Sort of On Topic

Here's the link to the home page:

I went back in to look at it a little more closely I realized they have a page of links that lead you to lots of wonderful websites that sell antique garments.

Enjoy

Pat P

"Lucille" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

Definitely very glad I was not born then, a merry widow all but did me in lol

Think of the intrepid Victorian lady travellers who travelled to places like Africa and India, corsetted and swathed in layers of clothing, just don't know how they did it!

With loads of Perfumes handy mirjam

And the smelling salts! Having used them once - the ammonia salts are awful.

Cheryl > With loads of Perfumes handy

Cheryl Isaak ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

My grandmother loved them! I wish I had her bottle now though. It was a lovely jade green, round, about three inches high and the glass stopper in it had a big crown that you grasped to open it.

I do have one little bottle, about an inch high and dark brown glass, I picked it up in a junk shop as the label says Mackenzie Smelling Salts - so I felt..........it had my name on it lol It says For the relief of Symptoms of Catarrh, Cold in the Head, Hay Fever, Faintness, Nervous Headaches. It came from Dr. Mackenzie's Laboratories, 83 Lewes Road, Brighton. More than you ever wanted to know lol

Of course it depends on the type of stays/corsets and how you wear them.

I'm *quite* comfortable in the stays that I made for use with 16th century English clothing... and suspect the same would be so for the

17-18th century American and English clothing.

Then again, I only lace tight enough to "hold" properly where it needs to, and leave it loose enough to *breathe* at the waist... which is what I've been told was *supposed* to happen. Women's vanity still shoves them into too small jeans (which are far *more* uncomfortable)... and other types of stiffened and tight clothing. At least there was a reason for the stays/corsets/whatever the folks of that period were calling them.

Actually, to be honest, I'm *more* comfortable with my stays than I am when I'm wearing a garment of the same time period that does not require them. With tabs that go down over the tops of the hips, they also help spread the weight of the skirts so that they don't *pull* on my back and waist all day.

All that said... Those Victorian ones that are more extremely shaped really *do* look painful, with the exaggerated bend in the back!

-Liz

Lucille wrote:

Cozit/Liz ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

I don't know if it was apocryphal but I have read babies were delivered with the marks of the stays on them. I am not convinced that when laced in by your maid, the day would be comfortable.

My merry widow, made by Warners I think, at least could be clipped up by me but one always bought them on the small side lol Anyone else wear those ? They seemed a necessity under the strapless evening dresses of the late 50s.

"Janet Lennie" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

That would certainly revive one, there is still a faint aroma inside! I seem to remember that my grandmother periodically added some more ammonia to hers, but could be wrong.

I had one that I wore under my formal wedding gown in 1958.

When I think of it now I realize how hilarious it was because at that time I weighed about 95 lbs. and had a 21 inch waistline. I guess I wore that thing because everyone else did and it seemed like the right thing to do..

Lucille

"Lucille" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

We were ahead of our time under our wedding dresses - the only place I see them now is sex shops lol

You're right and I never thought of that before because the ones in the windows of the sex shops are usually black with red lace and mine was virginal white with pink trimming.

Imagine having the leisure--and or the lady's maids--to have embroidered underthings. Dawne

How right you are. I can hear my mother's voice yelling, "Will you get dressed already, you're going to be late for school."

Lucille

"Dawne Peterson" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

I think many little girls started working on their Hope Chest once their first sampler was finished. I have seen examples at the V&A - there were sheets and pillowslips all monogrammed and/or embroidered, all sorts of common household things - not to mention petticoats, bloomers, nighties. I doubt though that the maid who helped her with her corset lacing had all those things. The trick was to make sure the stork deposited you under the right cabbage lol

And, what a smooth outline women had. I wore girdles as a very young woman (soon gave them up . . . it became passe). I didn't remember them being awful. Both my grandmother's wore corsets and I still reflect on how smooth their figure appeared, even though they were both overweight. Somehow, it wasn't as rolly-polly a look. Dianne

Cozit/Liz wrote:

Bingo. When disease-related metabolism changes made me gain weight, a friend groused that because I still go )( I look skinny; at the same weight, she went () and looked fat. A corset will give you that waistline that makes the difference between looking solidly-built and looking fat.