Reenactment at Pioneer Village

Our final reenactment of the season was last weekend and although I'm a little sad that we are done til next spring I could not have asked for a better last event.

A slightly blurry photo takes on a period look if sepia-ized. Thanks Judah!

We had such a great time! I took too many pictures but here are a few of my favorites. Since it was a new place for me and a really lovely setting there were so many picturesque scenes I felt the need to document. I had my camera out of my pocket way too often.

Four of them fit in that tree!

We didn't camp but since the site was pretty close by we were able to travel up both days. Note for next time: Camp.

David and Judah share a brotherly joke by the covered bridge

Camping with a lot of kids seemed overwhelming to me at the beginning of this year. But truthfully it would have made things much easier. Having a "home" to retire to when children get cranky and need naps is such a nice thing to have. We set up a fly and had chairs and a blanket for the babies to play on but it just isn't the same as tenting. Cold picnic fare just isn't the same (and to the older boys not as satisfying) as a simple meal cooked over the fire.

Benjamin hunting with his stick

If there's a fence, it has to be climbed!

The weather was great; a little warmer than average for late September but still gloriously sunshiney and not too hot. The kids soon discarded their stockings and shoes and ran off to explore.

Rose at the entrance of the tiny cemetery. I love the rock walls around here - when
I was a little girl in Rhode Island and Connecticut most of the fences were of stone.
I feel like I'm home again.

The village houses a collection of historic buildings that are meant to be instructive to the visitors about early American life. It makes a pretty place for an event and the park interpreters had many of the buildings open so we could see inside. While most are pre-Civil War style the ambiance was very homey and pleasant.

Her daddy asked her what was growing in the garden. She replied "A lot of great weeds!"

Rose tries on her brothers cap.

The reenactors put on several skirmishes for the spectators over the weekend and enjoyed an 1860's style baseball game each day. No gloves!

The guys, blue and gray, set aside political differences for an afternoon of fun.

Second base!

Anne is my wild child and she doesn't know the meaning of the word stranger. To her, everyone is a friend waiting to be met. I spent a lot of my time following her little skipping figure as she went from one place to the next, talking to whoever would listen (and most listen with good nature and kindness to a sparkling-eyed, curly haired little devil) and taking pictures whenever she begged the camera from me.

Add caption

Two more of Anne's friends

I was lazy on Sunday and put the babies in their Boone frocks since I didn't feel like ironing their petticoats early that morning.

We spent a pleasant time in one of the homes listening to music. Rose especially enjoyed the hammered dulcimer.

Malachi's favorite site was a rather dilapidated cabin set away back from the main village a bit. He spent most of the day there with another little boy he befriended. On Sunday Malachi complained about the green suit I made him earlier this year as it has grown tight around the waist and around the knees. I let him wear Judah's extra set of trousers and he was ridiculously pleased. I guess this means that his next outfit will be a menswear style. . .sigh. I will put the green suit away for Benjamin to grow into. My little boy is getting too big too fast!

The cabin is supposed to be a recreation of a late 18th century style cabin.

A nearby stone springhouse would have kept food cold and helped to preserve meat, vegetables and dairy products. 

We geared up again for another baseball game!

The porch of the store across the street was a good place to sit in the shade to watch the game. 

Judah struck out once, but hit a good ball every other time he was up to bat!

After the game it was late afternoon and time for everyone to go. What a great weekend! It was Rose's first event after learning to walk really well. She's so short and teeny it still is a bit of a shock for me to see her bitty little self walking around. She seems too little to walk! So cute! 

Love,

Sarah

Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #9 - Historicism

This months challenge was historicism, which both excited me and dismayed me. Recreate a historic garment that is itself inspired by fashions from a previous era of history. My mind, of course, immediately flew to regency era fashion, which was heavily inspired by Grecian clothing. Then the 1910's saw a reinterpretation of both regency and grecian style clothing. It's kinda fun to look through the past 500 years and see the truth in the saying that everything comes full circle. It does! There are several silhouettes of fashion that you see repeat themselves time and again but that subject is far too large to even begin talking about right now.

Anyway, I needed to fit my already planned sewing projects into this category somehow. Since my sewing this month has mostly been fantasy costume I had to really think about  my new 1860's dress and figure out if the style could plausibly be inspired by any other historic era. So I began looking. 

The most defining feature of 1860's womens clothing is almost certainly the hoop skirt. This type of support structure was not something new, however. Other eras of historic fashion saw various interpretations of what sprang up as the late 15th century farthingale. I am not at all very studied in the fashions of the Elizabethan period but a basic article can be found here: History of the Spanish Farthingale. The 1860's was just another take on the basic concept of a petticoat with some kind of stiffening sewed into it to distend the skirts of the dress. 

The 1860's not only saw the popularity of the hoop but also of large, wide sleeves. Looking at the fashions of the time of the original farthingale you also see large sleeves that almost look as though they could be copied exactly from images of the 1860's! I was amazed at how closely some sleeve styles were replicated. Not only were there puff sleeves in both historical eras, but also the more slenderly cut coat sleeves, as well as open sleeves, slashed sleeves and many hybrids. 

It's possible to draw many more parallels between 1860's fashion and various other eras - hairstyles, accessories, etc - but the main silhouette of a tight waist and bodice, large skirts and large sleeves seem to be quite similar between the 1860's and late 15th/early 16th century. 

Despite wanting to appear ladylike and elegant, this is my usual look as an event progresses - the basic day dress has the skirts pinned up, the sleeves rolled up and an apron added so that physical labor is much easier to accomplish.

What the Item Is: 1860's Day Dress

The Challenge: Historicism

Fabric/Materials: Cotton for main fabric, cotton for lining and pocket

Pattern: My own

Year: Early to Mid 1860's

Notions: Hooks and eyes

Hours to Complete: About 12

First Worn: This past weekend at a small reenactment

Total Cost: Under $25, since the fabric was a bargain find and the lining, facing and pocket came from leftover scraps from other projects.

New Civil War Dress

Hobbit Day passed, sadly, without much fanfare. We had a nice hobbit dinner, composed mostly of bacon-and-mushroom tart and pie but we didn't dress up for it (we will have opportunity to wear our hobbit clothes at the Faire later this fall). My own hobbit clothes are still, well, non progressive.



Instead, this week I dove right into working on a new 1860's dress for our last reenactment of the season. The pink striped one could have worked for another event. But. New dress. Yeah. I just had to make a new one. It was time.

I had 4 days in which to make it so I broke up the project into what I considered manageable portions. And well, I didn't get done nearly as much as I wanted to each day. Tonight, as I write this, my dress still needs hook and eyes and a white collar but in essence the dress is done! I will be able to wear it tomorrow if I stay up a little bit later than usual after the kids go to bed.

Earlier this year I bought 6 yards of this fabric at an antique shop. I didn't know til I got it home that it was 60" wide, so the length was plenty for an 1860's style dress. I didn't plan to use it right away but I got a sudden desire for a plaid dress and this fabric was there on my shelf so I used it and am so happy that I did. It's a heavier weight so will be nice for fall.

The bad thing is that the plaid is not an even plaid. There's a definite up and down so I had to be careful to make sure the plaid was going the same direction for all the pieces. I messed up while working on the sleeves so one lower sleeve is cut going the opposite direction of the other. And yes, it is really annoying but I don't have time to fix it before tomorrow. Thankfully the plaid aligned just fine with all the other pieces.

To fit with my new corset I had to take in my basic bodice pattern by 3" at the waistline. 3"! I didn't realize the new corset reduced so much. But I won't complain! I also had to shorten it to make the waistline fall at the lower ribs. Those were the only alterations needed and once the bodice was fitted the construction went along pretty well.

Until I got to the skirt. I had my heart set on a cartridge pleated skirt. The fabric is springy and thick and would show off cartridge pleats so well! So I carefully measured and balanced the skirt at the waist and ran my lines of cartridge pleats and whipped them one by one to the bodice edge. And. . .it was off. The skirt was NOT balanced. I had to pick out every little stitch and re balance the thing and by that time I no longer felt like another 2 hours of cartridge pleating. So I did regular knife pleats (so boring) but did manage to do a little section of cartridge pleats at the back waist. It's my favorite part of the dress.

The sleeves are bishop sleeves with a double puff at the top. The puffs are cut on the bias and sewn to a fitted short sleeve lining. I really liked the short sleeves. I wished I could keep them short! But, at 30 and with 6 little ones my days of short sleeve day dresses are long past! So the lower sleeves were sewn on, much to my sighing resignation.

The skirt is finished with a 1 foot wide facing. I got to sew it on while listening to several episodes of Dora the Explorer courtesy of Anne. I have discovered that I do not like Dora the Explorer. Anne does not understand this. "Mommy, but it's so EXCITING!"

I can't wait to wear this and am so happy to have a new dress to wear! I can't believe its already been a year since I made my last one.

Love,
Sarah

I Hate Trouser Buttons

I've made a whole lot of trousers over the years and the placement of the trouser buttons on the waistband always irritates me to no end. Good lord. On an adult sized pair of trousers this issue isn't so bad since you have a longer waistband to work with but I was truly frustrated with the little hobbit trousers I have been working on for Benjamin, which I decided to make with pockets and a fly front like Bilbo's trousers in The Hobbit.

When you make normal trousers there are certain landmarks where you want your seams to fall. The side seams obviously should fall at the sides, and not a third of the way back onto the buttocks or creeping up towards the front hips. The center back seam should align with the center of the back, right? And the front seam should go down the center front. 

BUT WHAT THIS MEANS, and WHAT DRIVES ME CRAZY, is that the button on the waistband is NOT centered on the body. 

For trousers that do not require any more buttons on the waistband this is okay. It's not a big deal. But for any historical or historically-inspired trouser that requires waistband buttons to accommodate suspenders/braces this becomes an irritating thing. Ideally the suspender buttons should be symmetrical on the waistband. But then this means that one suspender button is closer to the center button than the other side. Or you could measure out the same distance from the center button to position the suspender buttons but this means that the suspender buttons are different distances from the side seams. Oh my gosh. This drives me nut. 

I could not get Benjamin's suspender buttons to look well no matter how I positioned them. So I just sewed the darn things to the inside of the waistband. Bilbo's suspenders in An Unexpected Journey button to the inside of the waistband so that is okay. But historically, visible buttons on the waistband to which the suspenders are attached is definitely a thing. 

So what did they do historically?

From CW Quartermaster

It seems like they didn't worry about it. Looking at originals the distances between suspender buttons and center front buttons are kinda all over the place, and are not necessarily symmetrical from side to side at all. It still bugs me.

From Augusta Auctions

Now, on drop front style trousers, like many of the male hobbits wore in the original Lord of the Rings, the center buttons and suspender buttons are definitely easier to make symmetrical. On a fly front, however, like Bilbo wore in The Hobbit, the off-center center front button is very much unavoidable.

Moral of story: drop front trousers are better.

But the good thing is, that yes, Benjamin's outfit is done! Here is the finished little costume:

The shirt is made based on the styles in the LoTR. It opens all the way down the front, has gathered sleeves and a rounded collar. It's not really historical at all. It's quite modern in how it is cut, especially with the shirt opening all the way down the front. I wish now that I had made the shirt more 1860's style with a short placket but oh well. This just means that Benjamin cannot really use this shirt for any historic era. It is strictly hobbit attire.

I made his trousers like Bilbo's in The Hobbit mainly because I wanted to avoid the work that goes into a fall front trouser. Eh, a fly front isn't much less work. And then I could have avoided the whole button issue. But I like these. 

(Also, I promise that these look a lot better in real life than they do in the pictures. The photos make them looked washed out and wrinkly. Their true color is almost mossy green and the fabric is a soft mid weight herringbone weave with a faint red stripe.)

They are made to mid-19th century pattern shapes except shortened, of course, to just below the knee. While the style is historical he can't really use them for any other time period just because, well, he's 2. And historically he'd still be in dresses for at least another year or so. So, the trousers are strictly hobbit attire as well.

In movie stills from LoTR the little boys can often be seen wearing dark colored trousers and matching or dark colored suspenders.

I used the same fabric to make what is called in living history circles "poor boy" suspenders; two finished strips of fabric with buttonholes at each end, that button to waistband buttons. Like historical braces, these are not sewn together at the back but can move independently of one another. 

I made the backside a bit roomy just because little boys often need extra room in the seat to prevent tearing out the center seam. The back adjusts with a ribbon and eyelets. 

Benjamin does look adorable in this outfit but for some reason he hates it and screams if he thinks he has to wear it. Hopefully his hatred is short lived. We will see. 

Love,

Sarah