Sewing, with Blair Thornburgh (episode 13)

YA author Blair Thornburgh shares the appeal of her special witchcraft skill / future apocalypse job. Blair explains the challenge of planning for a garment and graces us with her Strong Opinions about historical costuming in movies. We learn the technical meaning of the word “notions,” wax poetic about the magical appeal of fabric before use, and detour into classic children’s books that really show their age. It was really fun, and I could’ve talked with her about sewing for three more hours. Hope you enjoy!

Photo by Courtesy of Box Hill Films - © 2019 Focus Features, LLC. All Rights Reserved. (Via IMDB)

SHOW NOTES: 

There’s a great video on youtube called “A Dress Historian Explains the Difference between Corsets and Stays” by Abby Cox that explains exactly that, with lots of pictures. Skip to 5:28 to get down to business. 

Margaret is sad because her period management is so much more involved than ours has to be.

The LuLaNo reddit really does provide some sewing schadenfreude, if you need that sort of thing. 

From Bridgerton. An inaccurate amount of corset tightening for 1813.

At one point, Blair refers to the Belle Epoque - check out MyModernMet’s article on the Belle Epoque to learn a bit more about that time period. 

Gyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. How could the character fit all that hair into such a flimsy boy wig?

The wikipedia link that we looked at in “something I learned this week” was called List of Highest Grossing Media Franchises

Hit up blairthornburgh.com to learn more about Blair and her projects!