The Unbroken Thread

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Stunning Visual Images

I just love cruising the net. It's possible for me to sit for hours, happily wandering from one site to another, finding photographs and articles about embroidery. Last weekend I was looking for photos of gentlemen's caps that would give me some historically accurate ideas about color and stitch choices. Often, I find the best sites by typing in what I'm searching for and then looking at images rather than everything on my search engine. Since I'm usually looking for images anyway, it seems logical to find sites where there are images that appear at first glance to be helpful.And I struck gold this time! If you have any interest at all in embroidered clothing from the 18th century ( or anything really from the 18th century!), then this site is wonderful! It's call The 18th Century Clothing Notebook.The page with links to images of caps has 45 links on it. And, of course, some of those links lead to other sites. Not only are there pages of resources with links to images of clothing for men, women and children, there is a page of "Other Topics" which is fascinating! Links to embroidered pincushions, chatelaines, dolls and even manners! A few of the links are broken and some will take you to books for sale on Amazon but most are full of information and, most importantly, pages of links to images! It's a feast for your eyes and imagination. There are also links to other pages to do with earlier times in some areas so you can go on a time travel of costume if you wish.Naturally, I looked at ALL the links and ALL the caps. By far my favorite is this one from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.I had to read the description three times because I was so sure I misunderstood it somehow. Can you guess what the material is that it's embroidered with? It looks like gold doesn't it? Nope, it's straw! Unbelievable! This one inspired me with all the colors and the satin stitches. It's also from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.The cap below is from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The colors remind me of the ones I'll be using in my miniature reproduction cap - bright bold blues and reds.So, if you have some time and want to immerse yourself in the world of the 18th century, here's a good place to start!So often many of you put links in your posts about the current topic. If you have some wonderful sites you'd like to share that provide us with stunning visual images, please share them with all of us!