If you are a sutler at living history events and sell items, be they tinware, candles, clothing, or more, then you have to be sure that what you are selling is as accurate as the current historical knowledge base is.
Professional historians as well as living history enthusiasts do a lot of research in order to ensure that we come as close as we can to authenticity in the time period we are portraying. For many of us, research is also a big part of the fun of participating in living history.
Because of the constant research being conducted, our knowledge base grows and changes. Something that was well accepted as period correct for years might be found to actually not be (or to even be from a different time period than originally thought.)
Here is a photo of my mother with Teacher Daughter Lisa and Mountain Mama Jessica at an event in the mid 1990s. Mom had done lots of research and made all the clothing they are wearing. It was very correct for the research base of the 1990s and extremely well made. (I have never known anyone who could sew or draft a pattern like my mother!)
But the knowledge base of 2025 is much broader now and so the clothing you see at living history events will look a bit different than these outfits.
For example, look at that large pattern on my mother's petticoat. "Prints were no bigger than the size of your hand" became the researched rule of thumb in the 2000s and remained that way for years. Many times Leslie and I have wandered around fabric stores with one hand stretched out, placing it against bolt after bolt of fabric to see if a particular print would be suitable for our purposes.
I have a beautiful fabric from my mom's stash in my sewing room and I can't use it.
It has been languishing in a tub for years.
I'd considered it unusable because some of the print was bigger than my hand.
But earlier this spring, photos began making the rounds of 18th century online sewing groups.
They were from a 2017 exhibit on historical chintz at the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. And then in 2021, the Fashion and Textile Museum in London borrowed that exhibit, called it, "Chintz: Cotton in Bloom," and put it on display again in London for some time.
A lot of historical sewists took notice and photos from the exhibit began making the rounds of historical sewing groups. One reason that the above photo generated so much interest?
The print on that petticoat is far bigger than a handprint. And the museum has got it (and more like it) documented to the 18th century.
Which means, there are now suddenly more fabric options open to period clothing sewists that are actually period correct and have been rejected because of the handprint rule.
The bird on my mother's fabric would have worked okay in the past as it met the handprint rule.
but coupling it with the big leafy print had made the fabric unusable.
Not any more!
Even better for me when it comes to using this piece and documenting it is that 18th century chintz fabrics were almost always printed on a white cotton background, and this piece of fabric fits that parameter for authenticity, too.
I haven't yet decided what I will do with it, but a petticoat would have the clean lines that would best show off the big print so I am leaning that way.
Stay 'tooned!
