Harriet's Muse

The Victorian corset

1869 corset

1869 corset

The Victorian corset

1859 corset with built-in partial crinoline

Late 18th to early 19th centuries

Short stays circa 1803

Late 18th to early 19th centuries

Regency short stays circa 1810

16th to late 17th centuries

Stays circa 1720

Henry III of France and the Princess Margaret of Lorraine

Types of beads

Beads may be divided into several types of overlapping categories, based on different criteria such as component materials, manufacturing process, place or period of origin, surface patterning, or general shape. In some cases, such as millefiori and cloisonné beads, multiple categories may overlap in an inseparably interdependent fashion.


Components

Beads can be made of many types of materials. The earliest beads were made of convenient natural materials; when found, these could be readily drilled and shaped. As human technology became capable of obtaining or working with more difficult natural materials, those were added to the range of available substances. The same was true of new synthetic materials when created.
In modern manufacturing, the most common bead materials are plastic, glass, metal, and stone.

Natural materials


Beads are still made from many naturally-occurring materials, both organic (i.e., of animal- or plant-based origin) and inorganic (purely mineral origin). However, some of these materials now routinely undergo some extra human processing beyond mere shaping and drilling, such as color enhancement via dyes or irradiation.
The natural organics include bone, coral, horn, ivory, seeds (such as tagua nuts), animal shell, and wood. For most of human history, pearls were the ultimate precious beads of natural origin because of their rarity, although the pearl-culturing process has now made them far more common. Amber and jet are also of natural organic origin, although both materials have undergone partial geologic fossilization.
The natural inorganics include various types of stones (from gemstones to common minerals) and metals. Of the latter, only a few precious metals occur in pure forms, but other purified base metals may as well be placed in this category along with certain naturally-occurring alloys such as electrum.


Synthetic materials


The oldest-surviving synthetic materials used for beadmaking have generally been ceramics: pottery and glass. Beads were also made from the ancient alloys such as bronze and brass, but as those were more vulnerable to oxidation, those have generally been less well-preserved at archaeological sites.
Many different subtypes of glass are now used for beadmaking, some of which have their own component-specific names. Lead crystal beads have a high percentage of lead oxide in the glass formula, increasing the refractive index. Most of the other named glass types have their formulations and patterns inseparable from the manufacturing process.
Plastic fusible beads are also known as Perler Beads, or called "melty beads" by young children. These small colorful beads can be placed on a solid plastic-backed peg array to form designs and then melted together with a clothes iron; alternately, they can be strung into necklaces or bracelets, or woven into keychains. Fusible beads come in many colors and degrees of transparency/opacity, including varieties that glow in the dark or have internal glitter; peg boards come in various shapes and several geometric patterns.

Fringe (trim)

Fringe is an ornamental textile trim applied to an edge of an item, such as drapery, a flag, epaulettes, or decorative tassel.
Fringe originates in the ends of the warp, projecting beyond the woven fabric. More commonly it is made separately and sewn on, consisting sometimes of projecting ends, twisted or plaited together, and sometimes of loose threads of wool, silk, or linen, or narrow strips of leather.

Fringe trim applied to a reproduction c. 1859 drapery design in the Vermont Senate Chamber of the Vermont State House.

Types of Lace

There are many types of lace, classified by how they are made. These include:

Needle lace; such as Kenmare Lace are made using a needle and thread. This is the most flexible of the lace-making arts. While some types can be made more quickly than the finest of bobbin laces, others are very time-consuming. Some purists regard needle lace as the height of lace-making. The finest antique needle laces were [made] from a very fine thread that is not manufactured today.


Cutwork, or whitework; lace constructed by removing threads from a woven background, and the remaining threads wrapped or filled with embroidery.
Bobbin Lace; as the name suggests, made with bobbins and a pillow. The bobbins, turned from wood, bone or plastic, hold threads which are woven together and held in place with pins stuck in the pattern on the pillow. The pillow contains straw, preferably oat straw or other materials such as sawdust, insulation styrofoam or ethafoam. Also known as Bone-lace. Chantilly lace is a type of bobbin lace.


Tape lace; makes the tape in the lace as it is worked, or uses a machine- or hand-made textile strip formed into a design, then joined and embellished with needle or


bobbin lace; as the name suggests, made with bobbins and a pillow. The bobbins, turned from wood, bone or plastic, hold threads which are woven together and held in place with pins stuck in the pattern on the pillow. The pillow contains straw, preferably oat straw or other materials such as sawdust, insulation styrofoam or ethafoam. Also known as Bone-lace. Chantilly lace is a type of bobbin lace.


Knotted lace; including macramé and tatting. Tatted lace is made with a shuttle or a tatting needle.
Crocheted lace; including Irish crochet, pineapple crochet, and filet crochet.


Knitted lace; including Shetland lace, such as the "wedding ring shawl", a lace shawl so fine that it can be pulled through a wedding ring.
Machine-made; any style of lace created or replicated using mechanical means.


Guipure; The stitching area is stitched with embroidery threads that form a continuous motif. Afterwards, the stitching areas are removed and only the embroidery remains. The stitching ground is made of water-soluble or non heat-resistant material.

Lace

Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was not made until the late 15th and early 16th centuries. A true lace is created when a thread is looped, twisted or braided to other threads independently from a backing fabric.
Originally linen, silk, gold, or silver threads were used. Now lace is often made with cotton thread. Manufactured lace may be made of synthetic fiber. A few modern artists make lace with a fine copper or silver wire instead of thread.

Trim Sewing.

Trim or trimming in clothing and home decorating is applied ornament, such as gimp, passementerie, ribbon, ruffles, or, as a verb, to apply such ornament.
Before the industrial revolution, all trim was made and applied by hand, thus making heavily trimmed furnishings and garments expensive and high-status. Machine-woven trims and sewing machines put these dense trimmings within the reach of even modest dressmakers and home sewers, and an abundance of trimming is a characteristic of mid-Victorian fashion.[1] As a predictable reaction, high fashion came to emphasize exquisiteness of cut and construction over denseness of trimming, and applied trim became a signifier of mass-produced clothing by the 1930s.[2] The iconic braid and gold button trim of the Chanel suit are a notable survival of trim in high fashion.

In home decorating, the 1980s and 1990s saw a fashion for dense, elaborately layered trimmings on upholstered furniture and drapery.

Today, most trimmings are commercially manufactured. Scalamandré is known for elaborate trim for home furnishings, and Wrights is a leading manufacturer of trim for home sewing and crafts.

Embroidery Materials

The fabrics and yarns used in traditional embroidery vary from place to place. Wool, linen, and silk have been in use for thousands of years for both fabric and yarn. Today, embroidery thread is manufactured in cotton, rayon, and novelty yarns as well as in traditional wool, linen, and silk. Ribbon embroidery uses narrow ribbon in silk or silk/organza blend ribbon, most commonly to create floral motifs.

Surface embroidery techniques such as chain stitch and couching or laid-work are the most economical of expensive yarns; couching is generally used for goldwork. Canvas work techniques, in which large amounts of yarn are buried on the back of the work, use more materials but provide a sturdier and more substantial finished textile.

In both canvas work and surface embroidery an embroidery hoop or frame can be used to stretch the material and ensure even stitching tension that prevents pattern distortion. Modern canvas work tends to follow very symmetrical counted stitching patterns with designs developing from repetition of one or only a few similar stitches in a variety of thread hues. Many forms of surface embroidery, by contrast, are distinguished by a wide range of different stitching patterns used in a single piece of work.

Late 15th or 16th Century

Elaborately embroidered clothing, religious objects, and household items have been a mark of wealth and status in many cultures including ancient Persia, India, China, Japan, Byzantium, and medieval and Baroque Europe. Traditional folk techniques are passed from generation to generation in cultures as diverse as northern Vietnam, Mexico, and eastern Europe. Professional workshops and guilds arose in medieval England. The output of these workshops, called Opus Anglicanum or "English work," was famous throughout Europe.[5] The manufacture of machine-made embroideries in St. Gallen in eastern Switzerland flourished in the latter half of the 19th century.

English cope, late 15th or early 16th century. Silk velvet embroidered with silk and gold threads, closely laid and couched. An example of English embroidery in silk and metal threads, contemporary Art Institute of Chicago textile collection.

Embroidery

Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins.
A characteristic of embroidery is that the basic techniques or stitches of the earliest work—chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch—remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today.
Machine embroidery, arising in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, mimics hand embroidery, especially in the use of chain stitches, but the "satin stitch" and hemming stitches of machine work rely on the use of multiple threads and resemble hand work in their appearance, not their construction.#

Origins

The origins of embroidery are unknown, but early examples survive from ancient Egypt, Iron Age Northern Europe and Zhou Dynasty China. Examples of surviving Chinese chain stitch embroidery worked in silk thread have been dated to the Warring States period (5th-3rd century BC).[1]
The process used to tailor, patch, mend and reinforce cloth fostered the development of sewing techniques, and the decorative possibilities of sewing led to the art of embroidery.[2] In a garment from Migration period Sweden, roughly 300–700 CE, the edges of bands of trimming are reinforced with running stitch, back stitch, stem stitch, tailor's buttonhole stitch, and whipstitching, but it is uncertain whether this work simply reinforces the seams or should be interpreted as decorative embroidery.[3]
The remarkable stability of basic embroidery stitches has been noted:
It is a striking fact that in the development of embroidery ... there are no changes of materials or techniques which can be felt or interpreted as advances from a primitive to a later, more refined stage. On the other hand, we often find in early works a technical accomplishment and high standard of craftsmanship rarely attained in later times.

In the context of sewing, applique refers a needlework technique in which pieces of fabric, embroidery, or other materials are sewn onto another piece of fabric to create designs, patterns or pictures. It is particularly suitable for work which is to be seen from a distance, such as in banner-making. A famous example of applique is the Hastings Embroidery.

Appliqued cloth is an important art form in Benin, West Africa, particularly in the area around Abomey, where it has been a tradition since the 18th century and the kingdom of Danhomè.

Kensington Palace photos

Kensington Palace

The trip to Kensington palace was inspiring and overwhelming, they're were so many beautiful pieces that touched me, I learnt more about life of a princess or Queen and just being there and observing vintage and recent artwork really made me understand and respect what Royalty has done and structured for England and Europe now.

Marie Antoinette Dresses

This dress amazes me, it is beautiful in every way, the bows used are very elegant the way they connect to each other growing bigger in size. I love the sleeves again they are so beautifully proportioned and designed to look fluffy and big i think they work nicely with the look of the dress, with all the frills and lace and small to large sized bows.
Then at the bottom the dress is finished off with a gold material smoothing the end to look perfect.

I love this dress, the detail is emaculate and the colour is perfect. I like the shape around the bust it stands perfectly on the breasts and then has a delicate see through lace witch flares on the shoulders which makes them appear bigger, and bow centred between the breasts.

Marie Antoinette at the age of twelve, by Martin van Meytens.
I love the sleeves on this dress, they are so inspiring to me, the first thing I thought was its must have taken a very long time for the designer to make this dress, its all beautifully made, I can see so many materials (lace, bows, pleats, buttons).
I also love the print, I think its beautiful to observe , although there is a lot going on with the dress, it doesn't look over designed, it's a beautiful piece of art.

Except on casual attire, shirt cuffs are generally divided down one edge and then fastened together, so they can let a hand through and then fit more snugly around the wrist. Some sweaters and athletic garments (both tops and pants) have cuffs that either contain elastic or are woven so as to stretch around a hand or foot and still fit snugly, accomplishing the same purpose.

Divided shirt cuffs are of three kinds, depending on how they fasten:

Button cuffs, also called barrel cuffs, have buttonholes on the one side and buttons on the other (sometimes more than one, so that the fit can be adjusted).
Link cuffs, which have buttonholes on both sides and are meant to be closed with cufflinks or silk knots. They are most commonly fastened in either the "kissing" style, where the insides of both sides are pressed together, or very unusually with the outer face touching the inner face, as with a button cuff (though this is unorthodox). Link cuffs come in two kinds:
Single cuffs, the original linked cuff, are required for white tie and are the more traditional choice for black tie. Also, some traditionalists may wear this style with lounge suits as well.
Double, or French, cuffs, are twice as long and worn folded back on themselves. French cuffs were once considered to be more formal than button cuffs, although they are seeing a resurgence in the business environment, particularly in Europe. Even though traditionally French cuffs could only be worn with a lounge suit or more formal clothing (and not a sports jacket), this is now not followed by most, while some even wear these cuffs without a tie or jacket. They remain the preferred choice for semi-formal, black tie events.
Convertible cuffs may be closed with buttons or with cufflinks.

The ruff, an extension of a simple collar, that appeared in the 16th century was a form in fashion that grew in length and breadth after its introduction and took on symbolic as well as aesthetic meaning.
It grew out of the gathering of fabric at the neckline of the typical chemise, or undergarment, worn under outer layers of clothing. The chemise served to protect the outer garments from excessive wear and washing and were usually made of sturdier linen that could be bleached and cleaned with frequency. The collection of fabric at the neckline, that would be tied or cinched and form a small collar, would often stand out in its whiteness and in its fabric composition against the features of the wearer’s outer garments. By virtue of this initial distinction, it came to have an importance in its own right and the aesthetic language of the collar, or more elaborate ruff, broadened accordingly.
The ruff survived longest as an accessory in Holland, after evolving quickly and becoming a form separate from the chemise, where it also grew to the most extravagant sizes– cartwheel ruffs were popular there up until the mid-17th century and were often so wide, up to a foot and a half, as to require wiring to retain their shape. Otherwise, the shape of ruffs was maintained by use of starch. The rigidity of the ruff thus ensured that the wearer projected a dignified pose that, because of hindered movement, suggested a life of leisure and attendance to.

Women as well as men adorned themselves with the exaggerated ruffs, and it was women’s fashion that led to further adaptations in its style such as the opening of the form at the center to enhance femininity, if not to facilitate eating and movement. Eventually, the ruff gave way to the standing collar and gradually less expansive collars, but essentially paved the way for centuries of further enhancements and embellishments at the neckline.

THE HEART TRUTH RED DRESS 2010