Loose Threads: Yet Another Costuming Blog

Common modern lucet. "Lucet" (or "lucette") is the name given, at least in English-language sources, to a type of device used to turn yarn into cord.  The photograph to the right, from Wik...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/an-excellent-lucet-article.html

Now that our local election is over (don't ask) and I have less pressing law business, maybe I can resume at least posting about historical costume again. Just today, I found a wonderful websit...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2023/12/new-wonders.html

Happy September! During the summer I was too busy to think about historic costume, let alone blog about it.   So it was a delightful experience to learn from the University of Copenhagen's ...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/fashioning-viking-age.html

The video embedded in this post is from a newish YouTube channel called Imperium Romanum . The presenters are based in the Netherlands, and plan to increase their production of videos in both qua...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/new-ancient-rome-channel.html

Happy Easter!  It's been a long time since I've had time to blog and the energy to blog at the same moment. Today I found an interesting article from phys.org about cloth specimens found at Ç...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2023/04/stone-age-fabric.html

Today's collection of One Afternoon Tutorials focuses on  a few specialized accessories, such as Victorian watch fobs.  They are short projects mainly because they make small items and don't re...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2022/10/one-afternoon-tutorials-miscellaneous.html

Today, I discovered that Hilde Thunem has published the beginning of a new paper, this time on Viking era shawls and cloaks worn by women.  That paper can be read and/or downloaded here . The ...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2022/08/shawls-and-cloaks-part-1.html

Years ago, I wrote more than one post on the subject of lucets, specifically oriented toward discussing the subject of whether the Vikings used lucets, or a similar knitting technology.    ...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2022/06/knitted-cord-revisited.html

A few months ago, I read, on Quora, a piece about a historical costume fact of which I was ignorant, and which was genuinely interesting.  The piece can be read here (scroll down to the answer ...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2022/05/costume-history-on-quora.html

April already.  Wow, has the time flown. Between financial activities (work, taxes) and political (don't ask) activities, I have had little time to even think about this blog for the last two ...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2022/04/april-hsm-project.html

At the beginning of this month, Issue No. 63 of ATR, i.e., the 2021 issue of the Archaeological Textiles Review (formerly Archaeological Textiles Newsletter, or ATN) was made available for free ...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2022/02/archaeological-textiles-review-no-63.html

It's a new year, and the Historical Sew Monthly marches on! To be sure, I haven't done any costume projects for years, and still owe pictures for the last (small) one I completed.  Moreover, i...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2022/01/historical-sew-monthly-2022.html

Recently, I learned about a kind of fabric called "sponged wool."  Sponging was, and is, a technique used to pre-shrink wool and give it a more luxurious texture.  It commanded premium prices b...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/sponged-wool-and-hard-times.html

Loyal readers will recall my posts about Zola, my wonderful orange cat who I lost to heart disease at the beginning of this year, and Empire, the cheerful black and brown tabby we adopted t...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/11/and-then-there-were-two.html

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my success at obtaining a PDF copy of NESAT XII, Aspects of the Design, Production and Use of Textiles and Clothing from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern Era (Kar...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/10/what-about-nesat-xiii.html

The North European Symposium on Archaeological Textiles, or "NESAT", is a symposium that is held about every three years.  Each NESAT has produced a symposium volume of papers on archaeological ...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/pssst-want-to-buy-copy-of-nesat-xii.html

Didn't make it to NESAT (North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles) XIV a few weeks ago, in mid August?  Me either.  But today (now that the symposium is over), I found some wonderfu...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/tidbits-from-nesat-xiv.html

From Kate Strasdin's Instagram account comes three lovely photographs of a Regency gown with a lovely coordinating net jacket or overlay.  The outfit shown on Kate's Instagram account is in the ...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/08/another-regency-dress-with-net-overlay.html

Sketch of a chemise, by David Ring. Found on Wikimedia Commons Having covered almost every other type of quick costuming project, I come to what is perhaps the most basic category of all:  o...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2020/05/one-afternoon-tutorials-underwear.html

Sharp-eyed readers will find a new blog in my "Costume Blogs" list in the left-hand margin: FolkCostume&Embroidery  (the title is written without spaces on the blog's home page).   FolkCostu...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-real-folk-treasure.html

Many of us who are interested in Viking era Scandinavian costume have heard of, or seen pictures of, the amazing Mammen find; remains of an embroidered garment that may have been a tunic; the pad...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/05/mystery-solved.html

A few weeks ago, I wrote a brief post about an unusual recent archaeological find at Hestnes, which is located in central Norway.  That post can be read here .   Today, on Alexandra Makin's ...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/follow-up-on-hestnes-burial.html

This week, courtesy of Katrin Kania, I learned about a free, searchable database of scholarly publications.  It's called Digital Vetenskapliga Arkivet , or DiVA, and it allows one to search for ...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/new-source-of-information-about-early.html

Today, I came across a news article from the Jerusalem Post . The article is about an archaeological find of a basket, with a lid, in a cave in the Judean Desert. The picture with the article sho...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/03/a-very-old-basket.html

Empire awake.   Empire, at rest on a sofa at the rescue place. Meet Empire!  (He's named after the apple variety, not the governmental entity, because his mother's name is Apple; his s...

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-new-prince.html