The Sewing Academy @ Home is a growing community of mid-century living history enthusiasts and researchers, getting together to share ideas, question old ideas, and move forward with their individual history goals. We focus primarily on the 1840 to 1865 era, and encourage a high level of historic accuracy.

We’re quite pleased with the welcoming, congenial nature of our forum community! Whether you’re new to the living history scene, or have been at it awhile, you’ll find discussions to meet your needs, and new friends to enjoy. You may read without registering; to post or respond, you will need to have your own free membership.

There is only one way to register… you’re going to have to read this page, and follow the very simple process at the bottom of it. We’re happy to have new membership, but we do run a tight ship, so if what you read appeals to your historic sensibilities, then please do send the registration to us!

To preserve the pleasant nature of this little home on the web, we have a few ground rules:

1: Register with some variant of your real name as your username.

We find that using real names facilitates discussion, and adds to the tone of personal responsibility in all our communications. To that end, we do require that anyone registering for forum membership use some version or variant of their real name for forum purposes. This might include a combination of:

• Real first or last names alone, or together.
• Combinations of a first or last name with the other initial.
• Combinations of a first or last name with an honorific (Mr, Mrs, Missus, Miss, Dr, etc) or a familiar honorific (Auntie, Granny, Papa, Uncle, Cousin, etc)

If you are well-known by a hobby or persona nickname, you are welcome to include that nickname in your forum signature file, along with your real life name, once your membership is confirmed. For instance, the forum member might register with a user/forum name of Michelle Reynolds, and set up her signature file as some variation of:

Michelle Reynolds             or Michelle “Auntie Joan” Reynolds
aka “Auntie Joan”

Registrations requests that do not use a real first/last name variation will be deleted without confirmation.

2: Be civilized.

We firmly believe it is possible to discuss sometimes-difficult topics with both passion and civility. All members are expected to comport themselves in a civilized way at all times. Rough language is firmly discouraged, with the exception of quoting primary source materials directly–in those instances, please provide a quick warning so that members who prefer not to read rough language can avoid the post. Using rough language outside of that context can result in your post being edited, deleted, or in extreme cases, your account being revoked. That’s not something we like doing, and thankfully, have not had to do with any frequency.

Another primary “civilized” behavior we expect relates to copyrighted materials: do not post copyrighted materials on the forum without permission from the owner.

We expect all members to refrain from making the discussion board commercial. We do not have, and won’t be adding, a sales board. Members are expected to refrain from loading their posts with commercialized content or sales solicitations, and should not use the private message system for it, either.

We expect all members to conduct historic research, and to look for and share ideas, projects, and information consistent with the current and expanding body of research.

3: Let us know if there’s a problem.

We want to know, so we can fix it quickly, and keep the forum a pleasant place to visit and exchange information.

There are some other rules and overarching guidelines, which you will find inside the forum under the topic: The purpose of the SA forum. The guidelines are there to keep us all on track, and keep the forum working smoothly.

To Register: send an email letting us know your desired username (see the rules above!), and a bit about your interest in the 1840-1865 era (how you got started, your current interest, real-life stuff).

All that said, here’s how you get to

The Sewing Academy @ Home Forum