Making Working Women's Costume: Patterns for clothes from the mid-15th to mid-20th centuries

The back sleeve this book says it’s written for costume students, teachers and re-enactors. I am a costume designer for television and I have been waiting for such an easy to use, clear book to appear. So often costume pattern books deal with the rich persons clothes, because they survived and are in museums and people can do academic studies of them. This book is simple to use, showcases pattern cutting starting from a basic bodice and then shows how to adapt the basic bodice to to the shapes and patterns of real working clothes. The pictorial examples are from paintings and real garments rather than from sketches. So often it’s hard to research proper working clothes without having to spend time reading for hours, maybe when you don’t have time. This is a clear, concise starting point for the basic shapes of each century. Recently I had some work experience students in my television workroom and it’s Elizabeths books we turn to as a teaching tool, but also as a quick guide to pattern cutting and garment construction. I’m so happy to own this book.

A really excellent and thorough book with plenty of illustations, photographs and information. Perhaps not suitable for a complete beginner but the patterns and drafting process is very clear and well laid out so it's not hard to adapt and use the patterns. There is a wide variety of pieces to make, however I was really disappointed that the womens' shirt shown on the front cover was not in the book, as being on the front cover and featuring in such a large photograph I'd assumed that it would be included and which was a reason why I'd purchased the book, not the end of the world but rather annoying.

I’ve been eyeing this book for months but as I have an over flowing bookcase put off the purchase. This was a mistake, this is an excellent book, very useful and informative, I’ve already read it several times and have earmarked my next project. Do buy it . It’s well worth the money.

I am interested in making period costumes and found this book very helpful

So many books on costume focus on fashions of the rich (designed to be inconsistent with physical work), so it's good to see what ordinary working people wore, and what fabrics they used. I'm looking forward to using the patterns, some of which are conveniently given in different modern sizes. The chapter on proportionate cutting shows how people made family clothes to fit without the tools we take for granted. On the down side, important details are missing on how to assemble some items, but the answers should not be too hard to find elsewhere. Overall this is excellent value for money and complements other books on historic costume.

This is a comprehensive look at ordinary working womans clothing -invaluable to historians and re-enactors. someone has obviously realised the scarcity of sources for patterns out there and done some good research, basing their patterns on existing materials and pictures. My friend has already used the patterns for an Edwardian jacket-so far, so good.

One of my top books for historical pattern cutting, and the only book or information with substantial research in to working class costume. Incredibly useful and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

A bit of a disappointment. Interesting photography and a couple of original items, and thereas here is quite a few diagrams for making the clothes there is a a distinct lack of actually showing garments made from those patterns. Only one gown, a simple medieval style is shown, but all of the others - nothing. So no saying whether the patterns were tested at all and what garments they produce. At release the other books in the series show the made up items, and provide more practical information. definitely the weakest of the series.

I purchased the kindle edition, being cheap and having several digital credits. The enlargement function is so good for viewing the details in the examples (fine example, by the way) and the diagrams. True, the book caters to the experienced and novices might be sratching for clues to construction without finished projects to admire, but it's crammed with great stuff.

Endlich mal ein Buch, in dem nicht die Kleidung der Reichen sondern der Arbeiterinnen in verschiedenen Epochen Thema ist. Zu jeder Epoche gibt es eine ausführliche Einführung inkl. Beispiele anhand von Gemälden. Wie alle Bücher von Elizabeth Friendship ist es sehr übersichtlich aufgebaut, es werden benötigte Utensilien zum Nähen und die Techniken super beschrieben. Die Schnittmuster müssen anhand der Diagramme und eigenen Maßen erstellt werden.

How everyday women's clothing evolved, and in the contexts of history and types of employment. Interesting and informative for several audiences. Well researched, quite scholarly, but presented simply. The appendix regarding fabric sellers for today is a useful surprise.

First, this book tries to fill a huge hole in clothing history. And it's a good start. The book jumps from late Middle Ages to 1630, leaving out huge swaths of history though perhaps there wasn't deemed an appreciable difference in common wear. Warning not to rely too much on illustrations for an understanding of fashion (wise words, indeed), the book does illustrate exactly why that's important to remember. Itself relying on carefully curated paintings and drawings of "working" women's clothing, it gives what detail possible even as it barely touches the subject in other ways. (That is not the criticism you might think - the entire field is sparsely studied, and this book tries its darnedest.)

The book is fine, the service quick, the packaging inadequate. The book was received with a strongly bent corner.