Seventeenth Century Women's Dress

Seventeenth Century Women’s Dress is an English-language reference book for anyone interested in historical fashion, costume reconstruction and technical sewing. It presents 17 patterns from a seventeenth-century woman’s wardrobe, giving you a solid basis for accurate recreations and detailed study.

Inside, you’ll find garments and accessories including a loose gown, jacket, stays, a boned bodice, ivory and wooden busks, shoes, a hat, a stomacher, linen bands and supporters, a bag and a knife case. The book also explains the stay-making process, so you not only get the patterns but also valuable construction insight.

Each item comes with step-by-step construction drawings, helping you follow the process clearly and reconstruct historic dress with confidence. Scale patterns and diagrams for making linen and metal thread laces, together with embroidery designs, add even more practical value. A wealth of photographs, detail shots and X-ray images reveals the hidden structure of the clothing, including layers and stitches.

This is a useful source if you are looking for historical sewing guidance, dressmaking inspiration or a book to support careful work with fabric by the metre, cotton fabric, linen fabric and other materials. A rich reference for serious historical projects.