Cloak & Corset l About Brookwaite

About Jennifer:
Always feeling like she was born in the wrong century, Jennifer has been sewing for over 23 years mostly making her own clothes and home furnishings. For the past ten years she has found a passion in historical clothing, studying the design and construction process.

Jennifer’s favorite eras to study are the Regency (1795-1820) and Victorian (1837-1901) but in particular loves the 1870s. She drools over the various ways to trim bustle gowns, the ruffles and puffs and fabrics, and the color choices. Although she specializes in Victorian clothing, she finds anything from mid-18th century up to early 20th century fascinating. Jennifer’s earliest costume dates from Medieval and the latest time period is 1939.

Jennifer has been a member of the Costumer’s Guild West (CGW) since 2000, and has been a teacher at their annual Costume College™ since 2004. Her first class of Modern Sewing Techniques for Historical Costumes is the basis of her first eBook.

She has taught classes on Nineteenth Century Corded Petticoats, Overview of 1840s-50s Women’s Clothing, Overview of Regency Outerwear, Faux Fur Muffs, and the Modern Sewing class.

Since 2007, Jennifer has won a nice collection of ribbons, including three blue 1st places and three white 3rd places, at the Kern County Fair in both the general and professional costume categories. The awards went to an 1879 Dinner Gown, a 1840s Bonnet, a Victorian corset, Men’s Regency Tailcoat, and a Regency Bonnet.

Jennifer is a founding member and on the Historical Citizens Association (HCA) board. She plays the well-to-do Mrs. Rosbrugh and the poor widow Mrs. Minton in Oak Street during Civil War events. She is co-owner of this website, Cloak and Corset.com, an internet resource for historical clothing construction.

In 2008 she re-created the Cloak & Corset logo, a July 1876 Evening Gown from a Godey’s fashion plate, including a full set of new undergarments (chemise, drawers, corset, lobster tail bustle and petticoats). You can see the gown and read about the project on our blog, The Historical Sewing Blog, and on the Photos Page right here on our website.



About Sara:
Sara loves to play dress- up. She always has. Her mom told her that once she was able to dress herself, one outfit would never do. She would change it at least 3 times a day! She can remember in elementary school digging with her best friend through her mom’s “costume” box, which was essentially filled with just regular clothes her mom had found; they would pretend to be different people doing many different things. It’s definitely one of her favorite memories growing up.

One day at the summer camp she volunteered at back in High School, she went up to the Staff Lounge and saw a set of 5 VHS tapes that she hadn’t seen up there before. It was something called “Pride and Prejudice” and looked like it was set in a time long ago. She decided to give it a try and popped in the first tape. She was only able to see the first two tapes while at camp but as soon as she got home, she rented the whole series and watched it straight one Saturday afternoon (once you get past the 3rd tape, you really can’t stop!).

After that, she was hooked. She had to read the book and anything else by this Jane Austen. She loved everything about it and her other stories. The manners, courtship, the way they talked, the dancing, and especially the outfits! It was right up her alley of dress-up.

At some point, her sister found out about the annual Jane Austen Evening and, in 2003, they decided to go. She made my own dress, which was the first period dress she’s ever made. Before that, her mom had taught her to sew and she had sewn a few skirts and a blouse or two but she never much liked them as they always seemed to look slightly homemade. This costume still had that feel to it to a degree but it also felt elegant, probably because she felt like she was traveling through time as well.

That ball was so much fun! To see so many others dressed up as well and to get to dance like in Pride & Prejudice…well, let’s just say she was even more hooked than before.

They attended the following year’s Jane Austen Evening and had another great time. Meanwhile, her sister, who was also involved in Civil War reenacting, would invite her along to “play dress-up” with her at those events (although, her sister was into the history portion at the events as well).

She always wanted to bring her husband with her to the Jane Austen Evening and so once she got a husband, she convinced him to go. But he would only go if he did not look like he was in a costume and as long as he was in a Naval Uniform, like Horatio Hornblower. Thus, a huge costuming task was before her. Not only did patterns have to be adjusted as she didn’t have any for a Naval Uniform, she also had to figure out how to make it not look homemade and costume-y. Well, with the help of her sister’s research and Jennifer Rosbrugh’s extensive historical costuming knowledge, she pulled it off and is very proud of her work. Creating that outfit made her so much more confident in her own sewing skills and abilities.

Since then, she has gained even more information and skills through learning from others and from simply just getting in there and sewing. She has already started modifying patterns on her own to represent pictures she's seen of other dresses. She has also started to endeavor in the Civil War era with an outfit for her husband. She was born to dress-up and what better way to experience it than to travel through history!



About Brookwaite:
It was in the midst of sewing for the Jane Austen Evening that Jennifer and I met (back in Oct/Nov 2007). Jennifer is a friend of my sister (a civil war reenactor and lover of all things history). I needed help with modifying my patterns for the event and so my sister introduced me to the master of historical sewing, Jennifer.

Jennifer helped me modify the patterns, understand some of the basics to sewing to make sure the pieces turned out perfectly (like “half your sewing time should be spent at the ironing board;” that one stuck with me and made a huge difference!), and simply give me the encouragement I needed to keep chugging through the enormous project at hand.

During this time, we were just talking about online businesses and how we each wanted to start one the following year. Jennifer wanted to share her historical sewing information to the community at large – she has always felt a passion to pass on this lost art to the next generation – and I wanted to help someone share their information online.

We thought it was a perfect match, shook hands, and now here we are ready to share our information with you. We hope you will enjoy everything we have to offer through Cloak & Corset and welcome your feedback and comments.

Cloak & Corset is your premier source to historical clothing construction.