Grantville Gazette, Volume 40 by Paula Goodlett, edited by Paula Goodlett

examined a pair of mustard-yellow breeches. She decided that her Willi had done much better stitching. She told Stephanie as much.
    "What was he like, Willi?" Stephanie asked. "As a man?"
    "Kind. He was kind. When Caspar or one of the apprentices had a birthday, Willi gave them a half-day off, and bought them a strudel. He raised his voice only occasionally, and then only with our apprentice Josef, who was a trial. Lots of times Willi came in the kitchen while I was preparing dinner, and told me about his day. Before he bought the Higgins, we discussed it and discussed it. When Matthias Pfeiffer teased Willi about that, Willi just smiled and said, `I'm lucky to have a wise wife.'"
    By now, Tilda was sniffling. Without saying a word, Stephanie hugged her.
    The middle section was for "new-time" clothing—down-time styles, but the clothes were machine-sewn and colored with up-time dyes.
    Tilda saw a young Frau in her twenties considering a skirt that was "true red"; Tilda wondered where the young wife was thinking of wearing it.
    The "new-time" section also included up-time-copied clothing that was colored with up-time dyes and was machine-sewn; but was made from seventeenth-century wool, linen, or hemp. All of the hemp clothing was intended for workmen or young boys.
    The featured attraction, however, was the racks from which up-time clothing hung on triangular wires. Tilda noticed Stephanie acting perkier as soon as they went to that section.
    Besides Stephanie and Tilda, almost every customer in the store was in the "up-time" section.
    Tilda saw a teenage German girl hold up a small-hipped denim skirt and gaze at it with a thoughtful air. Besides the skirt's scandalous shortness (a foot and a half separated waistline and hem), the other notable thing about the skirt was that it had a white kitten's face showing on the front. Even more oddly, the kitten had one ear half-hidden behind a pink hair bow.
    Tilda tried to figure out what message got sent to the up-time world by a very short skirt with an über cute girl-kitten on it. She shook her head; she couldn't begin to guess.
    As Tilda looked through the up-time clothing, one thing jumped out at her. "Stephanie, tell me, why does every top I see—whether made for man, woman, or child—have the sleeves sewn on? Why aren't they detachable?"
    Stephanie shook her head, confused. "Why do you want detachable sleeves?"
    Tilda pointed to her own left sleeve, which was attached to the left side of her doublet with eyelets and lacing. "So you can wear the same clothing all year. Sleeves attached when it's cold; sleeves off when it's hot."
    "Wear the same outfit in both February and August?" Stephanie said. She shuddered. "Tilda, liebchen , why would I want to wear wool in the summer, or cotton in the winter? Wear winter colors in July? Ugh."
    ****
    Stephanie then tried to teach Tilda about up-time fashion. Some things Tilda didn't understand, but these parts she understood very well—
    Up-time women who were affluent or fashion-conscious bought clothes for every season. Most up-time women couldn't or wouldn't do that, but every adult up-time thought it keinhirnische (Amideutsch: obvious) that they own a cold-weather wardrobe and a hot-weather wardrobe.
    Tilda realized that when clothing was as cheap as clothing was up-time, having a hot-weather and a cold-weather wardrobe made sense.
    Up-time homes were well heated, so there was no need for winter petticoats. Summertime petticoats hadn't been fashionable for fifty years; only the oldest up-time women had ever worn a petticoat.
    What shocked Tilda to her core was when she learned that there were only a few times in an up-time woman's life when she visited a dressmaker. Almost all her clothing was "ready to wear," mass-produced beforehand.
    Tilda's second big shock: Up-time women had no interest in embroidery. Even up-time, embroidery was breath-choking expensive; if an up-time woman wanted clothing that showed an ornate pattern, she