Just before Christmas, Bloomsbury Publishing asked me if I would like to review a couple of their books. As soon as I saw the titles, I jumped at the chance.
What the publishers say:
The Vintage Pattern Selector by Jo Barnfield is a practical sewing book that arms the reader with all the techniques and information they need in order to mix and match clothing styles from the 20th century.
Accompanied by a CD with printable patterns for a range of dress sizes, this book is a comprehensive guide to creating contemporary outfits from vintage styles.
The book is clearly and attractively set out with lots of pictures and diagrams. It contains full instructions for printing the patterns, assembling them and making the dresses, with a section at the back covering the basic techniques of dressmaking.
It starts with a timeline of the main styles and trends for each decade between the 1920s and 1970s then goes into more detail about each decade.
I liked the way it shows the way modern fashions draw on vintage styles, giving examples from different shops. It also suggests ways to combine particular details of different eras so they work together.
I haven’t yet tried making up any of the patterns but I can envisage playing with a few of them, notably the 1920s flapper dress (pity I no longer have the shape for it!!).
The second book is quite different in style to the first. The publisher’s introduction to The Story of Colour in Textiles by Susan Kay-Williams -
Colour and shade of dyed textiles were once as much an indicator of social class or position as the fabric itself, and for centuries the recipes used by dyers were closely guarded secrets.
The arrival of synthetic dyestuffs in the middle of the nineteenth century opened up a whole rainbow of options and within 50 years modern dyes had completely overturned the dyeing industry.
From pre-history to the current day, the story of dyed textiles in Western Europe brings together the worlds of politics, money, the church, law, taxation, international trade and exploration, fashion, serendipity and science.
The Story of Colour in Textiles is an introduction to a broad, diverse and fascinating subject of how and why people coloured textiles.
Being a historian as well as a dyer, I loved reading this book. Again, it is attractively set out with lots of gorgeous pictures, but much more factual information too. I enjoyed reading Victoria Finlay’s book on the story of colour generally, but this book focuses specifically on colouring textiles in Europe. It mentions other parts of the world but mostly only as they affected European dyeing. The book starts with an introduction to the various types of fabrics that were being dyed, mostly natural ones such as wool, linen, silk and cotton.
Unlike Victoria Finlay’s book which goes through each colour in turn, the author of this book works her way through history with chapters on prehistory, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, then each century from the 15th to the present day. It was useful to read about them in their historical context, and she draws on contemporary paintings which illustrate various dyeing processes, such as Jan van Eyck’s painting of the Arnolfinis, and the Bleaching fields of Haarlem by Jan van Kessel the Elder.
It is a good book to dip into or use as a reference, but also has a very readable style. It was interesting to read about the secrecy around new discoveries and subterfuge used to obtain valuable information. Did you know that a whole mile of coastline around Tyre and Sidon consists of ground up mollusc shells, waste from extracting purple from the shellfish? Colour as a sign of wealth, power and intrigue….
She also covers the use of mordants, the introduction of patents and the development of chemical dyes as well as bleaching and the removal of colour to make white.
The book has an extensive list of footnotes at the end of each chapter and a large bibliography for further reading. Definitely worth buying if you are interested in the development of dyeing and use of colour through the ages.
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