Tag Archives: Clothing

Fun and Wearable

26 Friday Oct 2012

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I thought I’d solved this! Williamsburg’s jacket and petticoat combination, accession number 1990-10. Here’s why: “East Indian textile, worn in Albany, New York, by Ann Van Rensselaer, ca. 1790, textile earlier in date.”

1790 I can wear at work and at Dress U. That makes it fun and useful, which is always better.

Then I woke up at 2:00AM, with this KCI dress in mind:

That’s a dress style that could be worn with the white Ikea curtain petticoat and kerchief. Now, I’m better at jackets and petticoats than I am at gowns (though isn’t an open robe really just a jacket with a crazy-long skirt?) but I can’t get the KCI gown out of my head. It’s English, too, which makes it plausible, if not as close as the Rensselaer gown. Bonus: have to pattern it up myself, which I enjoy. Just because I’m swearing doesn’t mean I’m not having fun.

I have until March to get something finished. First comes some more standing around in the cold, and sewing for men who want to do farm work.

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.

On Baskets, and Authenticity

17 Wednesday Oct 2012

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I have been thinking a great deal about Surprise Number 4, issues of authenticity in reenacting, and what is really important. As tempting as it would be to post an image of Surprise Number 4, I remember how ticked I was at the comments about an image of someone’s unkempt tent at Fort Frederick, so I can’t. It would be wrong. I may have missed the Dalai Lama today (HVAC will be my undoing, I think) but I didn’t miss the point about “doing unto others.”

So instead of philosophizing, have some photos.

The large one actually captures the entire Kitty Calash family, from Mr S at the right of the rank of soldiers to the Young Mr, in close proximity: a rare sighting indeed. Mr S’s calves stand out nicely in his new overalls, if I say so myself. Two more buttonholes, two more buttons, two more straps and those suckers are done. He did a good job, too, getting them dirty before Nathan Hale.

Yes, that’s my attempt at the “Ale House Door” jacket.  The fit is OK, the style a little late for RevWar, but it’s what I have in wool for now, made from a Wm Booth Draper remnant, and that’s the first wearing of the Sharon Burnston apron.

Sew 18th Century has a nice post on baskets, and where to get them, but wondered about the documentation of the market basket. What I can find is 1732, Plate 1 of Hogarth’s series, The Harlots’ Progress, based on Moll Flanders.


Would these have been out of use by 1770? Hard to say—I think I may have seen this form in catchpenny prints, but I have only a print source for those and it’s buried in one of the many stacks of books at home.

Still, I love my newly-arrived basket, ordered from Jeanne Beatrice for $24.

And there I am running away. Coventry, Connecticut, here I come!

Buttonholes Made Fun

11 Thursday Oct 2012

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For a time, I worked with a young man who sang at work. It wasn’t “Old Man River” or railroad work songs, but simpler, more repetitive phrases: “Up the stairs, down the stairs” while moving around the house, or “broccoli, broccoli; broccoli, broccoli” making his lunch. The habit had its charms and its hilarity, but now the little sing-song phrases get stuck in my head, like today’s “try not scream, try not to scream.”

20121011-064643.jpgButtonholes!! Board decisions! Bad fit! The last two are only hypothetical, I must remember. There’s been no real board meeting to cut that $100K from next year’s budget, and I haven’t laced into my stays and tried on the new dress yet.

I have been working on buttonholes, and have a new favorite sewing tool: a sharp chisel. It would be ideal to get one that could pass for period, and a mallet as well, because hammering a sharp blade through overalls has proven oddly satisfying. I might take on fancy waistcoats for the sheer pleasure of mallet use.20121011-064502.jpg

The dress is basted and hemmed and ready to be tried on and tested. there’s a little bit of minor finish work I can do at lunch today, but the big push this evening will have to be gathering up the gear and loading the car, fitting the ankles of the overalls to the wearer so those buttons and buttonholes, and the evil tongue, can be sewn.

That leaves Friday for finish work, which seems like a reasonable plan. I can always work on the shift during What Cheer! Day, as long as there is not too much running back and forth to do.

Weather and Wardrobe

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

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If only What Cheer! Day would look this good!

What to wear for 55-degree weather? Suddenly, “red and black and white calicoe” seems…foolish. The Cursing Sewing Mommy may have words for not having gotten her act together to make the red short cloak from the Wm Booth remnant. But there is a blue wool cloak (based on one in the RIHS Collection) that lacks only facings, but when I dress early next Saturday morning, will one layer of wool over cotton be warm enough? Hard to be certain, but I am not confident. And what does this mean for Nathan Hale? Is it past time to drop the cotton and drag out the wool?

None of this panic has anything to do with questions of fit, of course, or the schedule for today, which starts with boiler men and ends with a board dinner. Yes, that is sarcasm.

I’ll haul “red and black and white calicoe” in to work and perhaps while babysitting boiler men I can work on some of the issues—or if not, at least get the second sleeve set and the cuffs done. If I can make it passable, I can wear it over my black wool petticoat, and bring the wool jacket in my runaway-with-the-army bag.

The overall buttons are in progress, and I have chisels for buttonholes, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.  One really can’t whack holes in clothes on private club tables…not if one wishes to keep one’s job.