For my birthday more than a month back, I got some awesome gifts from my friends and family, I also decided to spoil myself a bit more and ordered some stuff online that I long had been craving. On the top of my wish-list was a camera. I want to be able to take my own pictures of the stuff I make, and don’t need to depend on my sisters cameras. And my boyfriend got me one!

Only this one would not get me through many photoshoots, so I also got some money to buy myself the real thing. And combined with the donations from the rest of my family, I managed to buy this…

So from now on there will be only professional looking photos on this blog – no more mobile phone snaps. (ok, maybe some, since it is so much faster transferring the pictures to my computer with the bluetooth). As far as costuming goes you can never have to many books, so of course I needed to buy a couple more titles for myself.

Five new costuming books.

Hats and Headwear by R. Turner Wilcox.

A great book for hat inspiration and research of different styles. It contains numerous illustrations of headwear for women, children and men, as well as a short text of the different styles in every period.

Victorian Fashion & Costumes from Harper’s Bazar 1867-1898 by Stella Blum.

A real candy-book for the costume enthusiast. Lots and lots of drawings in black and white of clothes, accessories and everything in between. A must have if you like victorian costuming.

Everyday Fashions 1909-1920 by JoAnne Olian.

A wonderful depiction of what women really wore at the beginning of the 20th century. This book helped me a lot when researching and looking for inspiration for my Titanic dresses.

Draping Period Costumes by Sharon Sobel.

I’ve been wanting this book since I first heard it was coming out. A brand new book on historical patternmaking right on the dressform. I’ve only just looked through it yet but find it really interesting and informative. My only complaint is that they spend lots of pages on grecian dresses and styles and then only a few pages each of all the other time periods. One dress style for the whole 16th century just isn’t enough. Bonus for the equality in models between women’s and men’s wear. It also requires you to have all your foundation garnment already made up and finished.

Historical Wig Styling (Egypt to 1830s) by Allison Lowery. 

Useful book for both wigs and your own historical hairdos. Shows everything step by step, and include tips and reference info for developing your own wigstyles.

And as a final treat, I also grabbed some shoes from American Duchess “Imperfect” sales. And of course then I also needed some socks and shoe buckles to match.

The package  arrived just the other day, and I’m in love. I will give you a closer description and evaluation of the shoes when I’ve worn them. Now there will be no more spending for quite a while…