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Deb Salisbury
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The Art of the Mantua-Maker: 1870 - 1879: Fashion, Sewing, and Clothes Care Advice (Victorian Dress and Dressmaking Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Deb Salisbury (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 24 ratings
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Taste in dress is the sure guarantee of the lady. Nor is it mere money that makes a tasteful dress. It is principally a knowledge of the fashions, and how to adapt them to your style.
Peterson’s Magazine, November 1875

The art of the mantua-maker was practiced by every woman who wanted to create her own wardrobe. Fashion magazines were studied and dissected, scoured for details on how each effect was created, how many seams were used, and where the pleats were used. They learned why changes were made, when they went out of date, and how to recreate the styles they liked.

This book compiles sewing and fashion advice given in those books and magazines during the 1870s, given in the words of writers of that time. Each entry shows the name and date of the periodical quoted. I’ve included as many pattern sketches as I could find.

“The Art of the Mantua-Maker: 1870 - 1879 Fashion, Sewing, and Clothes Care Advice” has three sections:
1) Sewing tips and fashion advice
2) Fabric cleaning and care.
3) Bibliography of magazines and books I found useful.

I’ve included over 740 black and white period engravings to help show the details of the changing fashions of the 1870s.
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  3. Publication date
    November 16, 2014
  4. File size
    25172 KB
  5. Page Flip
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  6. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  7. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

I'm the owner of the Mantua-Maker Historical Sewing Patterns, established in 1994. My costuming career began early, making dresses for my sister's dolls. I discovered costuming at the BayCon masquerade, a science fiction convention held in 1985, and soon thereafter fell in love with historical costuming. After many years of collecting historical clothing terms, I decided to assemble and share them with other costume historians. I hope you enjoy my work.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00PR4BMM4
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Mantua-Maker (November 16, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 16, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 25172 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

About the author

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Deb Salisbury

Deb Salisbury

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I adore nineteenth-century fashion magazines. I love Victorian-era sewing books even more.

Learning to sew in the loose-fitting fashions of the later twentieth century gave me no hint of the intricacies of structured clothing, or of the amazing things women were willing to put themselves through to trim their gorgeous dresses. This jeans and sweat-shirt girl quickly learned to appreciate the techniques those seamstresses employed. After many years of collecting, I wanted to share their original writings with other historical-dress enthusiasts.

I’m the owner (and sole employee) of The Mantua-Maker, quality historical sewing patterns for the modern sewing artist, established in 1993. I fell in love with costuming when my boyfriend took me to BayCon’s Masquerade in 1986, and I’ve been making historical and fantastic clothing ever since.

My designs have won awards at World Con, Costume Con, WesterCon, and BayCon.

I also write fantasy novels as D. J. Salisbury.

Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5
24 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Donna
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2019
Verified Purchase
The book arrived in excellent shape and was even more interesting than I had hoped. As a costume history buff, I loved the period illustrations and clothing descriptions. Not just for sewers as I had rather expected. Excellent service as well.
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me
5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely useful book
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2017
Verified Purchase
This book has been far more useful than I expected. It is jam-packed with excerpts from 1870s fashion periodicals, including pattern diagrams, trim ideas, finished dress drawings. loads of information on the rapidly changing fashion trends of the decade. I would buy other books by the same author in this format.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A great reference for costumers or the curious.
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2015
Verified Purchase
I was very happy to see that the editor added her comments to the text! It clairfied some points for me. Yet she didn't 'dilute' the original text, either; a great job!! An excellent reference for my costume sewing that I'm sure I will turn to often.
One person found this helpful
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E. R. Hoover
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2015
Verified Purchase
Lots of Great information for those wanting to produce womens clothing of this time period .
One person found this helpful
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Kris Padrick
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2015
Verified Purchase
Excellent if you are looking to learn more about dress making in the 1870s
One person found this helpful
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Kathy
5.0 out of 5 stars Granddaughters present
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2021
Verified Purchase
She loves the book. She loves to recreate fashion from the paste. This will help her make the patterns.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Sabrina Abbagnale
5.0 out of 5 stars Meraviglioso
Reviewed in Italy on February 8, 2022
Verified Purchase
Non contiene cartamodelli, ma spiega dettagliatamente come erano fatti i vestiti, dal taglio ( piccoli diagrammi laterali ) alla metratura dei tessuti, quali tessuti usare, quanti bottoni....Non è difficile da tradurre.
Come è stato descritto in un altra recensione è un libro di testo.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Detail
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 17, 2016
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My wife loved this book. The detail was great.
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Barbara b.
5.0 out of 5 stars Libro di testo
Reviewed in Italy on June 6, 2021
Verified Purchase
Libro di testo bellissimo , in inglese ma con tutte descrizioni specifiche
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