Category Archives: Living History

5 Days till Monmouth

10 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Clothing, Events, Living History, Making Things

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This is not Cassandra's idea of a nice frock.

This is not Cassandra’s idea of a nice frock.

Cassandra doesn’t like wearing uniforms and bayonets. She wants to wear a dress. She will have to be patient. (Actually, she is wearing a chintz jacket in need of a hem, and if I revolt against buttonholes, I might finish that tonight. More fringe must be made this evening for the hunting frock.)

I switched to Mr S’s overalls for awhile, and we’ve done the first fitting, which gets us to buttonholes and then re-basting the inseam and outseam. In the process, I discovered that he does, in fact, have a twisty leg. I do not think it is statistically probable that the two pairs of overalls I have cut for him and the pair cut by Mr Cooke would all include the same slightly on the bias leg. So I reversed my plans to get those done, and will stick with getting them to fitting number two. They will need a master’s hand and eye for fitting.

Sunday: One last strip o' fringe required.

Sunday: One last strip o’ fringe required.

But I think I have a plan for food for Monmouth, have confessed to Mr S that, based on the Monmouth sutler list, we must leave room in the car for possible additions to the Strategic Fabric Reserve, and have convinced the child to try learning a new song on the drum. I also started a new pocket, but I’m not sure if my hands can take the backstitching. Slipstitching and whipstitching aren’t too painful, but backstitching proved quite painful last night. It’s totally annoying, because it’s pointless to post a photo until it’s done and right-side out!

You can see the binding, but not the stripes. Silly!

You can see the binding, but not the stripes. Silly!

But this will be a panicky, intense week of samplers, reference, grant applications, and event prep. I suppose that’s not too different from many other weeks…though the last time I had this combination, we were only going to Sturbridge. I took comfort in the idea of how close we were to home, the way the cat knows how long it takes to dash to the basement when the doorbell rings. From Monmouth, it’s a long way back to my own basement.

Lunatic Fringe

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Clothing, History, Living History, Reenacting

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Hunting frock and overalls complete!

Hunting frock and overalls complete!

Oh, my goodness, it’s done! It’s done, and the photos have passed the master. Phew! Just one more to go, oh, my goodness, no.

The Young Mr was allowed to carry a musket in the Warren Memorial Day Parade. I do not love a parade, so I didn’t go. But he had no overalls of suitable fit and they were so nearly done, that I resolved to finish them, and finish them I did, in time for bed on Saturday, no less. It’s all thanks to BBC’s brutal but entrancing programming. My sewing better to blood curdling screams (also courtesy ITV), which seems awful but there it is…though the darkness of Mad Men has proven good for back stitching, decent button holes require murder.

Buttonholes. I hate those guys less now.

Buttonholes. I hate those guys less now.

Fifteen button holes, multiple fittings, and some curse words have resulted in a pair of decent-fitting overalls that did not split at the knee or stretch too extremely when worn. And atop it all, in the yard if not in the parade, the new model hunting front adopted by the 10th Massachusetts. The Young Mr is uniform-forward as Neal Hurst’s research has led the adjutant to conclude that the men were wearing frocks, and not shirts. (In the Rhode Island records, I found that rifle frocks were listed until 1780/1781, when the Records of the State of Rhode Island began to indicate rifle or hunting “frocks or shirts.” That’s a wrinkle for Mr Hurst, but I saw only frock in 1777-1780.)

Lunatic fringe. Cut, fold, clip, strip, stitch.

Lunatic fringe. Cut, fold, clip, strip, stitch.

The fringing is a task completed by Mr S, who has fringed the strips for his own Rhode Island hunting frock, and now knows what fun awaits him as another frock will made for him. My goal? Another complete 10th Massachusetts kit by June 15. I’ve sewn buttonholes in a moving car before, and I expect to be felling seams or sewing buttonholes as we travel down to New Jersey. They’ll be fine; after all, the traffic is murder.

The 1763 Project

09 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in 1763 Project, Clothing, Living History, Making Things, Reenacting

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Doll, 1763. V&A, T19.36, T19P.36

Doll, 1763. V&A, T19.36, T19P.36

Sweet, right? Who wouldn’t want to look (or at least dress–those pupils suggest something untoward, chemically) like this doll? And she’s 1763. Of course, my friend DC didn’t get the grant he applied for, so he has to try again.

Still, it seems the event will go ahead and I am stumbling on under the impression that I will have a chance to make myself something lovely for August. Of course, that comes only after I make the regimental menswear, so why am I typing and not backstitching? Because after a while, it’s just plain dull. Plus, doll! Printed cotton! Lightweight and lovely! And look: a hairstyle I can manage: birds’ nest.

Nice Petticoat.

Nice Petticoat.

What I like about this doll are her details. (The better written description is on the V&A website, but the better photos are at VADS.) She’s wearing a sacque (known also as a sack-back robe or a robe a la Francaise) and matching petticoat, a green silk quilted petticoat, a white linen petticoat, and a pocket that matches her gown.

The blue silk of her stomacher is used as trim on her sleeves, which are ornamented with flounces. Hallie Larkin goes into this well on her blog post about Changes in Cuffs. And that’s what stops me: the fine linen and the lace.

An actual reproduction, no less.

An actual reproduction, no less.

The gown itself, even a sacque, seems like something I can manage. (And yes, this is but one more piece of cotton sacque evidence.) A very similar fabric is available and if this sells out, there are variations on the theme. The blue silk stomacher can be managed: I have taffeta sources, and from making bonnets have learned the basics of the serpentine designs. I could make that. But those flounces–what about those?

Here she is from the V&A, ca. 1760, T.19-1936

Here she is from the V&A, ca. 1760, T.19-1936

Here’s the V&A description: “lace and cotton elbow ruffles.” Hmm. Cotton, perhaps that I can find in a fine, sheer weave. But the lace?

The more I think about this lovely gown, about the materials, and who would wear it, the more I think I’m better off sticking with lightweight wool and Sandby’s cherry seller...

I love a good challenge, but the lads need regimentals and their own 1763 apparel. Sandby’s woman wears a gown I’ve made before, so construction screw-ups will be fewer time will be shorter. And at least we can all wear whatever I make for various other celebrations and riots. New England had them in abundance in the 1760s and 1770s.

Details. All in the Details.

04 Saturday May 2013

Posted by in Clothing, History, Living History, Making Things, Museums

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Detail, pair of pockets. Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall, Manchester City Galleries. MCAG.1922.2150

This image is from the fantastic VADS site‘s  gallery of pockets. I need new pockets, or a pocket update and overhaul, so I went looking for inspiration.

Child's Pocket, 1720-1760. RIHS 1985.1.9.

Child’s Pocket, 1720-1760. RIHS 1985.1.9.

This is a dangerous path to go down if you are as unskilled with a crewel needle as I am.

Sew18thCentury can do it– so, sew, lovely. Me…well, everything I knew about embroidery I learned as a child, and promptly forgot with puberty. So my skills remain appropriate for reproducing this, from a Rhode Island collection. The pocket is child-sized, at 14 inches, and the embroidery has a crabbed, angry look, as if the girl would much rather have been outside, chasing her dog or brother.  I can relate, at least to the dog part.

My copy, on the clearance-bin frame.

My copy, on the clearance-bin frame.

I  made a pattern of the embroidery, traced it onto linen, and started working on dredging up those long-forgotten skills. As a child, I had a sewing or embroidery book, but what I remember most about the projects I made was how far their finished form was from what I had envisioned.

Jane, and the Oldest Inhabitant

Jane, and the Oldest Inhabitant

This is not an uncommon experience for children; my son has certainly experienced this, and even adults are subject to it. I think the best rendition of it, sewing-wise, is Eleanor Estes’ portrayal in The Middle Moffat of Jane Moffat attempting to make a “brocated bag” for Mama’s Christmas present.

The image of Jane sewing or crocheting under a tree while talking to Cranbury’s Oldest Inhabitant, a Civil War veteran, sums up every reenactment I’ve ever been part of… but I digress.

DSC_0283

A detail. Sigh. I know, practice, but…

My embroidery stitches lack a lot, but most of what they lack is practice–and that’s what makes reproducing that RIHS pocket a perfect project for me. Pockets were “sampler” projects, and suitable for girls to learn on. This combines plain sewing with embroidery, and ends up as something useful and authentic, so what more can I ask?

Pocket, single, embroidered. Snowshill Costume Collection, National Trust (UK). mid 1700s. SNO1452

Pocket, single, embroidered. Snowshill Costume Collection, National Trust (UK). mid 1700s. SNO1452

The VADS site has tons of images to inspire me, and with practice, someday I could manage something as beautiful as this. I need only make sure that it fits my time period and station–and for some events it will, but for most, the plain pocket or the crabbed-stitch embroidered pocket, are probably far more appropriate.

Shoulders and Sleeves

26 Friday Apr 2013

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Dante's Own Infernal Sleeve of Poof

Dante’s Own Infernal Sleeve of Poof

Twenty-four hours on, this is where we are: Poofy, shoulder-popping sleeve of doom. How can that be a uniform sleeve?

Well, Pilgrim, this is how:

Oh. They're all Infernal Sleeves of Doom.

Oh. They’re all Infernal Sleeves of Doom.

So glad I have that near-feral hunting shirt, because without it I would have ripped this out completely. Could the Poof of Doom be there to allow movement?

Subject was detained for photography.

Before school, even.

Before school, even.

Arm out, doubts remain. Arm down, less terrifying.

I do feel sorry for him, but at the same time, I have to fit it to him.

I do feel sorry for him, but at the same time, I have to fit it to him.

It’s possible that the poof at the apogee of the shoulder is due to the intense pressing I gave this to retain the center line, and the fact that, despite washing, the linen is still pretty stiff. When I compare the two– the completed shirt and the in-progress shirt, I can see that while both display a tendency to drift up, the gathers on the adjutant’s shirt are more evenly distributed. You know what that means…and that’s why the sleeve is only basted in. Might as well change it now as on Sunday, because it must be done. So in the end, I am ripping it out completely, but with the knowledge that 1) the upward angle seems to be correct as shown in the finished garment, and 2) evening out gathers may reduce the Poof of Doom.