SITE UPDATES

V&A

The Victoria and Albert Museum, which is (in my opinion) the most fabulous museum in the world, has FINALLY gotten around to putting up a respectable image collection on their webpage. Unfortunately there isn’t a browse feature, but if you do a keyword search for “dress,” “gown,” “petticoat,” etc. you can see some beautiful costumes (make sure to click on the images for high-resolution images!) — including one of my favorites, this 1879-1881 afternoon ensemble. Yummy yummy!

I’ve added links to many of these items, plus a few others I’ve found, to my Real Regency & Victorian Clothing directory. New additions are marked with an *.

TITLE

New sewing machine
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I’ve upgraded from my 15-year-old Singer 1022 (zig zag was about as exciting as that machine got!) to the Husqvarna Viking 415. I just took it out of its box tonight, and I can already report that I am excited about: automatic buttonholer (good for modern clothes and buttonholes that won’t show), blind hem stitch, overcast stitch, a bobbin that can be wound without unthreading the machine, and a computerized display that tells me which foot to use and where to set the thread tension!

new sewing machine