Monthly Archives: November 2012

Meet Cassandra

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Clothing, Making Things

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

Cassandra’s my dress form, purchased on sale and with a free shipping coupon. If you don’t know the myth, Cassandra is the young woman with the gift of prophecy who was cursed by Apollo… so that no one believed her predictions. She is my measurements, but not quite my shape. Thanks to American Duchess for the “Bean Boob” idea, though my mother said, when we went shopping for her post-mastectomy prosthesis, “It feels like bags of lentils. If I’d known how much [the prosthesis] would cost, I’d have made my own bag of lentils.” My mother is a tiny blonde woman with a weakness for Airedale terriers and violent cartoons.

But Cassandra has proven very useful, dressed as she is in the newly chopped- and-dropped stays. She’s also sporting the bodice of what will be a bodiced petticoat, as soon as I can bring myself to cut into the beautiful wool, of which Burnley & Trowbridge has no more. I’ll want that wool petticoat for another weekend at Coggeshall Farm, coming up around the corner on December 1, and for which much must be sewn, including a long-sleeved wool dress based on Past Patterns’ Lewis and Clark dress.

I nearly got the bodice and sleeves all done on Monday, from cutting to sewing, while “watching” the original Swedish Wallander on Netflix. It’s more a process of reading than watching, with moments of clarity when I clearly recognize words. Thanks to my Dad for the connection with our Swedish roots…fish stew, Aquavit, and proper swearing.

By the time you set these sleevils the fourth or fifth time, they go pretty well. I have made this dress three times before, with two muslins along the way. The changes I made this time include cutting the sleeve as one piece and not three, lengthening the sleeves to the wrist, and adding a little over an inch to the bodice all the way around. Older ladies wore their waists lower than teenage girls, and though I like the way the L&C dress fits, I wanted a lower waist to suit my age, and the earlier year.

The Once-Forgotten Memorial

11 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by in History

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

MHS PHO:23683

In the 1990s, when I worked in St. Louis, the Soldiers’ Memorial, central to the Downtown Memorial Plaza, felt more forgotten than anything else. Several wars later, it has a new life. Built to commemorate the dead of World War I, the Memorial had a central place in Progressive politics and the City Beautiful movement in St. Louis before it became a Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works project and was, finally, built and finished just in time for World War II.

FDR visited on October 14, 1936, and in his speech dedicating the site, declared, “We build monuments to commemorate the spirit of sacrifice in war- reminders of our desire for peace.”

Soldiers’ Memorial was built to commemorate men like Lieutenant Victor O. Crane of St. Louis who was killed at Soissons on July 19 or 21, 1918. His letters, excerpted below, are in the collection of the Missouri Historical Society, probably in the World War I collection , though I failed to note that in the draft exhibit script these quotes are from.

Lt. Victor O. Crane, Letter to his Mother, Feb 4, 1918: “I am mighty glad to be over here, so don’t worry mother dear for this is the most fortunate opportunity of my life, there is not a man back in the states that I would trade places with and you know ‘All things work together for good.’”

MHS PHO:33602

Letter to Lt. Victor O. Crane’s mother from 2nd Lieut. Cowing: “You were constantly in his thoughts, and just the night before the attack started he took me to one side and asked me to notify you in case of any accident to him. He took part in the great offensive and went over the top five times before his death. He did his part bravely and well. ”

Gold Star Ceiling

One of the most striking features of the memorial is the ceiling of the central area, dedicated to the Gold Star Mothers. It would be cold comfort, that tile ceiling, but the visual allusion is undoubtedly striking and a vibrant, brilliant, reminder of the human cost of war.

Stays, Nearly Mastered

10 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by in Clothing, Making Things

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

That is to say, alterations are complete to the first pair of early 19th century stays, and now they work: I can sit down, and the dresses look the way they should. Click here for a Pinterest board of stays for visual references for mid- to late-18th and early 19th century stays.

The first pair of early 19th century stays I tried to make using Past Patterns’ Transition Stay pattern, all by hand. They were beautiful, but beyond redemption and failed to fit despite muslins and multiple alterations. The pattern is based on the  Connecticut Historical Society stays at left; search for 1963.42.4 in the CHS online catalog.

V&A, T.57-1948

I sent the sad remains of the transition stays to Johnston, and made a muslin from the Past Patterns’ Corded Stay pattern, which is very similar to these stays at the V&A. I do recommend using a sewing machine for speed, and a long hook for pulling the cording, though your mileage may vary.

While the finished stays looked good and appeared to fit, there were certain… idiosyncrasies… that concerned me. Among them was the tendency of the busk to pop up and attempt to greet my chin whenever I sat down. In general, even laced up snug, the garment seemed determined to ride up with wear.

So I tried them on again yesterday with a different, shorter busk slipped in between the the shift and the stays: the busk stayed put. While the stays were about 15″ long, my lap-to-bust length when seated is about 13″. So I undid the binding top and bottom, shortened the cup gussets, shortened the bottom edge, tacked it down, re-bound the stays, and, when Mr S got home,  handed him the busk to cut down.  I tried the whole contraption on again: Success! The busk stayed  down, the breasts stayed up, and we seem to have a winner. It was thanks to the Oregon Regency Society’s page on fitting stays that I reached the conclusion that I needed to reduce the gusset length. I knew from comparing my stays to my friend’s stays that I needed to reduce overall length, because she has to add at least 1.5 to 2 inches to patterns I use…and her stays were the same length as mine. So if they were the right length for her, they were wrong, so wrong, for me.

Next up: the red dress, no train.

Where did I screw up? Probably in not testing the muslin with a busk, and in not testing the muslin by sitting down with the busk. As long as I remained standing, the unaltered stays were fine. So, however you plan to wear your garment, test your muslin. We’re not dress forms: we move and lift, push and pull, crawl under and over things. You will need to test your muslin out by moving, not just standing in front of the mirror. This will be more challenging for some (Going to plow in stays? Maybe you need to push a chair around the house in a muslin) but at least sit down, bend over, and test a muslin the way you would a pair of jeans in a dressing room. If you do already, good for you! If not, you’ve been warned. Failure to squirm will eventually catch up with you.

Universal Suffrage

06 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in History

≈ Comments Off on Universal Suffrage

Tags

, , , ,

A Squelcher for Woman Suffrage“How can you vote if the fashions are wide and the voting booths are narrow?”

The 19th Amendment (6/4/1919) gave American women the right to vote, and with that, a kind of political power they had never had before.

On this Election Day 2012, if you’re an American, please vote. If you’re an American woman, thank the women who organized parades, tableaux and demonstrations to force the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Some of the images look almost silly now, but scanning the images at the Library of Congress (search term=woman suffrage) gives you a sense of the size of the demonstrations that they staged. This was massive, street theatre, direct action, unabashed politicking. In heels and hats, and even furs. Vote, and thank the women who came before us.

Historic Documents: OSV

05 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by in History, Museums

≈ Comments Off on Historic Documents: OSV

Tags

, , ,

Sheep scamper on the green at OSV as Redcoats & Rebels set up

It’s a cop out, I know, but I’ve got ideas not ready for posting, and between the election, the hurricane, and work, anxiety levels have shot up in my household to dizzying highs. Where to turn?

To Old Sturbridge Village‘s Historic Documents, that’s where.  Distract yourself from memories of hanging chads with A Note on the History of Pencils.  Still in the dark–literally or figuratively? Read Candles Take Over. Getting ready for winter? Read about Ice Skating in New England. In short, enjoy some well-researched escapism.