Because I have the fashion plates to post, I don’t really think to update very often about my life, my sewing projects, etc. But stuff does happen in those areas!
– I went out with the Empire State Costumers to the Victorian Stroll in Troy last Sunday (not in costume, but everyone else was, and they looked great!), and then to Linda Baumgarten’s talk on the history of quilting at the Albany Institute. I got to meet her, it was so cool!
– I’m having a few weeks off from working at the Chapman, because it made sense for me to wait until the exhibition space could be emptied and then filled with the objects in the storage unit, as I’ve put numbers on everything else and if I stayed until then the grant would nearly run out while I did less necessary things. Don’t feel sorry for me, it was my idea!
– The 1771 L’Art de la Lingere, by M. de Garsault, was shamelessly dangled in front of me and now I’m trying to translate that as well as the Galerie des Modes. Once I’m done I’m going to post it all, but for now I’ll give you a teaser: the list given of all the items supplied by a Lingere (one who makes linens) for a wealthy woman’s trousseau. The garments that are farmed out to seamstresses are marked with an asterisk.
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muslin or dentelle [bobbin lace].
in muslin.
Etuis, of good basin [a cotton fabric] of Troyes.
of the same.
Napkins.
Aprons.
which four are trimmed in good muslin and two in dentelle.
for taking off rouge, in basin with nap.
for taking off powder, in doubled muslin.
and pleated Fichu, of point d’Alençon.
and pleated Fichu, of point d’Angleterre.
and pleated Fichu, of true Valenciennes lace.
for undress.
in mille-fleur muslin trimmed with dentelle, for undress.
dentelle, for night.
two rows [of ruffles] in muslin and dentelle, for night.
two rows [of ruffles] most beautiful, for day, in case of indisposition.
or Bandeaux trimmed with a narrow dentelle, for night.
in muslin, for night.
fabric used for stiffening, for day.
of which ten are trimmed with muslin, and two with dentelle.
in half-Hollande.
in Batiste.
trimmed at the top with a narrow dentelle.
cords, in good cotton cloth or a good Indian basin, lined with napped basin,
for night.
Indian basin.
trimmed with the same, for what is called a pretty
Déshabillé.
/ Six Around-the-throats / Twelve
pairs of Ruffles in scalloped muslin.
/ Twelve Around-the-throats / Twelve
pairs of Ruffles in dentelle backed
with embroidered muslin.
Sleeves for washing the hands.
Cloths for washing the arms.
Cloths for the Garderobe [toilet].
Mimic of Modes 
72 CHEMISES…. I mean, I hate doing laundry too, but 72???? This blows my working-class-obsessed mind. As a comparison, your average slave got two chemises a year.
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What does “in a good basin” for the 6 jumps? : )
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Perhaps being a lady she changed her chemise at every change of dress and used 3 or 4 per day. Pity the poor laundry maid!
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Nowadays it's a linen/cotton blend, but in the 1770s it was just a type of cotton. I'll give you the longer explanation from the book (which sadly doesn't explain very much):Basin must be entirely of cotton thread; it is made in France, and it comes from foreign Countries: there are wide, narrow, fine, medium, coarse, plain with nap on one side, without nap, in little and big stripes, in imperceptible stripes. The best in France is made in Troyes in Champagne.The wide is a half-ell and an inch.The plain or small-striped narrow, when it has twenty-five bars, is a half-ell wide; when it has thirty six bars of three stripes each, it is a half-ell minus an inch wide.It is also made in other places, some are a half-ell and an inch wide, others are a half-ell and a twentieth.Foreign Basins come to us from Holland, Bruges, the East Indies; striped ones from Holland are five eighths wide; plain and napped ones from Bruges are five twelfths wide; striped or barred are nearly an inch less; those of the East Indies are made in Pondicherry, Bengal, Bellafor, are three, four, five, six quarters wide.
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I'm trying to imagine what a stack of 72 neatly-folded chemises (which I should have translated to shifts, oops) would even look like.
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