Category Archives: Clothing

Switching Centuries, with Strawberries

23 Saturday Jun 2012

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It’s an early birthday treat, patterns and shoes, and all on sale! I’m fairly certain that if told these had been purchased while on sale, my mother would say they did not count as a treat. never mind, they do to me!

American Duchess “Georgiana” shoes sold as imperfect, but quite good enough for my impression. Getting closer to having to make my version of the striped silk polonaise at the V&A.  They’re super shiny and lots of fun.

The patterns include vintage patterns, unused, and shockingly enough, in my size, from Sandritocat on Etsy. I have vintage fabric in blue, just enough to make the dress with short sleeves. All in all, happy early birthday goodness.

Today, in addition to chores and sewing, I think I’ll try making (or starting) strawberry cordial. The recipe was in the Country Living (UK) magazine, and can be found online, too. 2.2 pounds of strawberries, just have to make the room in the fridge. This might work well for the opening, too.

Regrets Never Stopped Me

21 Thursday Jun 2012

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That moment of regret…promised work a cake and punch, promised myself a new dress, it’s going to be 99 today, and there’s still an exhibit to install. Once again, what was I thinking? Apparently I was thinking that all I have to do is want something enough and I can make it happen.

So the bodice muslin is cut out, I’ve asked someone else to find a punch receipt while I make cake and lemonade, and I’ve got labels underway. This is manageable, maybe.

The way I start with patterns, as you can see in the top image, is by tracing them. I use architectural trace, AKA onionskin or drafting paper, mostly because it is cheap and readily available, and because I got into the habit just because it was around. (I am a refugee from a graduate program in architecture, which explains a lot about why I have drafting tools, keep way too busy, and am comfortable working with construction projects.) I use the trace patterns to cut the muslin from, and after JennyLaFleur’s workshop at Dress U, I fit muslins and recut final patterns in Pellon pattern ease. Formerly I saved muslins, now I re-trace. So much smarter, much less space.

So tonight, I’ll stitch up the muslin and see where I am. Today, I work on labels. The lower image definitely illustrates the process. There’s a big whole where a uniform will go, and we’re still using the ladder. Why is there a doll in an exhibit about war? Because how else do you fit in a dress when the case is small?!

8 Days, a Pattern, and some Taffeta

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

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I did decide to make a dress, or perhaps more properly to try to make a dress in time for the opening. Since I really can’t wear the new Indian print cotton dress, I chose a 1945 Vogue pattern.

The red plaid taffeta from Jo Ann’s was 50% off, and normally I do eschew all fibers unnatural and rustling, but this is 1945 and heaven knows nylon and rayon were THE thing to have. It’s fancier than I normally trend, clothing-wise, but that’s the fun of making things.

I bought buttons, just in case, though I was pretty sure I had some in my stash–and I did! (Photo surely proof that I need to replace the camera, or at the least, get the D40 sensor cleaned, stat!) These are from my husband’s grandmother’s stash, if not his great-grandmother’s, so they are of the period. Flowers and plaid, pretty scary usually, but moderately apropos here. It will be something to do in the awful heat we expect, though I am tempted to cut this out at work tomorrow night in the chilly realm of the Library reading room. I did not make a muslin of the bodice last night, I lazily drank two beers, ate pad thai, and fell asleep.

Lady Boss

19 Tuesday Jun 2012

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The exhibit opens in a little more than a week, and I think we’ll make it. Along the way, we’ve cataloged hundreds of items, photographed dozens, and discovered several in need of conservation treatment ranging from intensive to manageable in house. These are all good things, and I’d say my sole regret is the probability of not getting the 20th century’s world wars into the cases by June 28.

That, and having to dress for the opening.

Hence a crazy scheme: 1940s dressing. My mother gave me Lady Boss for Christmas a few years ago, purchased from her church’s annual jumble sale (it’s C of E in Main Line Philadelphia, so I think I can use that term). Lady Boss resonates on several levels: my mother knows I love vintage, I used to collect antique dolls, my grandmother Elsa was a Lady Boss in the 1940s, and now I’m a Lady Boss.

I could dress as Lady Boss for the opening, or some variant of 1940s style, and would probably feel more comfortable in recreated vintage than in my own work clothes. It makes a better armor, these re-enacting clothes, than my skirts and blouses. Now for a pattern….

Cake, and other Things

17 Sunday Jun 2012

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20120617-195748.jpg On Saturday, in preparing for the opening June 28, I made the Seed Cake, called Nun’s Cake, from the Colonial Williamsburg website.

Actually, I made half a recipe. And Baked it too long. That doesn’t mean it’s not delicious served with raspberries and lemon curd, but it does mean that the crust is, well, crusty. And cakes do not have crusts, so there you are. What I learned what that you can’t halve ingredients and not adjust time. Obvious, but not when you are simultaneously finishing a dress.

The dress is done, all but the cuffs and moving the interior lacings, though the photos are sketchy. Mr. S. used to be a photographer, and now he hates photography. He is therefore an unwilling documentarian, and hates even more the basic camera he was handed at the Joy Homestead.

We were there for a tea commemorating the day in 1780 when Rochambeau stopped on his march to join Washington. Rumor, or legend, has it that the Comte ate strawberries, and so we did, too, with biscuits, cream, and Lipton tea.

20120617-195837.jpgThere was some drilling, so the soldiers had an appetite. There were also photo ops aplenty, and some behavior that made me wonder if there are reenactor groupies. One woman was just determined to have a particular uniformed gent in every possible photo…and she took many, many photos of the troops. It’s a curious thing, this hyper-photographic behavior. Makes me want to keep my camera in my pocket.

In any case, the seed cake I made will work for the opening if I can manage not to over bake it and provide fruit with it. Now I just have to find an 18th century punch that isn’t overly full of rum.
And a new camera.
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