe a slightly smaller bust size because you want some push up, or a smaller waist. So you'd want to make those adjustments to your measurements before working them through the drafting process (if that makes sense.)
So say you want to have a 26" waist when wearing the corset, but your actual measurement it 28". You'll want to work with the 26" measurement and not your actual measurement when drafting the pattern.
Maybe you already do that, but for anyone else reading, this is good to keep in mind (I sometimes forget!)
Turns out I already own several of these. I've only just started trying to sew 19th century fashions, but my long standing love of historical fashion caused me to buy several of these over the years just to have. Of course now there are a few more I'd like to get.
Thank you for this video. I love to buy sewing books but it is not always easy to chose. For the people who love biais cut dresses from the 1930's, I highly recommand the book Madeleine Vionnet by Betty Kirke, which countains patterns of Vionnet dresses and valuable informations about how to treat the fabric so it does not look weird once sewn in the biais. It is very expensive, but I do not regret my purchase, since I found in the book informations that are not on the internet. Plus, Vionnet patterns are very difficult to guess just by looking at the dress. Betty Kirke spent years and years examining Vionnet dresses and recreating Vionnet's patterns using the same process as Vionnet (playing with fabric on a doll). If you can sew a Vionnet dress, you can sew any biais cut dress of the thirties, since Vionnet is the absolute queen of biais cut and everyone copied her patterns in the twenties and thirties. I use this book to make my own biais cut wedding dress and I love it.
I was lucky enough to grab this book when it first came out before the price skyrocketed. I never regretted it. It’s like a master class in a book. Have you seen the Japanese book that someone wrote to accompany it that actually has the scaled patterns? Although the text is in Japanese, the drawings are very helpful if you are trying to figure out the construction of Vionnet dresses.
Oh, that sounds amazing!
@@CraftySheryl @Crafty Sheryl Oh I have been hesitating for months about this japanese book. Now I am even more tempted lol
You can also check out the book ‘Vionnet’ by bunka fashion college, where they test out the patterning! I also highly recommend the 1930s Fashion Sourcebook (updated version - I think 2021) by Charlotte Fiell. Not Patterns, but lots of lovely pictures and references to look at. There is also a 20s and 40s version… I am just waiting for her to do a 1950s Sourcebook!
Thank you so much for making this! I had to pause the video at the beginning to snag a copy of costume in detail as soon as I saw those pictures!
Oh, yes.... the sketches are just so good!
who dislikes a video as such? you're a delight, Bella, your face when you showed the book upside down made me laugh so hard, my kids woke up LOL
Can I just say I now want all of these! I own the victorian era Janet Arnold one but I want the rest of the ones you talked about!
I appreciate the advice and insight. Thank you for sharing. Also, time stamps, so great 🙂
I was literally searching for books for historical sewing the other day 💗 thank you for this video!
nice to see Janet Arnold on the list, she taught me at college and was a really lovely person. You could do with adding Jean Hunnisett's books to your list - they are really good.
Very much appreciate you putting the links to the books in the description. Thank you for the video 🩷
Now I feel kind of bad for pestering you about this before. My apologies, but thank you so much for this video!
Haha, no problem at all! It's probably the very thing that made me finally make this video! So i should be saying "thank you!"
Thank you so much for this video! For years I've been dreaming of learning more about historic dress with the view of making something eventually and been browsing books but I've never been sure what was worth investing in. Pretty books is an expensive hobby! So thank you so much for taking the time to create such an informative video!
this is so helpful. thank you.
Note for those looking to add the patterns of fashion books to their collection- hold off. They,re currently very expensive, but they,re about to come down in price and be much more accessible to buy
I can’t wait to watch and get some books from the library!! I have been really interested in making historical clothes!
Edit: I have the authentic Victorian fashion from the library right now!
This is super helpful! I was definitely among those interested in what historical resources you use. Thank you Bella :)
Thank you! I’m going to (try to) check out every book you’ve mentioned.
Thank you for this! A lot of these are already on my wish list, but this helps me prioritize them so much better!!
These books are very expensive but they're very important. Thank you very much. It is very important for me. Thank you. Thank you. 😌😌😊
The website for Patterns of Fashion says they're working on reprints of all the books.
(Im hoping I can afford them when each comes out.)
i’m assuming they’re going to be around the same price as PoF 5 so like $35-40?
Me too. I had them in my basket and chicken out at the last minute. Now I wish I was a brave soul. Lol
This Is actually really helpful! Thanks 💕
Me, someone who can't resist a shiny new costuming book, needs this video to be reminded that I have some in my library that are VERY pertinent to my next project :facepalm: Thank you, that was definitely very helpful !
A lot of these books would be available in our local libraries too!
Question for anyone reading - does anyone know of any good resources for understanding 1950's fashion, particularly formal wear and undergarments? Particularly tulle petticoats? Thank you! ☺
I still prefer paper books for reference. When I,am in the middle of something I don,t have time to fight with google about keys words.some historical sewing methods aren,t easy to explain. It,s a great list I being a book addicted want all of them!!
Thank you for this great video! I added some of these to my must-have list. Good to know that I at least own one of them, due to my wonderful sister who bought me one for Christmas. So my collection starts lol.
Oh, wonderful! I've been wondering about the Stays & Corsets set for quite some time, now. It seemed like something that would be useful to me, but I hadn't heard it come up, on costube.
In the first 5 seconds, I was hoping you were going to break the fourth wall when you walked on screen lol - you delivered :D!
i was waiting for the "oh hi, i didn't see you there" line! ;)
Thanks, and I love the inclusion of free resources at the end! I've been using Gallica BNF and the Austrian National Library myself, plus a couple others. Your list might convince me to finally spend a little money on books though. Or maybe not a little. We'll see.
Are you French? Because I sometimes feel nobody knows about Gallica except French people, and even those don't know how valuable it is. I could spend my life looking through all those magazines and books...
@@margotonnotogrambeee Nope, i'm an American studying at a university in Germany! I found Gallica bc I spend way too much time on pinterest :p But yes, it is a fantastic resource, and I've been looking for more sites like it
Thank you for this video.
also, I have the 19th-century fashion in detail and the Kyoto fashion institute!
Consider Assembil's How Patterns Work, taking you from drafting through slopers/blocks and fitting to the final cut, in depth. Major subsections are seams and volume.
Thanks a lot this will definitely help us out!
I just need to add Gallica (the French equivalent to archive.org, where you can take closeups in better quality, download entire documents or just details, entirely for free):
gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/presse-et-revues/presse-de-mode?mode=desktop
That's the link for fashion magazines from the late 18th century up to 1950, most are in French, a few are in Spanish. If you search specifically for costume history (Histoire du costume or costume), you can find old books talking about that too. There are also photos, newspapers, etc... They have almost digitalized the whole BNF (French National Library), so have a look at it. Everything is in French, but I'm sure the website is understandable for non-french speakers.
This is extremely helpful!!!
Most of these books have been on my wishlist forever and I never knew if they were any good. Sadly when I finally ordered a bunch in January none of them could be delivered so now I'm just waiting
Thank you for the list, it's supper helpful!
Thank you this is extremely helpful! Thanks 💙
Are those catalogs on the top shelf ,? ?
For thousands of pictures of fashions and lingerie, department store catalogs from 1890s to 1990s have them. Unfortunately, color pictures didn't appear until the 1930s. Great that you have books with color photos and drawings. They show so much. I have about 300 paper doll cutouts books. I love the ones with the fashion models including some of the period lingerie. I also have some that have already been cutout. ( lingerie for that time period).
Thank you, that's so useful!
Really love this 👍
In these moments I really pity, that I don't speak English on an insanly high level... Unfortunatey most of these books don't have Hungarian translation :(
Same for German... but I noticed that you don't really use a high level of English in general, you just need the specific vocabulary. I've learned a lot of it with just watching Costube :)
They are based on English/American historical dress so I’m not surprised :/ maybe you’ll be able to read it anyways, since I don’t think the vocabulary is that advanced (other than technical terms like stays etc), and there’s diagrams etc!! Good luck :) (also maybe there are some super cool Hungarian dress making books that are only in that language that you could take advantage of :) )
Oh hi!! I’m from Hungary too. It makes me so happy that someone else is interested in these things🥰🥰🥰
This was fascinating! I saw several books I’d like to get. I agree, there’s nothing like a physical book. It’s with you all the time, no recharging, no computer light problems, none of that.
I do have this one sketchbook of clothes from 1920-1960 that I’ve had for years. It’s been very helpful. Right now, though, it’s in a box as I’ve been concentrating on more contemporary things. I’ll have to get it out and reconnect.
By the way, I recognized one of the pictures in your Kyoto book. The lady carrying a tray. It’s called, “The Beautiful Chocolate Girl” by Jean-Etienne Liotard (1743).
🤣🤣🤣
My Amazon cart, described!
You do video on how plan out your projects in future? Do for patreon first and then later upload up here.
👏 Great list!
You weren’t that bad on La Mode Illustrée, but it’s Kee-oto, not Kie-oto. Thanks for the list!
So good
Books are good.
Trial and erea
I have A few vintage clothing and fashion books. Don't find much use for books with a lot of verbiage and no useful photos. One authentic photo is better than a 10,000 words.
👍👍👍
Bella mae do you have a po box?
Not currently, but I'm wondering if I should get one...
@@BellaMaesDesigns I would like to send you a letter! #savetheusps lol
12345678910?!.
+-!?.
😘 kisses Kissinger's Kissinger hug's hug kiss you your you're yourself yourselves yours yourself yourselves ?!.
Very helpful, thanks! Also, that's very much not how you pronounce Kyoto, I'm afraid, it's Kyo-to but you pronounce the o's like you're going to say 'top' but you leave the p off. 😃
Haha, I knew there was no way I pronounced it correctly! 😂
@@BellaMaesDesigns Haha, yeah Japanese has it's own way of pronouncing all the vowels, but one you know them it's wonderfully phonetic!
!;-)