AmazonDryGoods

Our men's Congress gaiters are now up on the website!

Men's 1860s Congress Gaiter Amazon Drygoods Congress Gaiter

This video is delightful! Dr. Serena Dyer shares Victorian Christmas crafts.

🎄 5 Nostalgic Victorian Christmas Crafts You Can Make 🎄 Taken from REAL Historical Tutorials If you're longing for Christmas gone by then join historian Dr Serena Dyer as she tries out five Victorian Christmas crafts, all taken from historical magazi...

The wonderful Carol Jarboe joining Townsends for a talk on the profession of the colonial washerwoman. Most excellent!

The Lowly Washerwoman We are always researching the people at the bottom of society. Carol Jarbo, or “Maggie”, has done piles of research on these folks and is a dream to work wit...

Our website has been down since late Monday afternoon due to problems with our provider. I am happy to report that it is back up and running :-) www.AmazonDryGoods.com

Tomorrow is the last day to get in on the order for the 1860s walking shoes! We will also be placing a large order for all of our other styles so place your order now to ensure that you get your size and color choice.

1860s Walking Shoe Two-Tone Civil War walking shoes

We are doing a pre-order of 1860s walking shoes! Get your order in on our website before November 9. https://www.amazondrygoods.com/products/1860s-walking-shoe-two-tone.html

We had a wonderful time at the 160th Perryville! Thank you to our loyal customers who shopped and visited with us

So very poignant and sad

Beach vacation circa 1899! Wish my beach vacation looked like this :-)

A Day at the Beach - c.1899 | AI Enhanced Film [ 4k 60 fps] Time travel back 122 years to the beaches of Étretat and Le Tréport in Normandy France.Possibly filmed by Georges Méliès, the film starts at a train station ...

We took an amazing step back in time at Rose Mont in Gallatin, TN for Spring Crush. Mekaela Carter, Monica Martin, Laura Edwards Poole and so many others did an astonishing job!

Looking for an authentic hairstyle to accompany a gown you have worked so very hard on? Here is my page of primary source documentation for ideas!

1855 - 1865 hair Discover gaelmaid's collection, 1855 - 1865 hair

This is so amazing! I have always wondered what it would be like to be a detective. https://www.facebook.com/DailyDoseofHistory/photos/a.115664163197823/435331414564428

In 1856, twenty-three-year-old widow Kate Warne walked into the office of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in Chicago, announcing that she had seen the company’s ad and wanted to apply for the job. “Sorry,” Alan Pinkerton told her, “but we don’t have any clerical staff openings. We’re looking to hire a new detective.” Pinkerton would later describe Warne as having a “commanding” presence that morning. “I’m here to apply for the detective position,” she replied. Taken aback, Pinkerton explained to Kate that women aren’t suited to be detectives, and then Kate forcefully and eloquently made her case. Women have access to places male detectives can’t go, she noted, and women can befriend the wives and girlfriends of suspects and gain information from them. Finally, she observed, men tend to become braggards around women who encourage boasting, and women have keen eyes for detail. Pinkerton was convinced. He hired her.

Shortly after Warne was hired, she proved her value as a detective by befriending the wife of a suspect in a major embezzlement case. Warne not only gained the information necessary to arrest and convict the thief, but she discovered where the embezzled funds were hidden and was able to recover nearly all of them. On another case she extracted a confession from a suspect while posing as a fortune teller. Pinkerton was so impressed that he created a Women’s Detective Bureau within his agency and made Kate Warne the leader of it.

In her most famous case, Kate Warne may have changed the history of the world. In February 1861 the president of the Wilmington and Baltimore railroad hired Pinkerton to investigate rumors of threats against the railroad. Looking into it, Pinkerton soon found evidence of something much more dangerous—a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln before his inauguration. Pinkerton assigned Kate Warne to the case. Taking the persona of “Mrs. Cherry,” a Southern woman visiting Baltimore, she managed to infiltrate the secessionist movement there and learn the specific details of the scheme—a plan to kill the president-elect as he passed through Baltimore on the way to Washington.

Pinkerton relayed the threat to Lincoln and urged him to travel to Washington from a different direction. But Lincoln was unwilling to cancel the speaking engagements he had agreed to along the way, so Pinkerton resorted to a Plan B. For the trip through Baltimore Lincoln was secretly transferred to a different train and disguised as an invalid. Posing as his caregiver was Kate Warne. When she afterwards described her sleepless night with the President, Pinkerton was inspired to adopt the motto that became famously associated with his agency: “We never sleep.” The details Kate Warne had uncovered had enabled the “Baltimore Plot” to be thwarted.

During the Civil War, Warne and the female detectives under her supervision conducted numerous risky espionage missions, with Warne’s charm and her skill at impersonating a Confederate sympathizer giving her access to valuable intelligence. After the war she continued to handle dangerous undercover assignments on high-profile cases, while at the same time overseeing the agency’s growing staff of female detectives.

Kate Warne, America’s first female detective, died of pneumonia at age 34, on January 28, 1868, one hundred fifty-three years ago today. “She never let me down,” Pinkerton said of one of his most trusted and valuable agents. She was buried in the Pinkerton family plot in Chicago.

Here is a fantastic video on how to organize your pattern stash (my favorite past time!)! Thank you Noelle for a method to our madness 😍 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPhD8daxcDo&t=1427s

Pattern Storage Hack || How I Organize my Costuming Patterns || Pattern Company Recommendations Hello Friends! This week is the great Costume Pattern Organization video that I asked if people wanted to see! I got a resounding yes, so here's my version o...

The new Mary Boykin Chesnut 1840s gown is on our website! Pattern includes all changes circa 1840 - 1870. https://www.amazondrygoods.com/products/mary-boykin-chesnut-1840-1870-bodice-and-gown.html

Mary Boykin Chesnut 1840 - 1870 Bodice and Gown Mary Chesnut 1840s Bodice and Gown from Fig Leaf Patterns

FLASH SALE!!! The two three people to PM me will win 15% off starting NOW!

Besides our website sale, we will have items from our personal stash listed throughout the day. First up - An adorable child's porcelain tea set in a basket. Like new, not missing any pieces! $25 + shipping. Post "SOLD" in comment below and pm me with your PayPal info.

AmazonDryGoods updated their information in their About section.

Looks like a road trip is in my future!

Textiles in the Expanded Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg Peek behind the scenes with Colonial Williamsburg curators and conservators for a look at how the Art Museums expansion will put more of our phenomenal texti...

Following the Armies: Contemporary Images of Military Women and Children in German Central Europe

One of the impressions that I do in 18th century reenacting is German so this was fascinating to me!

kabinettskriege.blogspot.com A reenactor portraying a Prussian Soldatenfrau late in the Seven Years War Dear Reader, Today, I would like to present several contem...

Civil War Women/In the Swan's Shadow

Amazing ensemble that I need to make immediately.

Walking dress, three pieces with bodice, skirt, and sash, beige barege with purple stripes and leaves, 1860s

Description:
1860s. Three part walking dress with separate bodice, skirt, and sash, made of beige wool barege woven in lavender stripes and leaves, closing in front, with a corded yoke, bishop sleeves, and a two-tiered skirt gathered to a waistband.

The bodice is lined in the torso with white cotton to provide support and shaping for the delicate sheer barege fashion fabric, but has a wide scooped neckline beneath the high barege neck. This scooped neckline has cord in its hem to tighten the fit to the body. The lining has three fitted pieces, two in front with two b***d darts on each side, and one panel in back with a center b***d dart and curved side back tucks. The side seams are b***d as well, as is the front opening on the right side. The barege layer has a false yoke in front and back with corded vertical shirring. The bottom edge is marked with a continuous line of fabric pleated into a trim. Beneath this, in the front and back the fabric released from the shirring is knife pleated all the way to the waistband. At the sides below the scyes, the fabric lies smoothly. The bodice closes at center front from the high neck to the waist with an overlap secured with thirteen hooks and eyes. The waistline is round.

The shoulders are deeply dropped. Full bishop sleeves are gathered to a buttoned cuff at the wrist.

The separate skirt is made of seven 57.2 cm / 22.5 in. wide panels gathered evenly to a waistband. It is hemmed slightly short for wear in outdoor activities. There are two box-pleated flounces at the hem, using a decorative band within the fabric containing purple and lavender stripes and embroidered purple and lavender leaves. A separate sash made of the same decorative band with embroidery shows it is a repeated element within the fabric; its attached bow and streamers repeat the motif four times within the length of the streamers. Pink silk is used to bind the edges of the bow and streamers.

The bodice shows little sign of alteration however the skirt is less clear. The skirt waistband is not original and it is possible the skirt was cut shorter at some point from the waist, easier to do there than at the flounces. Unhemmed panels of plain cotton muslin have been tacked to the skirt at intervals to form a sort of lining; these are not even sewn together into a single unit.

There is piping at the neck, shoulder seams, and bodice waist. The box pleated fabric running all the way around bodice at the bottom of the false yoke and over the shoulders is a typical trim placement for the 1860s. It is made from a section of the fabric with purple stripes and is embroidered with small purple and lavender leaf motifs; it consists of groupings of three box pleats flanked with knife pleats, spaced across the trim. The cuff is similarly trimmed. The skirt flounces also use a pattern of groups of three box pleats spaced across the flounces; these have been opened at the top into frog-mouth folds. The pleats are positioned to alternate between top and bottom flounces. Hand-sewn.

Extent:
Bust: 86.4 cm / 34 in.
Waist: 61 cm / 24 in.
Sleeve: 53.3 cm / 21 in.
Shoulder seam: 25.4 cm / 10 in.
Hem: 400.1 cm / 157.5 in.
Skirt length (front): 88.3 cm / 34.75 in.
Skirt length (back): 91.4 cm / 36 in.

Museum Number: 13a,b,c

Publisher: University of New Hampshire Library

Contributor: Astrida Schaeffer, photographer/curator

Irma G. Bowen Historical Clothing Collection, University of New Hampshire

500 Years of Correcting “Historical” Halloween Costumes

Some tips for dressing for Halloween.

youtube.com Ft. my attempts to re-draw them But Better. Auctions are happening until 07:00 AM EDT on Friday, 1 November 2019: https://ebay.to/32Lkfqm PRINTS: Due to lots...

Queen Victoria's petticoat is installed at Kensington Palace | Beyond Palace Doors

This is amazing and lovely!

youtube.com “The measurements of the petticoat correspond almost exactly to the measurements of her wedding dress…” Conservator Viola Nicastro describes the process of g...

Ha!

Bride Embroiders Her Love Story Onto Her Gorgeous Wedding Lehenga

Holy cow!

mymodernmet.com

WWII Veteran's Wife Made Her Wedding Dress from the Parachute That Saved His Life

Amazing!

westernjournal.com He handed her the parachute that had saved his life during WWII and asked her to make her wedding gown out of it.

Thinking warm, spring-like thoughts!