Central Kansas Library System

While preparing The Hollywood Glamour Exhibition at the Smithsonian, costume conservator Sylvia Early discovers another name beneath a label and unearths the story of Zora Hough, a talented young seamstress who left her poverty-stricken life in 1924 Jazz Age Seattle behind to realize her dreams of becoming a designer.

Presents a fictionalized account of the friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and her dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave.

"In London, 1939, Ada Vaughan is a young woman with an unusual dressmaking skill, and dreams of a better life for herself. That life seems to arrive when Stanislaus, an Austrian aristocrat, sweeps Ada off her feet and brings her to Paris. When war breaks out, Stanislaus vanishes, and Ada is taken prisoner by the Germans, she must do everything she can to survive: by becoming dressmaker to the Nazi wives. Abandoned and alone as war rages, the choices...

1940: As the Germans advance upon Paris, young seamstress Estella Bissette is forced to flee everything she's ever known. She's bound for New York City with her signature gold dress, a few francs, and a dream: to make her mark on the world of fashion. Present day: Fabienne Bissette journeys to the Met's annual gala for an exhibit featuring the work of her ailing grandmother - a legend of women's fashion design. But as Fabienne begins to learn more...

"In 1900 Sardinia, a young woman's remarkable talent with a needle earns her a position as a seamstress with a wealthy family. Inside this privileged world far different from her own humble beginnings, the skilled sewer quietly takes measurements, sketches designs, mends hems--and in the silence, hears whispered secrets and stories of all those around her. Through the watchful young seamstress's eyes, this small Italian city and its residents emerge...

Niamh Ó Conchobhair has never let herself long for more. The magic in her blood that lets her stitch emotions and memories into fabric is the same magic that will eventually kill her. Determined to spend the little time she has left guaranteeing a better life for her family, Niamh jumps at the chance to design the wardrobe for a royal wedding in the neighboring kingdom of Avaland. But Avaland is far from the fairytale that she imagined. While young...

The year 1900 ushers in a new century and the promise of social change, and women rise together toward equality. Yet rules and restrictions remain, especially for women like Alice Butterworth, whose husband has abruptly disappeared. Desperate to make a living for herself and the child she carries, Alice leaves the bitter cold of Chicago far behind, offering sewing lessons at a New Orleans orphanage. Constance Halstead, a young widow reeling with shock...

"Victorian high society's most daring equestrienne finds love and an unexpected ally in her fight for independence in the strong arms of London's most sought after and devastatingly handsome half-Indian tailor. Evelyn Maltravers understands exactly how little she's worth on the marriage mart. As an incurable bluestocking from a family tumbling swiftly toward ruin, she knows she'll never make a match in a ballroom. Her only hope is to distinguish herself...

"In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruild by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans is a safe haven after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Uruline convent in the middle of the carnival season, Celine is quickly enraptured by the vibrant city, from its music to its fancy soirěs and even its danger. She becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour...

"One night at the St. Nicholas" It's Christmas Eve, 1859, St. Nickolas Hotel is hosting the most talked about ball of the season. Texas heiress Jacqueline Hartman spends Christmas Eve sharing a hideout with an accused bank robber to escape her stepmother's plot to marry her off. "Birdie's flight" It's Christmas Eve, 1859, seamstress Birdie Flanagan gets the surprise of her life when she receives a beautiful gown, and invitation to St. Nickolas Hotel's...