My First Novel's Inspirations ~ Part 9a ~ Women's Fashion

Monday, Monday...here we are again. Thanks for spending part of it with me. If you're reading this on any other day, no problem, I'm just glad you came. While you're here, head over there 👉 and subscribe if you haven't already. It would make my day, to hear my phone ding alerting me that I have a new subscriber. It's music to my ears! 🎶👂🎶 

Last week I introduced another part of my series, My First Novel's Inspirations, Introduction to Women's Fashion. I tried to give you a taste of the depth of this subject. This will by no means give you a complete picture of fashion for women in 18th century England. For one thing, my research focused on the Georgian Era. Another is that research can be pretty much unending, and I have to say, enough already, at some point, if I'm ever going to take what I've learned and get my writing done. 

Just as today, women wore the best fabrics they could afford. Just like today, not every fabric is created equally. Not every cotton is going to feel the same. Not every wool will feel the same. If you want a well made, quality fabric, you will have to pay the price and so did the women in the Georgian Era.

As I studied these fabrics and saw the amazing talents of the ones using these fabrics to make these lovely clothes, I can only think of how Good the Lord is for gifting people with these skills. I am thankful for the beauty we have in this world. I thank the Lord Jesus for the blessing of it. May He receive the glory for it.

Fabrics Common in the Georgian Era

"The frills of her shift show at the neck, veiled in a muslin ‘kerchief’ and at the opening of her wing-like cuffs, which are typical of the 1750’s. She wears a round muslin cap, the central pleat recalling the ‘fontange’ (1690 – 1710). For formal dress she would wear richly brocaded or embroidered silks."

• Muslin

"Muslin, also mousseline or Malmal, is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. Muslins were imported into Europe from the Bengal region, in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, during much of the 17th and 18th centuries and were later manufactured in Scotland and England." 

Dress made of Bengal muslin. 

(This painting is housed in the National Maritime Museum of London.)

• Silk

"Silk, animal fibre produced by certain insects and arachnids as building material for cocoons and webs, some of which can be used to make fine fabrics. In commercial use, silk is almost entirely limited to filaments from the cocoons of domesticated silkworms" 

Silk Embroidered Sack Dress

"A new style of gown called the chemise gown which was made of thin, flowing cotton usually of white or pastel in color came into the Georgian Fashion. This style was inspired by the European countryside clothing and writings from authors like Rousseau." 

• Cotton

"cotton noun: a soft, white material that grows on the seeds of a tall plant and that is used to make cloth" 

Cotton Chemise

"The early English gowns were slightly different from the French gowns. They were fuller in the skirt width and materials like sheer cotton fabrics like muslin, gauze and percale were popular English gown materials." 

• Gauze

"Gauze: thin transparent fabrics of silk, linen or cotton." 

Gauze Fichu

• Calico

"Calico fabric is a plain-woven textile, made from half-processed and unbleached cotton fibres. It’s a coarse and rough fabric, but not as sturdy as denim or canvas for example, nor as fine as Muslin. Calico is generally very cheap due to it’s unfinished nature, and the fact that it remains un-dyed and raw.

Calico is woven from cotton fibres, and being made from cotton crops it’s completely natural. Because of its unfinished state, there are often flecks of cotton seeds visible in the fabric and it tends to have a cream or grey tinged finish, making it the perfect base to be dyed or printed on." 

Calico Jacket and Petticoat

• Wool

 "Linen and wool were the most commonly used fabrics. Silk was used for more expensive garments. Cotton was used more than once thought, however, it was somewhat more costly and less available than linen and wool. Fustian, a blend of linen and cotton was popular. Another popular fabric was linsey-woolsey, a woven fabric with a linen warp and woolen weft" 

"Wool is a natural fibre produced by sheep. Sheep grow wool on their bodies in the same way people grow hair. As wool grows out from the sheep’s skin, it forms groups of wavy fibres called staples. This natural crimp (wave) gives wool its

elasticity (springiness)." 

Women's Riding Jacket

• Linen

"Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is laborious to manufacture, but the fiber is very strong, absorbent and dries faster than cotton. Garments made of linen are valued for their exceptional coolness and freshness in hot and humid weather." 

Linen Embroidered Waistcoat

• Lace

"Lace developed from the embroidery technique of cutwork, whereby a design is cut out of a woven cloth and the edges are secured with thread to stabilize the voided design and to provide further decorative texture.

Fashions in lace changed markedly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, from simple geometric edgings of the early seventeenth century, to the Baroque three-dimensional needle lace of the second half of the seventeenth century, to the airy decorated net of the late eighteenth century. " 

"lace noun: a fine open fabric, typically one of cotton or silk, made by looping, twisting, or knitting thread in patterns and used especially for trimming garments." 

White muslin gown trimmed with wide lace cuffs and collar.

With that beautiful picture, I'll say goodbye for today. I hope to be back next Monday with more about women's fashion in the Georgian Era. Please come again and again and again. I'm here most every Monday. Have a great week and may The Lord God bless you and your family with Faith, Hope and Love. If you ever have questions or comments feel free to share. I love to hear from my readers.

In Christ,
Sandy

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My First Novel's Inspirations ~ Part 9 ~ Introduction to Women's Fashions

Hello and welcome to another Monday blog post! I'm so glad you came! If you haven't yet subscribed, what are you waiting for? I'm always happy to have you and you might even enjoy following along on my journey to Authorship and Beyond. If you look over there 👉, you should see a couple of buttons. Just start pressing them and following the instructions and before you know it you should be a part of my tribe. 😄

This week, I'm starting Part 9 of my series "My First Novel's Inspirations", Women's Fashion. This subject is not going to be a one post-er. Today I'm just giving you a taste of what's to come and hopefully next Monday we will start delving in more intensely.

Women's Fashion

In 18th century England, specifically the Georgian Era, the women weren't all that different from us, in that they had their own styles, tastes and financial limitations or not. Some women followed the trends and some women tried to add in their own twists. Personalities ranged from the meek and modest to the gaudy and immodest. 

Styles, especially for the wealthy could be beautiful, tasteful and elegant or absolutely ridiculous, at least in my opinion. Here's some examples:

Lovely 😍

😦

OR...

Plain, but pretty. 👍

What was she thinking?! 🤣

There's nothing wrong with any of the women's choices above, but it definitely takes different types of women to wear them, same with fashion today. There are some clothes I think look great on someone else, but I wouldn't be caught dead in. Other things may seem too uncomfortable, too boring or too loud to me. I'm sure you're the same way. Do you throw on a t-shirt and shorts and call it good or do you do your hair, make-up, jewelry and nice clothes and shoes before you step out of your house? Or, if you're a man, do you do the suit, tie, polished shoes, tie tack...etc.?

I find the study of personalities very interesting. Two that I've studied quite a bit in the last year or so, are the Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram personality tests. I think our personalities show up in just about everything we say and do. That includes how we dress.

I thought it important to take the personalities of my characters into consideration, when I dressed them. I not only wanted to consider their social status, but what a personality like them would have chosen in that time period. 

Should I add this book to my Read & Review list?

It's All In The Details

As I was writing my novel, I realized that I really needed to consider the details when describing the clothing of my characters. What type of material would have been used then? Should I mention the layers and layers of undergarments worn? What about accessories, hats, shoes, wig or no wig....you get the point. I can't tell you how many hundreds of pictures I've studied of women in the 18th century. Then on top of that, there are the different classes of people who would have dressed much differently from each other. 😅

**Here's a video you may enjoy watching (G Rated), about getting dressed in the 18th Century. This wouldn't have been the same for women of a lower status, though. There wouldn't have been Lady's maids to help them get dressed everyday. 

As you can see, if I want to examine this subject with you, I'll need to break it into bite size pieces. I hope you'll join me over the next week or two (or three?), as I try to share some of the things that inspired me from the Georgian Era's fashion for women.

Have a great week! Thanks again for coming and come again soon. May God bless you and your family with faith, hope and love.

In Christ,

Sandy

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My First Novel's Inspirations Part 8 ~ The Orphanage and Workhouse

Hello! I'm so glad you joined me today. If you are a first time visitor or have been many times, WELCOME! If you haven't yet subscribed, I hope you'll consider subscribing today. If you're new, you may want to go back to the beginning of my series, "My First Novel's Inspirations", but it's certainly not necessary.

The inspirations I talk about in this series, all represent small or large pieces of my novel. Some may have been briefly mentioned, but were a driving force in portions of my story. While others may have been mentioned more, but didn't have as big of an impact. 

In my novel, the orphanage and workhouse were mentioned, but not explained. The mention of them was more about the difficult situation and the emotions connected with them. The subject of the orphanages, then known as Foundling Hospitals, and workhouses in 18th century England is so deep I could probably write a novel about each. Today, I want to give a small glimpse into the foundling hospitals and workhouses of the time.

The Orphanage or Foundling Hospital-

"The Foundling Hospital in London, England, was founded in 1739 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children."The word "hospital" was used in a more general sense than it is today, simply indicating the institution's "hospitality" to those less fortunate. Nevertheless, one of the top priorities of the committee at the Foundling Hospital was children's health, as they combated smallpox, fevers, consumption, dysentery and even infections from everyday activities like teething that drove up mortality rates and risked epidemics. With their energies focused on maintaining a disinfected environment, providing simple clothing and fare, the committee paid less attention to and spent less on developing children's education. As a result, financial problems would hound the institution for years to come, despite the growing "fashionableness" of charities like the hospital."

Foundling means-
"an infant or small child found abandoned; a child without a known parent or guardian." 

Orphan means-
"a child who has lost both parents through death, or, less commonly, one parent." 

"Each small piece of fabric here represents the life of a baby left at the London Foundling Hospital in the 18th century. When a baby was brought to the hospital the mother left a piece of fabric as a means of identification in case she ever wanted to reclaim the child.

Once the babies were registered, they were effectively adopted – they were given new names and hospital-issue clothes. As the mother’s name was usually not recorded, the fabric was a safeguard to ensure only a close family member could ever reclaim the child.

The scraps, cut from either the mother’s or the baby’s clothing, were pinned to the registration documents. All these pieces now form part of an exhibition at the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury. 

The information that accompanies the swatches is often heartbreaking. The caption alongside a piece of fabric with a blue and burgundy flower reads: 'A girl about 1 day old, admitted 4 March 1759. Named Sarah Tucker by the Foundling Hospital. Died 9 March 1759.’

Another, a red and blue 'flowered chince’, belonged to a baby girl brought in on 27 August 1759. Named Sarah Eld by the hospital, she died of measles in July 1765. Of the 16,282 babies brought to the hospital between 1741 and 1760, only 152 were reclaimed. The exhibition contains only one piece of fabric that did end up being used to help identify the child."

"In some ways, being a foundling could perhaps be regarded as a preferable position in the world than being an illegitimate parish orphan, just as it was more fortunate for a baby to be taken in by the Foundling Hospital than the local workhouse. The 18th century novelist Henry Fielding’s famous character Tom Jones was a foundling, who turned out to be the illegitimate child of a good family. Dickens was an admirer of Fielding’s novels, and it seems the predicament of his own leading character, Oliver Twist, shows what might happen to a child in a similar predicament, in a later era. In the end he, too, turns out to have come from a comfortable family. Both discoveries make for happy endings in these books, but of course real life was not always so promising." 

The Workhouse-

"Workhouse, institution to provide employment for paupers and sustenance for the infirm, found in England from the 17th through the 19th century...

The Poor Law of 1601 in England assigned responsibility for the poor to parishes, which later built workhouses to employ paupers and the indigent at profitable work. It proved difficult to employ them on a profitable basis, however, and during the 18th century workhouses tended to degenerate into mixed receptacles where every type of pauper, whether needy or criminal, young or old, infirm, healthy, or insane, was dumped. These workhouses were difficult to distinguish from houses of correction. According to prevailing social conditions, their inmates might be let out to contractors or kept idle to prevent competition on the labour market." 

"Poor people were lodged in single sex ‘wards’ where the able-bodied were set to menial tasks: spinning thread or sewing clothes, for example, and inmates were ordered to follow strict rules of behaviour and to conform to daily routines. Jeremy Bentham described how workhouses were essentially prison-like structures, designed principally ‘to grind rogues honest’.

But life in the workhouse varied enormously from parish to parish. Some workhouses were clean and comfortable havens for the poor. Many provided education, rudimentary health care and clean clothing. Others echoed to the sound of children playing, many of whom were placed in local businesses as apprentices, and most workhouses allowed visitors to come and go as they pleased. Other parishes – particularly in small rural communities – refused to build parish workhouses altogether owing to their substantial running costs. In many parishes ‘outdoor’ relief remained the chief means of assistance, administered to the poor on an individual basis.

Other workhouses, however, were dark and foreboding places. Many were hopelessly overcrowded. Some London workhouses accommodated well over 700 people. Inmates receiving relief were made to wear special uniforms or badges that signified their demeaning status. Many people contracted diseases and died within their walls, and were later buried in unmarked mass pauper graves. In the 1750s social investigator Jonas Hanway discovered that the death rate amongst workhouse children in London was over 90%. Thus the opening of a new workhouse in some areas was occasionally the cause of serious rioting, and many of the poor preferred to starve rather than enter their gloomy confines." 

These topics are so interesting and if you want to learn more, there is definitely more to learn. I tried to capture the basics for you. For my characters that were worried for whatever reason about these institutions, you can now understand why it was such an emotional, upsetting situation. Count your blessings. Remember the poor we still have with us today. Remember the orphan, the unwanted or the children who are still in need of someone who cares. If you are in a position to help, pray about it and see what the Lord would have you to do.

"More than 250,000 children are placed into the foster care system in the United States every year."

Thanks again for coming and come again soon. May the Lord God bless you and your family with faith, hope and love.

In Christ,
Sandy

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My First Novel's Inspirations ~ Part 7c ~ Education

Hello and Happy Monday! So glad you could come. I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July. If you haven't been to my website and seen the picture of the wreath (my 1st wreath) I made, go check it out. It can be changed for the seasons or holidays. 😁

This month is also Camp NaNoWriMo July, so no Read & Review this month. If you have participated in my Read & Reviews, I'd love your input, comments or questions anytime; I'd love to hear from you. 

In other news (in case you haven't heard), I've sent in my first Fiction Proposal!! I'm just waiting for a response, which I've read can take up to 6 weeks.

Today, I'm going to try to finish up Part 7 in my series, "My First Novel's Inspirations." Next week I hope to move on to "Orphanages and Workhouses" in 18th century England, so plan to join me for that, too, if you can.

Education for Girls: 

The Wealthy Family

"Women also used to receive an education but in a different range of subjects. Most young girls that were born in the upper-class families had their private tutors who used to teach them at their homes. The subjects that were taught to women were mostly French, Italian and needlework.
Some of them were also trained in drawing and painting. But the selection of languages that the women were taught was mainly dependent on their individual talents and interests and also on the social status of their families.

The purpose of education in case of women was to improve their social status. Most women of the lower middle classes received education in order to learn the ways of the gentry, which helped them in improving their social status by marrying a man of a higher social class.


However, after their marriage, most of the education that they had received as young girls were rendered useless as their roles were restricted to managing and maintaining the house."

"Girls from well off families also went to school but it was felt important for them to learn 'accomplishments' like embroidery and music rather than academic subjects." 

Middle Class and Poor Girls

Last week I talked about the Dames Schools and the Blue Coat schools. More girls attended the Dames schools, than boys, but more boys attended the Blue Coat Schools. As you can see from the information, the education of girls and boys looked quite a bit different and that was true for every social class. 

There is another charity school that I mention in my novel that I named The Grey Coat School, an all girls school, after The Grey Coat Hospital. Boys attended this school during my time period, but it did become an all girl school in later years and is still in existence today. 

"In 1666, after the Great Fire of London, many inhabitants of the Old City of London moved to the medieval town of Westminster.

With its congested and squalid alleys, the area was the home of many criminals who, until 1623, had the right of sanctuary in the Abbey. It was in the first seedy area – home to every type of vice and depravation - that The Grey Coat Hospital was founded. 

On St Andrew’s Day in 1698, eight parishioners of the parish of St Margaret’s each invested 12/6 (65p) towards the founding of the school. The aim of the founders was to give an education to the poor of the parish so that they could be ‘loyal citizens, useful workers and solid Christians’. In 1701 the Governors purchased the old workhouse in Tutle fields (Tothill Fields) from Westminster Abbey and established a school for both girls and boys. St Andrew’s stands on the original site of the Elizabethan workhouse, the flagstones of which are walked over daily. After a colourful history which included a murder in 1773 and a rebellion in protest against the dreadful conditions of the school in 1801, the school became a day school of girls in 1874. The Headmistress at that time was Elsie Day, one of the great pioneers of girls’ education."

The name of The Grey Coat Hospital, as with The Blue Coat School, is derived from the color of their uniform.

The Grey Coat Hospital Today

"The Grey Coat Hospital, founded in 1698, is a Church of England school for girls aged eleven to eighteen which is mixed in the Sixth Form. We are a school with strong values, committed to ensuring that each student is known as an individual, develops the knowledge, skills and personal qualities to lead successful and fulfilling lives, and is empowered to do so." 


My main female character, Charity, lives in rural North Yorkshire, England outside of a small village. Although England had options for education, the options in her area would have been very limited, especially for a female. So, I made a way for her to be educated that worked for my story. As a fiction writer, that is one of the perks, but I try to stick to accurate information for the times as much as possible.

Education was available in many places, for both boys and girls, but it wasn't mandatory. The parents could choose how, where and if their child or children were educated, depending on their means. Sometimes a family could afford to send only one of their children to school and in those cases, the boy would have been the most likely one chosen. 

Higher Education for Women-

Higher Education for women came about after my time period (1747), but you might like to read some of the story of the first women in the world to be admitted to a University.

"At 2pm on Saturday 15 May 1869, the 17 examiners of the University of London gathered at Somerset House on the Strand. Their task that afternoon was an unusual one: to assess and grade the university’s first “General Examination for Women”, which nine candidates had sat earlier that month.

The examiners (all men) awarded honours to six of the nine women: Sarah Jane Moody, Eliza Orme, Louisa von Glehn, Kate Spiller, Isabella de Lancy West and Susannah Wood. The remaining three students – Mary Anne Belcher, Hendilah Lawrence and Mary Baker Watson – did not pass the examination. Regardless, all nine were pioneers in women’s higher education.

In June 1868, the University of London’s Senate had voted to admit women to sit the General Examination, so becoming the world’s first university to accept women."( )

I hope you enjoyed this section of my series related to education. I found it interesting and hope you did, too.

Have a great week. May God bless you and your family with faith, hope and love. 

In Christ,
Sandy

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My First Novel's Inspirations ~ Part 7b ~ Education

Hello and welcome to another Monday blog post. If you missed last week's post (7a), I hope you'll catch that post, too, when you have a chance. 

First, I want to thank everyone who stepped up this past week and gave me so much love and support by subscribing to my website. It was a real confidence booster and I was able to bite the bullet and send my proposal in to the first Literary Agent who asked for it way back in September. I never would have guessed it would take me so long to reach the place where I felt ready to do it, but I finally did and now the ball is in their court. I could have up to six weeks to hear back, so I'll be working extra hard to do the final edits on the rest of my novel while I'm waiting for the yay or nay. Don't worry, if I hear back I'll let you know. May God's will be done, either way.

Education in 18th Century England (cont.)

The Working Class and Poor Boys-

Charity Schools:

"Charity schools were less formal institutions and were geared chiefly towards the poorer sections of society. Many of them in fact owed their existence to the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK), founded in 1699. It was an expressed aim of the Society to spread Christian knowledge as a form of missionary activity.

During the 18th century the Society's leaders created schools for the poor in the 7-11 age group wherever it could. It is from these schools that the modern concept of primary and secondary education has grown. The SPCK also concerned itself with the training of teachers, and to some extent introduced a sense of professionalism to teaching." 

One such charity school was the Blue Coat School, named for their uniform color. These schools did accept both boys and girls.

"The original Christ's Hospital, also known as the "bluecoat school" because of its
distinctive uniform, was founded by Edward VI in Newgate Street in the City of
London in 1552 for the education of poor children. Following the dissolution of the
monasteries the City of London sought to obtain possession of the royal hospitals
from Henry VIII and Edward VI. Agreements were reached whereby control of
Christ’s Hospital, amongst others, passed to the City.
The age of admission of pupils has varied at different dates. It has always admitted
both boys and girls. In the early years of the school, those too young to receive full time education were "put out to nurse" in the country, usually in Essex or Hertfordshire, or else remained with their parents, who received a weekly allowance.

The Royal Mathematical School, founded in 1673, was an integral
part of Christ's Hospital, from which its pupils, all boys, were chosen at the age of 11
or 12. They were educated in mathematics and navigation, and were intended for service in the Royal Navy." 

"Divers well disposed persons Inhabitants of ye Parish of St. Margaret Westr, and communicants of the new Church therein, to the honour of God and for preferring and promoting the Religion by law established in the Church of England, did by Charitable and Free Benevolance enact and continue a Free School at their own annuall expense, wherein fifty poor boys of the said Parish, whose Parents were not able to be at the charge of their teaching, were and still are carefully taught to read, write, cast accompts, and also catechised and instructed in the Principles of our most Holy Religion, and put out when fit to trades whereby they might act honest livelyhoods in the World." 

There are still some Blue Coat Schools open today. Such as this one:

"The Liverpool Blue Coat School is a grammar school in Wavertree, Liverpool, England. It was founded in 1708 by Bryan Blundell and the Reverend Robert Stythe as the Liverpool Blue Coat Hospital and was for many years a boys' boarding school before reverting in September 2002 to its original coeducational remit.


The school holds a long-standing academic tradition. Examination results consistently place it top of the national GCSE and A-level tables. In 2016 Blue Coat was ranked as the best school in the country based on GCSE results.[1] In 2015 it was The Sunday Times State School of the Year.[2] The acceptance rate for admissions is around fifteen percent." 

Dames Schools:

"Other types of local school are often grouped under the heading of 'dame schools'. These were often run by old ladies or retired soldiers who for small fees taught the basic 'three Rs' - reading, writing and arithmetic - to the children of poorer tradesmen." 

"The dame school is an English school with a long tradition, largely because England was so late in establishing a state system of tuition-free schools. A dame school was the place that very young children from working-class or other modest-income families learned to read, do math, and write. They were not schools in the modern sense of a building where a group of teachers taught a sizeable number of children. Rather it was usually where a single woman taught a small group of younger children, often in her home. In many cases it was a middle-aged or elderly woman with just a basic education if any at all." 

I am linking the following article, because I found it very interesting, but slightly too long for this already long blog. I do encourage you to take a look at it, if you have the time.

The Cultural Origins of Popular Literacy in England 1500-1850
 by Thomas Laqueur ~ Oxford Review of Education 

I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about education in the 18th century in England. I know I enjoyed it. Next week, I hope to delve into the education of girls. Subscribe here or go to my website and subscribe, then you'll be notified when I post again. 

Have a great week and thanks for coming! May the Lord God bless you and your family with faith, hope and love.

In Christ,
Sandy


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