Caps

Being on holiday these two days to take my bunny to the vet - neutering - I have spent the time cutting out caps from the black batiste I bought recently for the purpose. Two yards of 44" wide fabric will make one grand coiffe and five 18th C caps (several with lappets because I am swooningly fond of them) - none of which is a pinner - and one mediaeval coif; of the latter, I have two already, but there was a bit of extra fabric, so waste not want not. One of the caps is identical to the one worn by Mother Seton; but my intention, but nice.

All these are to be made by hand, but not at night because I am quite blind these days. The patterns, which I've had for dogs' years, are from Carolina Stitches in Time, got at Lacis in Berkeley. The coiffe had no pattern, as it is pretty much a big triangle with the apex cut off. I lengthened the lappets, because, as noted above, I am mad about them.

Books

I belong to an 18th Century group list - sheer indulgence! - and in the last two days, two separate lists, one of novels and one of clothing resources, have appeared; I include them here. The novels are not 18th C. novels, but historical novels set in the 18th Century. Msrs. Swift, Sterne, Richardsdon, et al, need no introduction.

Clothing and embroidery:
Linda Baumgarten -What Clothes Reveal, Costume Close Up, Eighteenth C Clothing at Williamsburg
Stella Blum - 18th C French Fashions in Full Color
Koda and Bolton -Dangerous Liaisons, Ceaseless Century
Beth Gilgun - Tidings from the 18th C
Tandy & Hersh - Cloth & Costume (the Cumerland Co. Hist. Soc)
Sharon Ann Burnston -Fitting & Proper
Mara Riley -Whatever Shall I Wear?
Nancy Bradfield -Costume in Detail
Janet Arnold -Patterns of Fashion
Norah Waugh- the Cut of Women’s Clothes 1600-1930, Corsets and Crinolines
Edward Maeder -An Elegant Art
Avril Hart -Fashion in Detail
Suzanne & Andre Gouse- Costume in New France, a Visual Dictionary
Merideth Wright- Everyday Dress of Rural America 1783-1800
Ellen Gehret -Rural Penna Clothing
Marsh, Gail -18th Century Embroidery Techniques
Anne Buck -Dress in 18c England
(I have most of these myself!)

Novels
Cameron Judd - The Border Men, The Canebrake Men, The Overmountain Men
Janice Holt Giles - Hannah Fowler, The Kentuckians, and The Land Beyond the Mountains.
Conrad Richter - A Light in the Forest, The Trees, The Fields, The Town. (excellent - I read them in high school.)
Thomas Fleming. Liberty Tavern; Dreams of Glory
James Fennimore Cooper. The Spy; The Pilot
Kenneth Roberts. almost anything, especially Oliver Wiswell
Ellswyth Thane
William Gilmore Simms wrote many novels set in the Revolution and others, such as Yemasee, set earlier in the 18th century. The Forayers is chronologically the first of his Rev War novels

Huzzah