Tag Archives: 2nd Rhode Island

Mid-Year Review

09 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Clothing, Making Things

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Yes, we have those at work. I tend to set enough goals for 3 single-spaced pages, and actually accomplish many of them. My boss, though a Known Over Achiever, thought I should work on this…tendency. So I came up with six goals for the first six months, and mostly got them done, along with a lot of other things.

When I updated the Projects 2013 page here, I thought perhaps I should heed my boss’s advice (don’t tell her that, I have a reputation to maintain) and, you know, assess my goals versus reality ratio.

It’s a long list of stuff, when you get down to it. How did I do, and what else needs to be done? Here’s a chart for the first six months of this sewing year; not all items were planned…some just happened, like kittens.

Item For whom When finished Did it get made?
Tan wool waistcoat Mr S 1/1/2013 Yes!
Red wool waistcoat Young Mr 1/15/2013 Yes!
Off-white cotton trousers Young Mr 1/18/2013 Yes!
Ikea curtain petticoat Kitty 2/11/2013 Yes!
Black Taffeta Bonnet Kitty 2/11/2013 Yes!
Shift Kitty 2/11/2013 Yes!
Monmouth Cap Young Mr 3/29/2013 Yes!
Blue wool jacket, 1770-1800 Young Mr 3/31/2013 Yes!
How Now Brown Gown Kitty 4/7/2013 Yes!
Linen Hunting Frock Young Mr 5/26/2013 Yes!
Linen Hunting Frock Mr S 6/14/2013 Yes!
Striped pocket Kitty 6/15/2013 Yes!
Blue checked linen bags (2) Kitty & Mr S 6/15/2013 Yes!
Chintz jacket Kitty 6/15/2013 Yes!
Linen Overalls Young Mr 6/15/2013 Yes!
Black straw hat Kitty 6/22/2013 Yes!
Alterations to Green Frock Coat Mr S Not yet Nearly!
Linen Overalls Mr S Wearable Nearly!

The Cherry Seller Gown is not on this list because it was started 7/4/2013, and is thus in the second half of the sewing year.  A blue linen unlined frock coat for the Young Mr was started 7/7/2013, so counts towards the second half as well.  For the coming months, here’s what I know I would like to get done:

Item For whom Due Date Notes
Blue linen frock coat Young Mr 7/14/2013 Ack!
Alterations to Green Frock Coat Mr S 7/14/2013 More Ack!
White linen shirt Mr S 11/2/2013 Just needs one…
Tan Virginia Cloth petticoat Kitty 8/9/2013 1763
White linen petticoat Kitty 8/9/2013 1763
Bed gown Kitty 8/2/2013 For OSV!
Bed sack Kitty & Mr S 7/19/2013 For Salem or OSV
Proper 1770s frock coat Mr S 10/5/2013 For Quincy
Striped 1790s petticoat Kitty 10/5/2013 For JBH
Printed 1790s shortgown Kitty 10/5/2013 For JBH
Dress for a Lady, TBD Kitty 10/5/2013 For JBH
10th Mass 1781 Regimental Mr S 11/2/2013 Putnam Park
Neckstocks Young Mr & Mr S TBD 10th Mass

The list seems alternately doable and crazy. So what am I sitting here writing for? I’ve got to get backstitching!

Apprehending Chicken

27 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in Events, Food, Living History, Reenacting, Research

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Living History Chickens. Don’t mess with them.

I have written in the past about the Living History Chicken, ripped and delicious, and the joys of making such a creature fit into a cast-iron pot. While “chicken ripper” might be the appellation you desire, it’s not what I want to be known for.

Last time, I dissed the modern ham as an item ill-suited to camp cooking (tasty, but it doesn’t look right). I have also seen hams on a spit cooked slowly (too high above) a fire, and heard a rumour about a very authentic ham-dining experience with a very authentic digestive result. That’s taking things farther than I care to take any regiment, so what to do?

Continental Army rations included, among other things, a pound of flour and a pound of beef a day per man. In Rhode Island at least, that beef might also have been fish, and I have seen chicken listed, too, as it is, technically, meat. Not wanting to inflict our fishy Ocean State customs on all comers, I think I’ll spare the regiments a pound of fish a day. But chicken? What to do? Hope to cook it?

Or maybe we should eat more fruit.The Afternoon Meal by Luis Meléndez, ca. 1772. MMA, 1982.60.39

One option is to rip the carcass apart (see above) and boil it. That would get the job done, for a bone-in chicken stew. However, I am thinking of string roasting chicken (or cornish game hens, since modern grocery store chickens are awfully large).

To be quite technically correct, I could only cook chicken for the Second Helping Regiment. They had a documented poultry thief among their number, one John Smith, who apprehended poultry if it failed to give the correct countersign when challenged. However a chicken is prepared, it will be a messy business, as we have no forks. It’s fingers, knives and spoons for us, as we have no forks. That does increase the appeal of boiling, since the meat would come off the bone more easily.

Monmouth Millinery

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by in 1763 Project, Clothing, Making Things, Reenacting, Research

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New hat!

New hat!

As Eloise or her Nanny might say, It is rawther warmer than I care for. Lucky for me, I have a new hat. It’s a black straw hat of a kind you might see called a bergère, along with 4 yards of silk ribbon, purchased at Burnley & Trowbridge’s tent at Monmouth. Jim and Angela and their assistants were very helpful, and this was rawther a splurge for me, as I mostly buy my ribbon from Wm Booth’s remnants, when they are available. (We are tenant farmers. Mostly.)

Coromandel Coast lined hat, from an auction.

Coromandel Coast lined hat, from an auction.

But in this instance, I wanted a lady’s hat, so I pleated up about two yards of green silk ribbon, and added a bow. To get the multi-vector bending effect, I stitched millinery wire from Abraham’s Lady around the brim. The inside of the brim is lined with pieced scraps of the purple “Fleurs d’Inde” I used for a jacket (also made from a Wm Booth remnant). It ties on with yet another yard or more of ribbon. This is really a frivolous hat, for me. There are extant examples of straw hats lined with chintz, as you can see.

As luck would have it, I got to wear it right off, the very day I made it. How often do you get the chance to do without panic and pain? We attended the Saturday version of the Rochambeau Tea on Joy Homestead, an event which has its dedicated fans.

First hat outing

First hat outing

I wore this same gown last year, and to Nathan Hale; to my delight, I am enjoying it more each time I wear it. I think this petticoat is the right one; madder was too close and black too contrasty. Since the Rochambeau Tea “year” is 1780, this dress passes (ahem) muster; for many of the events I attend, it is too fashion forward.

London Cries: the Fishmonger. Paul Sandby ca. 1759. YCBA B1975.3.210

This hat will, I think, also work for the 1763 event, as the woman in yellow here is wearing a similarly dual-plane twist hat. I’ll never have a yellow gown though: I look pretty horrid in yellow.

Fort Lee Surrealism

19 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by in Events, Reenacting

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Surreal: that was the word for the morning at Monument Park. The RI Reg’t walked over the park instead of parading with the troops, because one of our members has not been well, and did not think he could keep up with the parade. It was odd to follow the reenactors in 18th century clothing under power lines and past high rise apartment buildings shouldering out old frame homes, but the surrealism really kicked in at the park.

Describing sniper fire in WWII to salsa music

There it became multi-sensory when the ceremony’s organizers turned on the music. It wasn’t exactly merengue, and it wasn’t exactly salsa…then the soundtrack switched to updated Big Band hits and finally landed on a strange, over-the-top, quasi-operatic version of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

So when you look at the photos on flickr, play some salsa or an album you might have ordered at 2 AM from a TV ad, and think about standing in 40F/4C weather eavesdropping on politicians talking about inching closer to universal health, and the lessons of Hurricane Sandy for high-rise dwellers, while squeezing up next to you for a photo op.

Later, at Fort Lee Historic Park, the artillery demonstration was loud and satisfying, but we got behind schedule and to the oddness of the morning was added rushing. It was capped off at the end by the order to fix bayonets, which led to bayonets being caught in branches.

Bayonets fixed, Capt. Becker takes measure of the trees

Finally, for me, the day nearly foundered when I pulled my phone out of pocket at the end of the event to check the time, and saw my boss had been texting me all afternoon over a non-crisis. Part of why I love re-enacting and living history so much is that it takes me so far away from myself and from my daily existence. It’s related (slightly) to my work, but to be so far away in place and time and effort is a delight. I can’t just throw the phone away or not take it along: I am supposed to be on call, all the time…but it’s history, not a hospital, and if budgets change, so should expectations.

My House Stinks

22 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in Events, Reenacting

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I said to the B&G guy at work, “My house smells funny.”

He asked, “Funny good, or funny call the police?”

“Like black powder and wood smoke,” I said.

“Oh, call the police!” and we had a good laugh. Ed is a black powder hunter and camper, but not (yet) a reenactor.

We spent the weekend at the BAR event at the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry, CT, about 1.5 hours from Providence. It’s Route 6 all the way, twists and hills, lovely in the fall colors, but pokey.

I did get several apologies from the Captain of the Bail-Out British, so visited no mischief upon them. To be honest, I think they were into mischief enough themselves, judging by the aroma of the liquid in their mugs.

Saturday started foggy and party cloudy in Rhode Island, mist hanging over the reservoir in Scituate, framed by gold and red leaves. It was warmer and clearer in Connecticut, and lucky me, Sew 18th Century was there, too! She was cooking in the house, and I was in camp.

On Sunday, the Young Mr came out, too. Through machinations on Saturday, he was convinced to drum on Sunday, though he has been much afraid to since Fort Lee last year, and the SOI. He did just fine for a novice musician, and perhaps most importantly, learned he was wanted, needed, and would not die if he drummed in public.

And yes, I wore another gown.The fit, or perhaps the position of my stays, or both, need tweaking. I lay awake early this morning obsessing about the fit and whether i would need to move the sleeves, and should I undo it all now, and how all my fitted patterns were wrong, when I realized I had gone down the dangerous road of Dressmaking Doom.

I will lace up again, and try the gown again, at least once, before officially freaking out. Does this mean I need to put a wool gown on hold? Perhaps. The better time investment might be in a second wool petticoat and a short cloak for greater maneuverability. Also, some long underwear for the boys who wear linen. There’s no way a regimental for any regiment is getting made by November…and now there will be more than one. Who says men aren’t into clothes? Mine are, as long as they’re complicated styles of several centuries ago.

More pictures on Flickr.