Patterns for Theatrical Costumes: Garments, Trims, and Accessories from Ancient Egypt to 1915

First off, I have to say that I've been using this book on and off for the last 25 years or so. Made several of the outfits in the book for not only myself but for others(male, female and children)...whether it was going the RenFaire, SCA events or just mucking about for LARP or Halloween. This book has the basics for almost every time period from a European basis. Now to OWN such a wonderful resource AND in hardcover for the price (~15$), I can finally make more costumes.What impressed me the most is that the book itself is as close to mint as possible. It appear that the only time the book was opened was to put the Library stamp on several of the end pages. No pages dog-eared, written on, tore out or anything. Granted, I knew I was going to get a used book but HOLEY MOLEY, this thing looks like it came from the printers. The one that I've used before was almost falling apart and it was a soft cover. (And i used that as reference ALOT in my college years in Denton, TX.)To those buying this specific book, GET IT. This book has everything you need to get started on building a costume that has that HISTORIC LOOK to it...fashion it to suit your tastes and needs. BUT this is not for making a HISTORICALLY ACCURATE piece of clothing....for example, a simple tunic from the medieval period. In this book, it gives you a pattern to cut 2 pieces of cloth together (basically) and BLAMMO, tunic! I've made basic tunics from a HISTORICALLY ACCURATE pattern and it was much more of a bother(not much of a bother tho, I've been sewing stuff since I was 12)...2 bits for sleeves, 2 bits for gussets, 2 bits for f/b of tunic. If you want historically accurate, get another book. For random costumes (like the title suggests), GET IT.Another reason to get this book is because it is so handy....especially for High Schools. I believe that every school library should have this on their shelves. Even colleges (the one that I used for ages was on the shelves of the TWU library there). Like I stated before, this has library markings on it but it came from a Public Library. Libraries in schools will get more use out of this book just for the sheer necessity that many of the more crafty students will pick up rather than being on a public library shelf and never seen. If anyone sees this that is a purchaser for your school's library, buy this up and get it into the hands of students that are needing something like this to make stuff for plays and such.On to the rating of the seller. SPOT ON EXCELLENT!! Ordered it (and a couple other pattern books) and had it in my hands in less than a week. The merchandise itself was as mentioned...INCREDIBLY good. Packaged in a standard mailer, but well protected and secure. But then, it's a book. Hard covered and incredible hard to smash to bits...even the other books i got with it (soft paper covers) didn't get dinged up or damaged in any way.TLDR: LOVE IT!!! TOTALLY HAPPY ALL AROUND!!! RECOMMEND THIS SELLER VERY HIGHLY!!!

If you need historical patterns, this book can serve as your guide. It comes with patterns in three main sizes for male and female characters, which can be enlarged by the grid method, by projecting, or by using a system like Lutterloh. Once you've enlarged them, you can adjust the patterns to fit by usually dressmaking and tailoring methods.I spent years checking this book out from the library and finally decided I needed a copy of my own. The illustrations are good, and come with suggestions for fabric decoration as well.Highly recommended, with the caveat that you need to have some dressmaking and/or tailoring skills to get the most out of the patterns.

Na

This book is perfect for costume patterns for theme parties and amateur theatricals. It covers the major design trends over a wide historical range of time. The individual pattern pieces are well drawn and labelled and clearly specify the placement on the fold or the edge of the fabric. The costumes are straightforward to make but maintain the authentic line and shape of each period without the myriad details that deter many would-be sewers. Each accompanying illustration of the finished costume has helpful hints for appropriate accessories and trims to allow for creativity. The drawings and instructions on how to drape, fold and wrap long lengths of fabric are very clear and helpful, particularly for Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman garments. A copier can enlarge the drawings to size, but I have found my home enlarger is perfect for the job. I highly recommend this book for those who want authentic looking costumes without the complicated and frustrating time-consuming sewing details. The results are comfortable for the modern wearer. It is also just fun to look through.

As the title of the book states, this is more for theater costumers than historic reenactors. However, I've found it to be a good resource. Rather than redraft or enlarge the patterns, I take a basic pattern that is fit to the wearer already (often a commercial pattern) and use this book on how to modify the shape. I like the fact that there are illustrations of the completed garment, along with the patterns.

The problem with this book that images are cartoonish, and you MUST have a decent amount of sewing experience to use it. That being said, it DOES say it's for theatrical costumes so one can presume that the costume master/mistress has the experienced needed to full appreciate this book as a resource.I used this book to help design all the garb for my 1990 wedding at a Ren Fair, and was not disappointed. I bought this as a gift to my teen-aged daughter, an avid costumer. She's enjoying it too.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect form this book ( Patterns for Theatrical Costumes: Garments, Trims, and Accessories from Ancient Egypt to 1915 ), but it will be perfect for what I will be doing. I knew the book itself was used and there was still bits of paper and patterns in between the pages from the previous owner showing that the book had been used well. But all in all the book is still in pretty good shape. Thank you. I would order form this merchant again.

This book looks at first to be incredibly simplistic, but first impressions are decieving.Although the images are basic and there isn't really any information regarding the actual costruction of the costumes, this book is wonderful in that it provides the basic shapes and pieces of such a wide range of garments.Definitely one for a more experienced costumer, or at least for someone with a bit of pattern drafting knowledge.I'm very happy with this purchase and can see this book coming in very handy.

This book will not teach you to make historically accurate costumes (look to Janet Arnold's excellent Patterns of Fashion series and similar for that) but that is not the intent - right there in the name, this is a book for theatre costumes that simply need to *look* convincing.It's a fairly basic book, all in black and white with hand drawn imagery only. It assumes you know how to pattern draft and put clothes together, as there are no instructions, but anyone familiar with pattern drafting and draping can use the images of patterns provided to scale them up to fit. There are only a couple of examples for each time period, but since a lot of historical costume varied mostly in its embellishment and fabrics rather than in shape, this is fine when combined with good research (I recommend "Fashion: A History From the 18th to the 20th Century", "Fashioning Fashion" by Sharon Sadako Takeda, and the V&A's beautiful Fashion in Detail series - books i delved into again and again during my university studies).Overall a good basic resource for costume designers, and a book that was recommended to me right at the start of my training.

Good reference book. The basics of style and fashion. Patterns will need to be scaled for sizing. Very useful.

Well written and clever drawings to enable you to make easy patterns from the designs shown. Given me loads of ideas for the future.

Good basic book

poor technical informations