Today's the Day!
Yes! The Happy Secret of It All is now out! (I’m celebrating by watching Moulin Rouge, the romantic epic of my preteen years.) It's hard to believe that this time has actually come — even when I was contracting with Joana for the cover, there was a part of me that thought what I was doing was very silly, because was there really going to be a book?
Yes. Yes, there is a book!
It’s always hard to send something you’ve made out into the world, whether it’s a sewing pattern, an exhibition, or a story. Once it truly exists to other people, they go around perceiving it and thinking about it … and judging it. To that end, it would mean the world to me if any of you friends who read the novella would drop a review for it on the platform where you bought it, or someplace like StoryGraph.
I’m nine thousand words into a sequel to Happy Secret, tentatively titled Silver Lining. It’s a continuation of the love story begun in the original, with even more descriptions of clothing (which I presume you’re into, if you’re here). I’ll be sharing a brief excerpt in my next letter, so as not to spoil anyone before they have a chance to read Happy Secret!
I usually go with high-end fashion for these discussions, but in honor of Patience and her limited budget, I decided to take a page out of a magazine aimed at middle-class women instead.
All five of the dresses shown here (in wonderfully bright color) are representations of graded patterns that could be purchased from the magazine’s publisher, Butterick. The page acts as both advertisement for the products, making them look so attractive and fashionable that the viewer wants to buy the patterns and sew them up.
At the same time, it instructs the viewer in what sort of fabrics to use when they do that, and how to style them. Which styles suit short gloves, and which long? When is a dramatic hat called for, and which dress requires more practical shoes?
All five dresses are fairly simple, but at the same time, they’re more complex than the stereotypical “flapper dress”. The dotted blue dress has a tiered skirt, a fashion that was heading out of style. (This is the one Patience would go for, if you’re wondering.) The one in the upper right has some extra fullness added into the skirt with loose side panels. And the pink and grey dress, which looks intended to be made out of silk, would have needed a lot of skill to ensure the straightness of the piecing in the bodice or the tabs at the ends of the sleeves. Not to mention the embroidery! Several of these also have notes for which embroidery patterns need to be purchased to make them exactly as shown.
Cornell University Library’s Home Economics Archive has many historic periodicals from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and they’re digitized! You can find this issue of The Delineator here, and you can read more about the collection here.