Victorian Bathing and Bathing Suits: The Culture of the Two-Piece Bathing Dress from 1837 - 1901

I'm the owner of the Mantua-Maker Historical Sewing Patterns, established in 1994. My costuming career began early - making dresses for my sister's dolls. I discovered costuming at the BayCon masquerade, a science fiction convention held in 1985, and soon thereafter fell in love with historical costuming. After many years of collecting historical clothing terms, I decided to assemble and share them with other costume historians. Five Rivers Publishing, based in Canada, published my first non-fiction work, Elephant's Breath & London Smoke: Historic Colour Names, Definitions & Uses in 2009. My second non-fiction work, "Fabric à la Romantic Regency: A Glossary of Fabrics from Original Sources, 1795 - 1836" was published in 2013 and is available on Smashwords and on Etsy. Although I grew up in Northern California, I've lived in England and Colorado, and currently reside in sunny Central Texas. I've been a receptionist, a waitress, a computer programmer, a warranty clerk, a real estate assistant, an inept archer, a costume maker and a dressmaker.