I saw something nasty in the woodshed...

One sunny April day, I decided to play dress-ups (a rather common occurrence) and prance about in the garden taking pictures. My mother recently foraged out her great aunts' undergarments from the basement and gave them a good bath.

They are so beautifully made - presumably by the owners themselves - that it almost makes me wish that I lived in an age where so much care was taken over clothing. I recently finished reading 'Cranford' by Elizabeth Gaskell. The 'ladies of Cranford' spend so much of their time on their work - sewing caps and petticoats ( the rest of their time is spent gossiping and speculating).

It shames me to look at my wardrobe of mass manufactured clothes and wonder who made them all. A small child in Thailand? A teenaged girl in China?


That said, 90% of my clothes are second hand, so I don't feel too bad about it...but I wonder how much more care and love I would treat my clothes with if I had spent painstaking hours stitching together each item?

These buttons are hand-covered. Incredible.

I am glad though that I live in a century where anyone is free to wear anthing that they feel like wearing, and we ladies don't have to spend our days cooped up in parlours discussing the trivialities of tea parties and bird cages. That said, we can if we want to!

p.s. If I can get my hands on a photograph of the grand ladies who owned these garments, I shall add it to this post