Did you ever see that cartoon commercial where the ladies are quilting paper towels with knitting needles? I only saw it a couple of times before somebody got the message that they really should be using sewing needles and thread. Some poor animator made a fool of himself on national TV because he didn't know how quilting was done.

A young writer in my critique group made a similar mistake in her manuscript by having a young woman in the 1950s call her glasses spectacles. Blew her authenticity right outta the water. I caught it because A, I'm old enough to have worn glasses in the '50s and B, I was a professional costume designer for thirty years.

"You know these things," she cried, "But where do I find them?" The group decided I should write a 20th century clothing guide for writers. Easy for them to say.

Here is chapter one, "Clothe Your Characters in 1900-1910" covering everything from collar buttons to automobile driving coats for that decade. Now, I gotta get crackin' on the rest of the century!

So watch this site. I have friends.........

 

This sweet wedding portrait shows my grandparents, Claude and Blanche Hambleton Adams, married near the beginning of the century. She made the dress entirely by hand. Very up to date for Independence, Kansas, with its flounced yoke, bag front and bishop sleeves. His center-parted hair and hers in a pompadour show this to be very near the beginning of the decade. With the pompadour hair and standing collars, earrings were seldom worn during the decade.

Here are the parents of the bride, Jane Caroline Fenton Hambleton and James Galbrech Hambleton.