Tag Archives: weekend

Bloody Overalls

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

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Just started backstitching, already bleeding

But that’s still better than the story I heard yesterday about the incredibly authentic, effluvial-field dipp’d overalls that gave a mender dysentery…you come here for this, right, not the pretty dresses?

My thumb has split– yay, winter!–so everything will be a little trickier. Guess I’ll lay off handling white silk gowns at work, and documents, but the sewing will continue.

The Line of Truth

We went up to the Adjutant’s house yesterday, now that the roads are cleared again, and the lads got measured. Best of all, Mr S got fitted. He has what I ungenerously call “The Hump,” and what the Adjutant describes as “Shoulders Roll Forward.” The Adjutant has tact; I’m the wife, I calls it like I sees it.

It was really helpful. I knew the coat was too big (Mr S is built more like an 18th century soldier than a 21st century office worker), but I knew it had more wrong with it that too much fabric. At left, see the chalk line? The sleeve seam sits at the shoulder point, where I am told it will be uncomfortable as it rubs, which will also wear out the shirt faster. I knew what to do it the sleeve had been on a gown– unstitch it and re-align it under the shoulder strap, mark it and trim the excess off the head. In a way, that’s just what I will do here. There’s also excess to take out of the upper arm, but that’s not too bad for a garment that I made in a hurry and never really fitted to the wearer. And I have until mid-April to do it.

I have two of these greige stacks to transform.

At the same time, I also have to transform two of these piles of pieces into well-fitted, hand-sewn overalls. Despite the pride I’ll feel in accomplishing what I expect will, under guidance, be the best-fitted, most authentic garments I’ve made, saving my green checked apron, there’s a minor measure of terror mixed in to all this…hope those back stitches hold…

Curtains for Gowns as Menswear Beckons

18 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Clothing, Making Things

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Curtain Along Gown…so close!

Or perhaps bellows, considering it’s soldiers’ clothes I’ll be sewing for a while.  I made significant progress on the Curtain Along gown since last weekend, when it was a mere bodice. It’s meant to be worn with the fluffy Ikea curtain petticoat for maximum “I’m not a window, but I dress like one” effect.  There’s a set on Flickr to show you the pitfalls of 18th century sleevils on Cassandra (without a scapula, poor thing, she can’t really fill a sleeve).

1795-1800, V&A

1795-1800, V&A

It’s based on the chintz gown from the V&A seen here before. For a pattern, I used the Past Patterns Front Closing Gown because I know how it fits. The waistline has been dropped on the bodice just as I did on the wool version I made, to suit my age. There’s more to do than the hem; I plan to add a thin band at the bottom edge of the bodice to carry the drawstring and drop the waist in front just a bit. I think it will fit better, and hide the petticoat’s waistband.

It won’t be done today, but I think I have made enough progress for something I won’t need until the end of May. It’s time now to switch to menswear. We have an overall appointment this afternoon, which could diverge into fitting coats. I’ll be seated at the feet of a master, and for that I am grateful. Scheming about how to get a wool gown down by April while basting and stitching and buttonholing, but grateful nonetheless.

HSF # 3: Under it All: A shift, and a petticoat

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Clothing, Historical Sew Fortnightly, Living History, Making Things

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Done at last: the shift. Plus bonus bonnet

Remember that shift I couldn’t finish in time for HSF # 2, UFO? I did get it finished for HSF # 3, and a bonus petticoat as well. They don’t go together, but in honor of the excessive amount of snow we got this weekend, they’re both white. The snow is also how they got done: nothing like snow days and travel bans to keep one home and sewing.

How ‘Bout Them Facts?

Fabric:

  • For the shift, lightweight linen, probably this one.
  • For the petticoat, one of a pair of Ikea curtains found on sale one day. The light-weight cotton appealed to me and suggested filmy late 18th century petticoat better than anything I had seen at a fabric store.

The petticoat, over another petticoat. It’s that sheer.

Back view (again with cat bowl)

Pattern:

Shift:

Year:

  • Shift: 1775-1783
  • Petticoat: 1795-1800

Notions: Both: Just thread. And some left over white cotton twill tape.

How historically accurate is it?

The shift is pretty close. The fabric is, well, not the linen they had, but it’s as fine as I could afford. It is entirely hand-sewn, and the sleeves have bands and tie closed.

The petticoat is also hand sewn, and uses a historic garment for a basis. (I also looked at bodiced petticoats at the Met.) However, it is made from a curtain and while I unpicked all the seams, the machine stitching holes remain. It gets the job done that I wanted it to do, though: fluffy white stuff.

Hours to complete:

Shift: Killer. Started it last August and have worked on it off and on since then. It went to so many events in the basket that it smelled like woodsmoke. Intensively completing it probably took 24 -30 hours, so it could be a 40+ hour shift. After a while I stop paying attention.

Petticoat: Like candy. Started it Saturday morning, finished it Sunday afternoon. Best guess, about 10 hours.

First worn:

Shift, probably April 13.

Petticoat? Probably Dress U.

Total cost:

No good way to know…the fabric was bought so long ago! The petticoat curtains, when not on sale, are $20, so $10, because I only used one. For the shift, it’s harder to say. I piece aggressively when cutting out, so I bought less than the pattern recommends. Remnants were used for the petticoat bodice and various linings, including the Curtain-Along robe currently underway.

Weekend at the Farm

21 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by in Clothing, Events, Living History

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The Young Mr in his new clothes

Fourteen year old boys don’t like to get up early, but we managed to rouse the beast on Saturday, and get him dressed, with only minor hostilities. He’s wearing all new clothes, except for the shirt, which I hope will not have to be replaced before the end of the summer. (I have now guaranteed that his arms will grow several inches in the next week.)

Mr S wore his new waistcoat but it’s hard to see under his jacket. He also got his new hat from Mr B, so he could upgrade from his knitted cap.

New hat, new waistcoat

New hat, new waistcoat

There are more photos here, including a fabulous stuffed leg of lamb. For mid-day Saturday, we ate a meat pie (pork and apples), sugar cakes, coriander biscuits, bread and molasses bread, all brought from home, along with hat from the farm boiled with parsnips, potatoes, carrots and onions and a carrot pudding. We also made a potato-apple-onion pie for the evening meal, though Mr S, the Young Mr and I did not stay. There is a limit to what the child will tolerate.

Sunday, we arrived in time for Mr S to make more fence pegs, while I joined the kitchen to make soup with ham, squash, parsnips, and onions, which we ate with bread and cheese, and the last of the sugar cakes, for lunch. All the while, a leg of lamb was cooking, masterfully prepared by Mrs B, and stuffed with cubed bread, onion, ham, sage and onion. To go with it, we made a rice pudding with apples, wilted greens, salad, squash pudding, and stewed apples. The sauce for the lamb was particularly fine, with drippings, minced onions, what we think was whiskey, butter and cream. I learn so much cooking with Mrs B!

waiting, wanting, hoping

The cats wanted, but were disappointed. They were calmer on Sunday, though extremely attentive kitchen assistants both days. Pity they don’t do dishes. There were plenty to wash. 1799 was definitely greasy. Even the striped cat feels a little greasy, but that could be because he’s handy to wipe your hands on.

Now it’s on to sewing for something else, though whether that will be wool trousers or clothes for Washington’s Birthday, I don’t really know.

Trouser Saturday

12 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by in Clothing, Making Things

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Cutting out makes me think of freeing mastodons from glaciers

If this is Saturday, I must be sewing trousers. I’ve managed overalls in a day from cutting out to made up, lacking only buttons and buttonholes, so I have hope for the trousers. It is true I am starting a new pattern, and so I am considering adapting the pattern I already use for breeches and overalls…. except that the style is 20 years out of date for where these are going. At least the first pair is for the kid, for whom oddly-fitted clothes are the norm now because of his size and personality, and would have been then, since he’s not the son of gentry.

He’s got shoes, though, and they fit! His feet stopped at size 12 in fall 2011, and the 12.5 Fugawee straight-lasted Ligonier shoes fit him over his winter socks. His feet are just too big not to put into better shoes–no one can help noticing them, and there are no gaiters to hide them under.

We’ll see how leather-soled shoes go. Expect slipping and falling.

Dining/sewing/library room with "assistant"

Dining/sewing/library room with “assistant”

My plan is to knock out the trousers today to the point of finishing work, and then finish the waistcoat tomorrow (it lacks only buttons and buttonholes). Having spent Tuesday on costume research scrutinizing seams, and blinking at buttonholes from 1788-1800, I feel better (and less self-conscious) about my sewing skills. They’re not as awful as I think they are, and the worst part of the tan waistcoat was the placement of the buttonholes, not their actual execution. Of course, the placement is the part I can’t fix…

On another note, on Tuesday I also looked at a number of ways to do pockets in breeches and jackets. Some were chamois lined, and then I wondered, how do we know what kind of leather the pockets are lined in? Aren’t they more likely to be deerskin than actual chamois? It doesn’t take long before you’re down the rabbit hole of historical wonderings.