Jane Austen in Miniature

I currently find myself knee deep in sewing preparations for our upcoming War of 1812 event at Historic Ft. Wayne. Not surprisingly, most of the preparations involve replacing L's drastically out grown clothing. However, since I have more lead time in preparing for this event, and am dually preparing for Mississinewa 1812 this fall, I am able to indulge my research desire a little fuller and ensure that her new clothing won't be out grown as quickly as her last set. Or at least this over worked mother can hope that it won't be.

L's 1812 wardrobe consists of the following:

A white linen, short sleeved shift. This is simply her standard shift made with shorter sleeves to fit better under the shorter regency era style sleeves. I've made so many shifts in the past few months I'm almost sewing them in my sleep now.

A high wasted linen petticoat with suspenders. I have yet to construct this piece, although it should be a quick & simple project. However, if I don't get it finished in time, wearing her usual petticoat tied higher and pinned in place is an option.

A tan checked pin-cloth inspired by the image shown here (above) by Samuel deRole Wilde, 1801, as worn by the girl on the right. I found that an apron simply does not stay in place on my active child. Instead it falls to the natural waist, creating a very odd look when combined with the high waisted regency clothing. The pin cloth however, covers well & stays in place. Not to mention they are quick to throw together & great for using scraps.

A black & white striped short gown. I constructed this piece based on sketches from Clothing for a New Era, by Cathy Johnson (Graphic/Fine Arts Press) which I found on the 1812civilian Yahoo group. The piece was draped to fit and entirely hand sewn while at 100 years on the Ohio. I really had no plans for this garment but needed something to do for the weekend and the material was handy. Plus at the time L was running around in an under sized gown, so the inspiration to update her wardrobe was pretty strong.

A pink linen gown. I drafted this gown based on measurements and the usual gown block that I use for all of L's dress needs. I then adjusted the pattern to resemble two extant examples, one from Denmark, the other from Kent State.



The first inspiration piece is a gown in the Danish Museum archive, Tidens Toj. While I don't speak Danish, and apparently the online translators I've found don't either, I can tell you that this gown was is dated for the first decade of the 19th century. The web page also includes a grid pattern for the garment itself which proved very useful in my recreation. I used this pattern & a bit of math to estimate the proportions of the gown. I then adjusted the numbers to fit L, the only significant change being that I raised the front bodice to a more modest level. I especially like how the front lays flat while the back fullness is gathered. This is very similar to the shape of the gown on the girl on the right in the painting above.

The other extant inspiration is actually a young boys gown from the Kent State University Museum’s collection. Thankfully the notes on this garment are in English!

"Young boy's brown cotton dress made of coarsely printed fabric dating from the fourth quarter of the 18th century. Gathered on drawstrings at the neckline, high waistline and twice at each sleeves. Tucked twice at the hem both for decoration and to allow for growth. Made for Ben Mowry, born in 1808."

This gown shares the gathered waist style of the Danish gown, although it gathers all the way around the waist rather than just at the back. It is also open in the back, a style that we see quite frequently in younger children's gowns during the regency era. This in not feasible for an active child such as L and I immediately disavowed the idea. I do particularly liked the detail of the drawstrings on the sleeves, a simple but effective way to add growth room to loose sleeves. I showed this detail to L but she was happy with the more plain un-gathered sleeves of the other gown. Oh well, perhaps I'll work that into a piece for myself instead.

These basic garments, along with her usual stockings & shoes, should give L a nice basic wardrobe for all of our upcoming War of 1812 events and should fit for more than a few seasons. It is simply a matter of finishing up this wardrobe before she grows again, or worse; hits puberty and starts caring about what she's wearing beyond the usual question; "can I get dirty in it?"

~~~

works cited:

Wilde, Samuel deRole. Music. 1801. Painting. Manchester Galleries, United Kingdom. http://www.manchestergalleries.org/

Johnson, Cathy. Clothing for a New Era; A Basic Guide to Women's Federal * Regency * Empire Costume. Graphics/Fine Arts Press, Excelsior Springs, MO.

Hverdagspigekjole or Child's gown. 1800-1810. Tidens Toj. http://tidenstoej.natmus.dk/

Boy's printed cotton dress. 1808-1811. Kent State University Museum. http://dept.kent.edu/museum/general/general.html

Stay the Course, Part 3

Or how to construct mid 18th century fully boned stays with a stomacher front.

Step Three: Finishing!

Please note: I did not take photographs while finishing the red stays with the stomacher front that the previous two sections of this tutorial use. In fact, I've never actually finished those stays & have been wearing them unlined for nearly a year (*blush). Instead we will use a pair of blue strapless, front & back lacing stays that I am constructing for a friend as our example throughout this stage of the tutorial. Luckily it doesn't matter what style of stays you are working with, the construction process is always pretty much the same.

Part 1: Binding

Materials:

Previously constructed stays using Parts One & Two.
Needle
Sturdy thread
Binding material. 3/4" strips of chamois leather, dutch linen tape or worsted wool tape are my preferred materials.

Lay binding right side to right side on stays edge. Binding only needs to cover around the very top and bottom of the lacing edges but you can bind around all edges if you want.

Stitch ~1/8" from binding edge using a back stitch for extra security.

Be careful stitching binding around interior curves of the tabs. This takes some fiddling to get just right. Swearing like a sailor while working on this step always works wonders for me.

Fold binding over to the interior leaving ~ 1/4" on the outside.

Whip stitch binding to the interior of the stays. This doesn't have to be perfect, pretty stitching, as it will be covered by the lining in the next step. Some coaxing might be needed around any curved edges and again in those dreaded inner curves of the tabs.

Take a break, your fingers probably hurt like crazy after sewing through all that leather! You can wear your new stays full time from this point. Lining is a nice finish though, keeps the interior more protected from sweat & body oils, provides a little more padding between you and the boning and when installed correctly, can easily be taken out for laundering or replacement without having to disassemble the entire pair of stays.

Part 2: Lining

Materials:

Previously constructed & bound stays, see above.
Previously customized stays pattern from Part 1 (optional)
Needle
Sturdy thread
Light to mid weight linen. This is a great place to use scraps.

Cut out the lining using your customized stays pattern as a guide or roughly trace the outline of the already constructed stays. Lining can be cut as 1 piece, or as several pieces corresponding to each piece of the stays. It's your choice, depending on how much extra work you want to do & how large your scraps of fabric are. The lining pieces don't even have to match, so use up those scraps!

Lay lining piece(s) on stays interior, wrong side to wrong side.

Turn in the edges so lining barely covers binding edge. If using separate lining pieces for each panel turn in all edges over lapping the seams just slightly. Don't forget to turn under the outer edge so your lacing holes remain accessible!

Pin liberally, adjust lining so it lays neatly & smoothly. Re-pin several times to get the lining just so. One can never use too many pins at this stage.

Whip stitch the lining into place along the binding edge, along the outer edge against the lacing holes & along where the lining panels join if necessary.

Use care when working around the interior of the tabs as that is the trickiest area. Trimming the lining into a "Y" shape at the top inner curve of the tabs can make tucking the lining to the inside easier but it is still going to be a fussy job.

Break out a bodkin & the champagne , your stays are finished!

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says

I was told recently that Slightly Obsessed has become a bit "dull". I believe the exact quote was something along the lines of "but don't you do anything fun?" Well yes, but winter fun & summer fun are two different things. Winter fun was the research, the in-depth articles & the endless reading. Now it's summer, event season, time for a whole new type of fun to start!

The Gathering at Macktown

This was my 2nd year camping and participating in the Gathering at Macktown but only my first year with the completed coffeehouse demo. What a change! Naturally there was the endlessly variable Midwestern April weather. Warm and sunny but with 30 mph gusts, giving way to sporadic rain and cold. I do give the public credit though, there were some truly hearty souls decked out in their rain gear & umbrellas despite the storms.

One of the best things about the Gathering is that it is so close to my home. This makes for a perfect season opener because I can just run back up the street to pick up those little odds and ends that either get forgotten after a long hiadus or simply didn't get refreshed after being used up the previous season.

The coffeehouse demo itself was a success. Friday only Contagion stopped by for a cup, but he passed the word and by Sunday I poured out nearly 4 pots. I was in full "talking head" mode most of the weekend and couldn't have been happier with the people that stopped by, asked interesting questions and complimented my impression. It means a lot to know that other reenactors appreciate the work I've put in.

After hours I hung around a bit in the Disreputable Scots camp, partly for the booze, partly for the music and partly because they were the only ones still up in camp late at night. I'm not sure if everyone else is getting old but wow, does Macktown get quiet around 11! Despite all my protestations about loyalty to the King, the Jacobites got what they deserved, godless savages, they really are one of the most fun bunches of folks around.

All in all, I couldn't be happier with the event and look forward to it again next year. Lets put in the order for nice weather now and maybe we'll have a chance to actaully get it.

Bloody Lake Rendezvous

As far as rendezvous go, Bloody Lake isn't all that bad. Sure there are the requisite "frunt-eer" types, a lot of "what were they thinking" moments and some rather loud mouthed neighbors but it is also the first event of the season where we get to camp with our friends in Brigands Folie. It is also fully of other friends, some that I get to see frequently, some that I only see on the rare occasion, some that I've only just met. I'm always amazed at how many new people I meet at every event. Eventually that has to taper off but for now it seems my list of "I've met you before" keeps growing.

Since it's a first come, first served event, we are never sure where we will be camped. This year we ended up on the swamp side of the site, in what I would guess is one of the best spots for us. The coffeehouse was right on the main cross roads, our sign easily visable from the hill side of the site. I'm considering moving our arrival date from Thursday to earlier in the week next year and staking out this space permanantly.

I again set up the coffeehouse demo, but Bloody Lake isn't as heavy handed on the demos as other events. This was nice because it meant I got more time to wander around in camp, do some needed shopping for the demo and chat with friends. Coffee service was surprisingly slow, despite my new nick name of "coffee lady". The few people that did stop by for a dish were very complimentary thought. I was even fortunate enough to have a few visitors really engage me in conversation on the subjects. So while the event wasn't intensive in sheer crowd numbers, it was intense in the depth of material I was able to share.

Other highlights to the event included, getting to hear Dragonfly sing, fitting K into her brand new stays (pictured above), the confabulation of 3 Pints Gone, Brigands Folie and several other musicians who I couldn't identify, getting trounced at checkers by 4 kids at once and of course all the laughs around the fire at night. Here's to next years event being bigger and better.

Up next: 100 years on the Ohio, my first event in the great state of Kentucky!

Lucy Locket Lost Her Pocket

Or making a pair of embroidered pockets for a young girl.

I constructed this pair of pockets for my daughter L, who has grown enough in the past 3 years to need a larger pocket than the first I made. She also needs more room to carry her ever growing collection of 18th century trinkets.

The pockets are sized right between her original "small" pocket and the size I use for my own, measuring approximately 8" by 13". The front opening is 6 inches long, scientifically measured by having her lay her hand out on the pocket before cutting. The pockets themselves are made from 5oz linen, found in my scrap basket and dutch linen tape from Wm. Booth, Draper. The body binding was dyed using just a pinch of "baby blue" fiber reactive dye. Not a period choice, but what I had on hand and needed to use up anyway. Since my intention is for these pockets to last until L is a young woman I constructed them on 2 separate lengths of tape. This way they can tie both in the front & back, allowing the waistband to grow as she does.

The embroidery is worked on 5oz linen from my endless collection of scraps using the beautiful woad dyed wool from Renaissance Dyeing (available through Reconstructing History). I used these as a practice pieces, since embroidery is still a rather new hobby of mine. The design consists of stem stitch, back stitch, french knots, seed stitch & wrapped running stitch. I varied the colors used but kept the stitches the same in each piece. The finished work is them layered with the working portion of the pocket and bound around the edges. This protects the back of the embroidery & makes the pockets a little more durable. For my readers who have seen just how filthy L gets at events, it's pretty clear why they need the extra layers!

The embroidery design is not a historical recreation, just "historically inspired". I saw a similar design sometime last year while searching for 18th century motifs. Sadly, I can not remember where I initially found it. It was most likely one of the endless pile of library books. My one complaint is that her initials are so hard to embroider! After several tries I finally had to settle for an only slightly lopsided "W".

Up next, my (entirely) hand sewn shift!

On fortune's cap we are not the very button.

In lieu of a complete tutorial on the construction of deathshead buttons I give you, my faithful readers, this photo collage of the process and a few interesting observations regarding the buttons themselves.

In researching for this article, I had a difficult time finding many references to "deathshead" buttons. It was only by a happy accident that I learned why. The proper 18th Century term seems to have been death head, two separate words with no "S" in-between. These buttons could also be called by any number of other names; thread buttons and mohair turning up the most frequently. In fact, thread & mohair turn up in reference to this style of button noticeably more often than death head does.

The Virginia Runaways Archive lists only two matches for the term death head button. One of the advertisements is for a Scotch servant man who had on when he went away "a cloth coloured frieze coat with white metal death head buttons". Clearly these metal buttons are not the same as the thread covered buttons we commonly associate with the term. I would speculate that the design on the button itself matched the cross design on thread “death head” buttons even though the material itself was different.

When we then turn to The Proceedings of the Old Bailey for reference to death head buttons, we find only one listing; the case of Mr.s Robert Roberts and Willaim Blann. These two gentlemen were put to death for a robbery in Feb of 1785 which included "1 pair of stuff breeches" with "horn buttons put to the waistband, and the flap, and the pockets, and death-head buttons... put to the knees." It seems in this case the death head wasn't only on the buttons, but on the thieves themselves.

If we then use the same archives, yet change the search terms, we find a wealth of additional listings. The Virginia Runaway Archive lists 5 runaways with "mohair buttons" on their clothing between 1752 & 1773. Two of these listings, from 1768 & 1773 respectively, specify the buttons as "Mohair Basket Buttons", perhaps a variation on the wrapping technique commonly employed in the button construction. The Proceedings of the Old Bailey adds 3 instances of mohair button theft and one unlucky highway man by the name of Silas Dowling, who wore a drab colored fustian frock with matching mohair buttons.

To widen the search even further we can look to the Old Bailey for references to thread buttons. Most of the 8 listings specify metallic thread, either gold or silver, leading me to believe these are also thread wrapped over a button mold in the same style as death head or mohair buttons. It is also interesting to note that all the button thefts, both for mohair & thread buttons, are for large quantities, usually several gross at a time. Although few can rival the grand larceny charge against Patrick Cockhall, who went before the Judge in January of 1782 on charges of stealing 3420 dozen of thread buttons valued at 22 l. 16 s. Mr. Cockhall was fortunate though. As an "old offender" he was only sentenced to hard labor, 2 years in raising sand and gravel upon the river.

According to A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, by Daniel Defoe, Macclesfield & Congleton were well known in the mid 18th century as having "thriving manufacture(s) of mohair buttons". However, The American Museum, or, Universal Magazine of 1789 by Mr. Mathew Carey, suggests that in absence of foreign manufacture, which by this time includes Britain, we should turn to items made at home. It is "therefore to be hoped that the expenfive article of foreign buttons will be omitted in making up our winter clothes". It is further suggested that "Inflead of the silk twift button, called death head, a button covered with cloth, or a firm taffety, of the colour, would be neat, modeft and genteel".

Of course, one could also become too modest & genteel and risk being called a "mohair" by the local thugs. A mohair, according to Captain Grose's 1796 edition of A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, is "A man in the civil line, a townsman, or tradesman: a military term, from the mohair buttons worn by persons of those descriptions, or any others not in the army, the buttons of military men being always of metal: this is generally used as a term of contempt, meaning a bourgeois, tradesman, or mechanic."

Perhaps that silk ditto suit covered from head to toe with matching 8 sectioned silk polychrome death head buttons is a little too much after all.

~~~

Works Cited:

Fuss, Norman H. 2005. "Death Head" Buttons, Their Use and Construction. Williamsburg, Virginia. Burnley & Trowbridge Company.

Wooded Hamlet Designs "Instructions for Making the Deathshead Thread Button". http://www.woodedhamlet.com/howto_advice/deathshead_instruc.htm (accessed March 21, 2009)

Virginia Runaways “Runaway Slave Advertisements from 18th-century Virginia newspapers”. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/runaways/search.html (accessed March 21, 2009).

Proceedings of the Old Bailey "London's Central Court from 1674-1913". http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/ (accessed March 21, 2009)

Defoe, Daniel. 1748. A tour through the whole island of Great Britain: Divided into circuits or journeys. S. Birt and T. Osborne.

Carey, Mathew. 1789. The American museum, or, Repository of ancient and modern fugitive pieces [afterw.] The American museum, or, Universal magazine.

Grose, Francis. 1796. A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue. Hooper and Wigstead.

Tempus Fugit Award

The Doctor has lately granted Slightly Obsessed the first Tempus Fugit Award. My thanks go out to him for both his support & for his continued blogging on various 18th century subjects.

"The TEMPUS FUGIT Award is given to writers & living historians whose journals represent the best aspects of the 18th Century. These writers aim to inform and entertain the public with tales from events, historic research & experiments and highlights from 18th Century arts and culture. It is the hope of TEMPUS FUGIT that this award will forge a web of friendship and knowledge that will aid in creating a tight community of reenactors and living historians on the internet and beyond. Winners of the TEMPUS FUGIT Award should pass this award along to six other 18th Century blogs that meet the above criteria, and include this text with the Award, as well as a link back to the TEMPUS FUGIT blog."

Now I am taxed with the job of nominating 6 fellow 18th century bloggers with this wonderful award. The trouble comes in that we are a rather small circle, who all already follow each others writings. While I would gladly re-nominate all of the others the Doctor has already bestowed with the award, I will attempt not to do so & instead to include a few new, less known faces. I'm afraid however, that my attempt will fall short of the requested six.

18th Century Cuisine I have nominated Carolyne before, and as long as she continues to share such deliciously tempting food photographs and their corresponding recipes, I will continue to do so.

Dr. Johnson's Dictionary I recently stumbled across these daily word postings, in celebration of the good Doctor's 300th birthday, and now anxiously await the daily addition to my 18th century lexicon.

Tinkering With the Past Max is not only a personal friend, but a wonderful tinsmith. I especially enjoy the comparison photos of original works and his modern reproductions.

Miss B Forts Up Miss B is a relatively new blogger, and a new reenactor. I was once in both her shoes & it's refreshing to follow someone else as they enter this world of history we live in.

I'm afraid that's as far as I can go right now without repeating other nominees. My thanks to all the other 18th century bloggers out there who have created such a wonderful little circle of like-minds.

Busy as a Bee

Posts here on Slightly Obsessed have been slow recently and I will confess it's not because of a lack of projects but a lack of project completion.

Generally, I complete one project before starting on another. I simply have trouble focusing with too many irons in the fire and will forget things when I attempt to do to much at once. However, I find myself currently somewhat deeper than my knees in projects. Since more than one of my faithful readers has commented on the lack of posting, I will share little glimpses of the work currently in progress. Each will receive a full treatment, should I actually finish any one of them. So, dear readers keep your eyes open for the following posts in the coming weeks.

- The 3rd and final chapter in my ongoing tutorial on stay construction; Stay the Course.

- Revamping my sewing kit to include a cross stitched needle book & pin cushion.

- A tutorial on adding pockets to a man's coat.

- The finished workman's jacket for J, which I've been picking away at since August.

- A child sized quilted petticoat, complete with growth allowances for L.

- An embroidered child's sized pair of pockets also for L.

- A new, larger sign for Black's Coffeehouse.

- New tools for the coffeehouse, including a coffee roaster, ledger book & new coffee pot.

- A video tutorial on the construction of deaths-head buttons.

- A finished pair of strapless stays for K.

- A tutorial on cloak construction & the resulting cloaks for both myself & L.

- Event reviews, as they start merely 6 weeks from now!