History. Textiles. Illustration
Welcome to the Making History blog!
On this blog I’ll be recording some of the content I’ve been enjoying as well as any other history, textile or Illustration items that interest me. One of the motivations behind this business is the idea of sharing my personal interest in history, all of the rabbit holes and fleeting obsessions that take over me when I find a fascinating new bit of information. In a world of Ai and generic trend-led content, I’m going to strive to share here the silly, the inane and the wonderful.
It’s not the greatest business plan. I could focus solely on products I am pushing, currently trending keywords or seasonal themes to optimise my SEO. I could spend the time creating marketing plans, scheduling content or making videos, but instead there is a human urge to share and document. So I have decided to lean into this and create something for myself, but also for you. I hope you enjoy seeing what I have been listening to, watching and discovering.
What will I be recording?
I am a greedy consumer of history based media. I make things for a living, and while some of that involves thinking, planning and days spent hunched over a computer, much of my time is spent physically stitching, ironing or cutting fabric. This time is almost always accompanied by history podcasts and audiobooks. My preference is for social history and am fascinated by the context behind specific moments, changes and movements, and the history of things that have shaped our world.
My days off are usually spent at museums, art galleries or historic sites, so expect a smattering of National Trust houses, niche museums and photos of random objects of interest.
If you don’t want to miss anything you can subscribe to my monthly Making History Newsletter. Here I’ll be sending out a rundown of the news from the month, including blog content and info about new products as well as general updates.
Sign up here
This week:
It was 1920s week on The Great British Sewing Bee. Yasmin’s sailor dress was right up my street (at university I found a genuine sailors uniform in a vintage clothes shop, complete with trimmed collar and used to wear it to lectures). I also used to own several pairs of faux-tweed knickerbockers/plus fours so the pattern challenge was wonderful to watch as well. I may have to find a pattern and recreate one of my old pairs!
I went to see Top Hat at Chichester Festival Theatre. It’s a film I loved during a teenage phase of Fred Astaire worship, and although the storyline is pretty dated and ridiculous, the production was sublime. Full of tap-dancing, feathers, top hats, canes and Ritz.
