Slightly Obsessed

To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are.

2012-01-17T20:28:00.010-06:00

Self-Portrait by Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1771.

“I'd love to participate but I don't have a character.”

I've heard this a lot since beginning First Person Interpretations Day at the C. Black Coffeehouse back in 2010 and feel the need to address what I think is a common misconception. There is this idea that you have to have a “character” in order to do first person reenacting. This is simply not true.

There is nothing in first person reenacting that requires us to take on anything fake, from the accents to the personal backgrounds and everything in between. The simplest and most honest persona is the one that you already have: yourself. There is no reason that whomever you are in your modern life, can't also be who you are when doing first person, only with a little historical twist.

So, in order to help others prepare for the upcoming reenacting season and the ongoing first person interactions offered at the coffeehouse, here is a simple guide to turning your modern self, into your historic self.

The Basics

Name: Use your real name. That way you don't have to remember to respond to a new name while at events! It is also easier for your fellow reenacting friends, especially if they are also doing first person and having a hard enough time remembering to call everyone “Sir” or “Mr.”!

Age: Subtract your actual age from the year you are portraying to get the year you were born. Stick with your real birth date, it's easy to remember & face it, no one is going to ask you when your birthday is while in character anyway. However, knowing the year that you were born historically, does help with the types of experiences you might have had. More importantly, it helps you to remember just how much of the era you've lived through! I am sometimes surprised to discover just how much of the late 18th century my Regency self would have experienced, or maybe I'm just older than I realize.

Occupation: What skill or trade do you already have? Do you typically demonstrate, sell items or do certain tasks around camp? What do you do in the modern world & how does that translate historically? When in doubt, be someone generic. A street seller, a sailor or a solider, a servant, anyone that is one of a large group is easier to portray. This is doubled if that generic person is also of the lower classes. Remember, there might only be one General Washington, but there are hundreds of Private So-N-Sos.

City or Country: This is probably one of the things that scares people away from first person reenacting the most, having to decided where to be from. I will let you in on a little secret, unless you are in a very organized event, with a focused time & location, no one really cares where you choose to be from!

Want to hear another secret? Only the super hard-core folks will notice any little flaws in the match between your personas location, clothes, accent etc. If anyone comes up to you while you are doing first person and starts nagging that (some picky little detail) wouldn't have been used by a (whom ever you are portraying) in (where ever you are from) in (what ever year it is), you have my permission to tell them to get stuffed, especially if they are not making the effort to do first person!

When ever I am asked where I am from, or more often where the coffeehouse is located, I always tell them we are “3 miles from town”. What town? Well “the” town of course, don't they know what town is just 3 miles away? Being vague, yet specific, is a great way to be flexible as event locations are always changing while our personas do not.

Self-Portrait by Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigee le Brun, 1800.

Class Level: Most of us are lower class, even those of us portraying business owners or tradesmen. Just like in life, start at the bottom and worry about working your way up over time. This goes along with your choice of occupation as well. It's easier to portray one of the masses. Don't be afraid to be a generic, lower class nobody! Want yet another secret? Portraying the lower class is also cheaper; less accessories, simpler clothes and no fancy duds to try and keep clean while in camp. This means more time to really enjoy not only the events, but the first person interaction as well.

Spouse & Children: If you have them, great. I'd suggest using them, especially if they are doing first person with you. If they don't reenact, or you don't have one, there are lots of reasons a spouse could simply be “someplace else”. The war, sailing, at work, in “the” town etc. The same goes for children. Indentures are another great way to get rid of your children, whether you actually have them or not. I frequently mention my own daughters “indenture” to various (and constantly changing) individuals, when in reality she is just at home.

As morbid as it sounds, death is another good way to explain someone not being there. One point of caution however, especially for widows, be prepared to explain how your husband died, the public always seems interested in that detail when you least expect it. As with everything, stick with simple, understandable modes of death, a fever, injury or that ever so helpful “war”. They are easy to remember should anyone ask, easy for the public to understand yet vague enough that no one will be unintentionally hurt by hearing the story.

Other important things to know about yourself: Can you read or do you just look at the pretty pictures? Do you play an instrument or sing out of key? Have a gambling habit? Like coffee but think tea is for wimps? Go to church regularly? Do you love gardening but the names of every single general in the war bores you to death? Think about your modern day personality and interests and how that translates into your historic persona.

Many people new to first person reenacting think that they have to know “everything about everything” when creating a persona, every battle, every politician, every tool etc. The truth is, if it's not something that you'd care to know about in the modern world, why would your historic self want to know it in their time? I can relate the recipe for a double chocolate mocha brownies by heart, but heck if I know the name of my senator; my historic self is no different!

I hope these simple tips will help many of you develop first person personas and encourage more participation in the first person interactions being offered at the C. Black coffeehouse. Remember, be yourself. The easiest way to create a historic persona, is to use as much of your real life as possible. Don't fall into the trap of assuming your first person persona has to be entirely different from who you are naturally. This just makes doing first person more difficult and creates unneeded stress, keeping you away from the fun of actually doing first person.

After all, who do you know better than yourself?

Self-Portrait by Benjamin West, 1758 or 1759.

Soup for the Historian's Soul

2012-01-07T03:37:00.009-06:00

Soup for the Historian’s Soul or how to make an economical dish for those who spend much time thinking of the past whilst living in the future.

Vegetables for the Soup, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin , 1732.

The cold winter weather has finally settled around us, and so too do we settle, around the fire with a hot dish of soup to keep away the chill.

Soup, or a “decoction of flesh for the table” as defined by Samuel Johnson in 1798, has long been a stable food for all classes. In the 18th century it was commonly served as an early course to a formal dinner or along with three other dishes in a more meager family meal. Part III of A Treatise of all Sorts of Foods begins with liquids, soup included, reasoning that “that we ought always to begin our Meals with liquid Foods as being thofe which are eafier of Digeftion and ftay leaft in the Stomach.”

The ease of soup on digestion is further supported in its use for fever patients & others with weak stomachs or suffering from illnesses. In fact, soups and other liquid nourishment are so common that a full 15 of the recipes Hannah Glasse gives in her chapter on “Directions for the Sick” are for broth, soup & meat “tea”. Women suffering from the puerperal fever, more commonly called child-bed fever, were encouraged to eat small, frequent quantities of “Chicken-water, or mutton-broth made weak and cleared of all its fat, beef-tea” along with other nourishing liquids, proper medication & rest. Soup could also cure that most common and dreaded aliment among sailors, scurvy. Although the idea of “a Soup of boiled Cabbage and Onions” as advised in Richard Brookes' 1765 General Practice of Physic is not the most appetizing, his promise that it would “cure an adventitious Scurvy in its firft Stage either at Land or Sea in any Part of the World befides” makes it worth adding to any sailors recipe book.

However, in the 18th century that comforting bowl of soup was not as simple as cracking open a can of Campbell’s. Not only did the home cook have to consider the types of meat or fish, vegetables and herbs to be used, but the order in which the ingredients were added to the pot and even the cooking vessel itself played an important role in the quality of the resulting dish. According to E. Taylor in The Lady’s, Housewives & Cook-maids Assistant the cook must “be careful to use pots and sauce-pans with the lids well tinned, and very clean, free from grease and sand, for fear of giving the soups a bad taste”. Clean, well maintained tools are very sage advice, even for today's modern cooks.

White Soup Bowl, Anne Vallayer-Coster, 1771.

While the process of making a soup is not particularly complicated, small changes could easily effect the final product. Elizabeth Raffald advises cooks “to lay your meat in the bottom of your pan with a good lump of butter” in order to “give the foup a very different flavour from putting water in at the firft”. She also advises that “when you make any white foup, don't put in cream till you take it off the fire,” presumable to prevent any possibility of the milk scalding while over the heat. Such subtle variations in the method could not only dramatically change the final flavor, but even change the dish from a proper soup, to a broth, gravy or “meat tea”.

Despite all the variations soups were still an economical meal, requiring few ingredients and tools. While meat, fish or foul was preferable for a good, hearty soup, they weren't the only option for those of meager means. Even the poorest of the poor could feed on bread soup, given nothing more than water, a few spices & a crust of bread, hopefully with the mold spots scraped off. They could indulge in a barley soup flavored with mace & perhaps a piece of lemon-peel. The suggested white wine in Hannah Glasse's recipe needn't be of particularly high quality, as anyone who has cooked with alcohol knows and in a pinch could easily be substituted with plain water. Such economical recipes were the saving grace for those struggling to put food on the table, or those, such as the Killuloe School in Dublin, feeding many mouths. Reports from 1800 by the Society in Dublin for Promoting the Comforts of the Poor show that 48 children could be fed a pint of soup each with the entire cost only amounting to 12d. Certainly the children were being fed the most basic, and inexpensive soup possible, but it was better than “dog's soup”.

~ ~ ~
A Modern Historic Soup
adapted from Sarah Harrison's, The House-keeper's Pocket-book: and Compleat Family Cook, 1739.

“A Soup.
TAKE three Pints of strong Broth, fifty Balls of Forc'd-meat, a Handful of Spinage and Sorrel chop'd, and a little Salt; let it stew a little, then put in a
Loaf Loaf of French Bread cut like Dice, and toasted, and fix Ounces of Butter. Tofs it up, and serve it.”

48 oz. (1 large can) chicken broth
1 bouillon cube
12 meatballs, homemade or frozen
1 bunch of fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
1 handful of sorrel or arugula, coarsely chopped
1 loaf of French bread, cubed & toasted or 3 cups fresh croutons
salt & fresh pepper to taste

Heat the broth and bouillon together. Add the meatballs and allow to cook until done. Frozen pre-cooked meatballs only need to heat through. Add the spinach and arugula. Cover the pot just long enough for the greens to wilt. Remove from the heat. Add in the bread or croutons. Season with salt & fresh pepper Stir briefly and serve immediately.

~ ~ ~
works cited

Brookes, Richard. General Practice of Physic. 1765
Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. 1784.
Grose, Francis. Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. 1796.
Harrison, Sarah. The House-keeper's Pocket-book: and Compleat Family Cook. 1739.
Johnson, Samuel. Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language. 1798.
Lemery, Louis. A Treatise On All Sorts of Food. 1749.
Raffald, Elizabeth. The Experienced English Housekeeper. 1786.
Society in Dublin. The first number of the Reports of the Society. 1800.
Taylor, E. The Lady’s, Housewives & Cook-maids Assistant. 1769.

With as Much Dispatch as They Would a Dish of Fritters.

2011-10-23T19:26:00.009-05:00

A recipt for Hasty Fritters, sometimes called Common Fritters, ideal for use with apples or other such sturdy fruits of the season.

Everyone has heard of the classic colonial "Apple Fritter", but what really is an apple fritter, or a fritter at all, according to 18th century cooks? Further, are they worth adding to our stash of historic recipes? You know, the ones that always impress, taste great and aren't so difficult that we spend the entire cooking time cursing who ever invented food.

To answer the first question I turned to many of my favorite recipt book authors of the era, names I'm sure you've either heard, read or at least recognize from all the times I reference them here on Slightly Obsessed.

The queen of 18th century cooking, Hannah Glasse, has a fairly simple recipe for what she calls Hasty Fritters in her ever so popular book The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1784 edition). These fritters include apples & currants, but unlike many of the other fritter recipes in the same book, rely on beer for leavening, making them faster than other methods while still being just as soft & tender once cooked. It also means the cook gets to enjoy a little something extra while doing all the hard work. Splash for the pot, sip for the cook!

"To make Hasty Fritters
TAKE a stew pan put in some butter and let it be hot. In the mean time take half a pint of all ale, not bitter, and stir in some flour by degrees, in a little of the ale put in a few currants or chopped apples, beat them up quick and drop a large spoonful at a time all over the pan. Take care they do not stick together, turn them with an egg slice and when they are of a fine brown lay them in a dish and throw some sugar over them. Garnish with orange cut into quarters."

Hannah's recipe is so popular it actually turns up, word for word in quite a few later cookbooks by different authors, such as John Farley's 1787 edition of The London Art of Cookery. I guess plagiarism wasn't as big of a deal in the 1700s as it is today.

While Hannah is making her Hasty Fritters, Elizabeth Raffald shares a recipe in The Experienced English Housekeeper (1786) specifically for Apple Fritters. Although in reality this is just a glorified version of Common Fritters, which she lists earlier in the book as a separate recipe. Elizabeth does point out though, that these fritters are "Proper for a side dish for supper." I'll do you one better and eat them for supper thanks.

"To make Apple Fritters

PARE the largest baking apples you can get, take out the core with an apple scraper, cut them in round slices and dip them in batter made as for common fritters, fry them crisp, serve them up with sugar grated over them and wine sauce in a boat. They are proper for a side dish for supper."

Before Hannah and Elizabeth were frittering away the pages of their respective cookbooks, E. Taylor was directing all the readers of The Lady's, Housewife's and Cook-maid's Assistant (1769) on the fine art of Hasty Apple Fritters. While I like the addition of cinnamon and sugar and the idea of draining the freshly fried fritters in a warm place so they stay hot before serving, a batter made from only beer and flour doesn't sound all that appealing. In fact it sounds rather awful! I'm not certain that any amount of extra sugar on top will fix a bland batter.

"Hasty Apple Fritters
Pare your apples, scoop out the core, cut them in slices across as thick as a half crown, have ready some thin batter made only of strong beer and flour, put a large quantity of lard dripping or butter into your stew pan, dip the apple into the batter and then immediately into the hot lard. When they are a light brown take them out with a slice and lay them upon a drainer before the fire. Send them to table with beaten cinnamon and sugar"

Leave it to a man though, to actually combine all the best aspects of the preceding fritter recipes. All thanks go to John Perkins for doing the hard work in his book Every Woman her Own House-keeper (1796). Here we have not only the wonderful use of beer for leavening, but eggs, nutmeg and sugar to create a batter worthy of frying on its own. That wasn't enough for John though, he uses this perfect batter on apples and further, sprinkles sugar on top of the final fritter goodness. Really his only flaw was not including the recipe for wine sauce, even though he so kindly suggests it!

"Common Fritters

Get some large baking apples, pare them and take out the core, cut them in round slices and dip them in batter made as follows: Take half a pint of ale and two eggs and beat them in as much flour as will make it rather thicker than a common pudding with nutmeg and sugar to your taste. Let it stand three or four minutes to rise. Having dipped your apple into this batter, fry them crisp and serve them up with sugar grated over them and wine sauce in a boat"

To answer the second question, yes fritters are more than worthy of a reenactor's recipe collection. Above are my results after following John Perkins recipe. Soft but still crunchy on the inside, sweet without being cloying, easy to make and not overly messy to clean up after. Even the left over batter made tasty plain fritters when tossed with cinnamon and sugar.

I used my favorite Spartan apples for these, even though they are a recent style of apple, only having been developed in the late 1930s. They are however a good all around fruit with a nice tartness that holds up well against the simple batter. I skinned and cored using my modern OXO tools for speed, but a simple knife and some patience would work in a historic setting just as well.

I did end up using a bottle of Newcastle Nut Brown Ale for the batter. Normally my cooking beer of choice is Boddingtons, partly because it originates to the 18th century but also because I like the way its flavor holds up in recipes. However, I took the advice that the beer not be bitter. Plus, since I only needed a half pint, a single bottle of Newcastle was more economical than a full 4 pack of Boddingtons. It is a Sunday night after all. Maybe next time I should make fritters on a Friday & enjoy the left over beers as part of the snack!

Until then, that's all the time I have to "Fritter Away" this evening.

~~~
works cited

Hannah Glasse. 1784. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. Printed for W. Strahan. p. 161-2
John Farley. 1787. The London Art of Cookery and Housekeeper's Complete Assistant. Printed for John Fielding. p. 228
Elizabeth Raffald. 1786. The Experienced English Housekeeper. Printed for R. Baldwin. p 161
E. Taylor. 1769. The Lady's, Housewife's, and Cookmaid's Assistant. Printed by H. Taylor for R. Taylor. p 226
John Perkins. 1796. Every Woman Her Own House-keeper. Publisher James Ridgway p 184-5

Historically Speaking

2011-07-19T21:03:00.005-05:00

Historically Speaking; 5 tips to getting started.

The most intimidating part of first person interpretation is speech. However, speaking in a historic manner does not need to be a overwhelming, uncomfortable task. There are a few small things that can be done to our regular speech patterns that will make us sound more historical to the public & will add an element of depth to our first person reenacting. Speaking historically isn't about adopting unnatural speech patterns or phrases, but about making those small alterations that are both convincing & easy! Remember that funny, false accents aren't needed to sound period correct. In fact, false accents are best left to stage actors who only have to say a few pre-planned lines, while we reenactors need to be able to speak freely while sounding historically correct.

1. Give everyone a title.

Adding Mr. or Mistress to the beginning of everyone's name is the quickest, easiest way to sound more period correct. Social lines were more formal in the Regency era and the use of proper titles helped to enforce that social division. If you don't know someone's last name, try adding a title to their first name. If you don't know their name at all, or if they are a member of the public, substitute other formal titles like Sir, Ma'am or even Friend. This applies to children as well as other adults. While it seems odd to call a young child “Young Master” it is very period appropriate, and the public children love it! The one exception to this is for those portraying servants. It is period appropriate for servants to be addressed only by their first names, by those they are serving. However, when in doubt, use a proper title. It's always safer to be more formal rather than less.

2. Formalize your greetings.

Try saying “good morning”, or greeting someone with “good day” rather than your usual “hi”. Not only is this a more period way of greeting, but it helps you keep track of what time of day it is. Formal greetings are also a good way to introduce an ethnic persona, without confusing those around you with a foreign language which they may not understand. Try greeting others with “bonjour” if you are portraying a Frenchman, or “guten tag” if your persona is German.

3. Eliminate modern slang.

No way, dude! Yes way! The first step to eliminating modern slang is to be aware of the words you use. Listen to yourself in daily life, record a phone conversation & listen for frequently used words. Once you've identified the modern words it's only a matter of hearing them in your head before you speak & changing them out for a period term. For example, I am terrible about saying “cool” when someone is showing me something. I have worked to replace that reflexive “cool” with “extraordinary”, a much more Regency word. For a while though “cool” would still come out, and I would correct myself out loud. I'm sure many thought I was a little nuts, always saying “cool...err...extraordinary”, but in the long run it has paid off. Now I hear the modern word in my head by my lips say the period one!

4. Eliminate contractions.

Speaking without contractions automatically makes you sound more formal even if it is a little uncomfortable at first. Like eliminating modern slang, eliminating contractions takes time & awareness of your own speech. It is just one a small change that leads to a big difference in the effectiveness of your first person speech and is well worth the added effort.

5. Learn a few key period phrases.

There are many Regency era term & phrases that we still use in our modern speech. It's not difficult to add these terms to our conversations since they already feel natural, yet they are also historically correct. Following are just a few terms of my favorite period terms, still in use today, to get you started.

1. babble: confused, unintelligible talk
2. To put the cart before the horse: to mention the last part of the story first.
3. To snivel: to cry
4. elbow room: sufficient space to act in.
5. go teach your granny to suck eggs: said to anyone as would instruct in a manner he knows better than themselves.
6. hell-cat: a termagant, a vixen, a furious scolding woman
7. rumpus: a riot, quarrel or confusion
8. to leak: to make water; to piss
9. down in the dumps: low spirited, melancholy.
10. windfall: a legacy or any accidental accession of property

***
Works Cited:

Grosse, Francis. 1788. A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. London: S. Hooper. Google Books Edition.

Rowlandson, Thomas. Veronica, a Breakfast Conversation, etching & engraving , 1786. (Lewis Walpole Library, New Haven, Connecticut). http://images.library.yale.edu/walpoleweb/oneitem.asp?imageId=lwlpr05999

“You will find it a very good practice always to verify your references, sir.”

2011-07-06T23:50:00.006-05:00

A Guide to Proper Citations for Historic Bloggers.

It has been suggested recently that historic blogs should include proper citations of their research. The idea is to encourage good research techniques on the part of the writers, while also reassuring historic sites and museums that we writers respect their copyrighted property, be it a book, artifact or image.

While this is a great suggestion, which any of my regular readers will notice I've been practicing for several years, there is one glaring problem with the suggestion; the majority of bloggers don't have much, if any experience with proper citations! Frankly, unless you've spent years writing historic research or have been subjected to an anal retentive professor, most of us don't use citations in our daily lives. Adding to the problem are the sheer number of citation styles, from the more common Modern Language Association (MLA), American Physiological Association (APP), and Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) systems, to the specialized and obscure Bluebook style used in Law, Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) common in the United Kingdom, and the Vancouver System suggested for scientific and mathematical research. You could spend nearly as much time deciding how to cite your sources as you did finding them in the first place. It's enough to make even a dedicated researcher run for the hills!

As a way to aid my other blogging friends and encourage more writers to share references, I offer this simple citation guide specifically geared towards historic bloggers. This guide follows Chicago Manual of Style's Author-Date system, since this is both an easy system to use and remember while not overwhelming the typically shorter articles found on historic blogs. The information included within the text also encourages readers to notice the reference and increases the spreading of these important details.

There are two parts to a proper citation using Author-Date style, the shorter in text portion and the bibliography or works cited at the end of the article.

Quotations and The In Text Citation

Following any quotation within the text of your post include the author, editor or artists last name, the year of publication or creation and the page number in parenthesis. “This is the easy part” (Black, 2011) of in text citations. Quotations should be worked into the text of the sentence as much as possible rather than left free floating. The exception to this is longer quotations which comprise several sentences or even a full paragraph. While they too can be incorporated into the text, it is often easier to separate them from the main body as a block quote. Most citation styles have suggestions for how and when to use block quotations based on number of words or lines.

“a hundred words or more – or at least eight lines – are set off as a block quotation.” (Chicago Manual of Style, 2003, 447)

Whether to use block quotations in a blog entry is really a personal choice. Ultimately, it is the effect of the quotation and how the information is presented to the readers that matters more than any arbitrary rule. When in doubt, develop your own style and maintain that pattern through out all blog posts. This makes reading an article easy to follow and can even make writing them easier.

The Bibliography or Works Cited

At the end of any post include the full reference for each quotation in the appropriate format for the type of work being referenced. References should be listed in alphabetical order, however in shorter blog posts order of inclusion can also be acceptable. This is where things get a little tricky, especially considering the types of objects and information being referenced by most historic bloggers. Following are a few of the most common citations and variations specifically geared to the types of objects and media frequently used in blogs.

Book with one or more authors or editors:
Last name, First name of first author or editor, First Name, Last name of subsequent authors or editors. Year. “Chapter of the Book if used”, Book Title in italics. City of Publication: Name of Publisher. Web link if published electronically.

Article from Magazines, Newspapers or Journals:
Last name, First name of first author, First Name, Last name of subsequent authors. Year. “Title of Article”, Magazine or Journal Title in italics, date of magazine or publication for newspapers, edition number for journals or magazines if available: all pages of the article referenced. Web link if published electronically.

Website:
Last Name, First Name of websites author or Website title or Owner of website. “Title of web page,” Link to site (date accessed, optional).

Painting or image especially those found in an online source:
Last Name, First Name of artist. Title of Art Work in italics, medium, date of piece. (Name of institution where piece is housed, city where housed). Link to where the image was found.

Item in a Museum or Historic Collection especially those from online sources:
I have not been able to find any information on how to document an extant example from a museum collection. The following is a suggested format based on the method used for paintings and other artistic pieces. However, if anyone knows the proper way to cite an extant piece in Chicago style, please let me know and I will update this guide.

Last Name, First Name of artist or creator if available. Title or description of piece in italics, medium, date of piece. (Name of institution where piece is housed, city where housed). Link to where the object was found.

Paper, speech or presentation given at a conference or event:
Last Name, First Name of presenter or speaker. Year presented. “Title of presentation, speech or paper.” Paper presented at the Name of organization or event, City, state presentation was given, Month and date of presentation.

Hints:
** Dictionaries are cited like books with authors or editors.
** Online database, such as The Old Bailey, are best cited as websites, including a link to the database main page.
** Google books are cited like books, with a link to the Google books page.
** Hyperlinks are nice but do not stay with an article if it is copied into another form. To maintain the connection between information and references, it's best to use written citations with links as a bonus.

I hope this quick guide will help other historic bloggers to use proper citations in their entries and encourage the continued sharing of resources, research and references. While not exhaustive, most of the basics have been covered and of course, if anyone wants to read more on proper citations, you can always look up all the references in the works cited.

***
Works cited:

"BibMe: Fast & Easy Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian - Free." BibMe: Fast & Easy Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian - Free. http://www.bibme.org/

Bonnor, Thomas. Junius. Etching, 1770. (Lewis Walpole Library, New Haven, Connecticut). http://images.library.yale.edu/walpoleweb/oneitem.asp?imageId=lwlpr02960

"Purdue OWL: Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition ." Welcome to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/

"The Chicago Manual of Style Online: Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide." The Chicago Manual of Style Online. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

Putting Your Best Foot Forward

2011-04-21T17:41:00.006-05:00

A lot of people have been discussing 18th century shoes recently and I couldn't help but jump into the fun. Following is a little humorous little review of the shoes listed in the Virginia Runaway Advertisements, one of my favorite on-line sources for clothing among the common class in the 18th century. If you have ever wondered how to describe the clothing we wear at reenactments, look no further.

Of 547 listings for “Shoes” in the Virginia Runaway archive

Quantity of Shoes:
A single pair shows up most often, but there are several individuals who needed a spare so they took two pair of shoes (13 people listed between 1768 & 1776 took two pairs), or three pair of shoes (1737 & 1773) and one greedy fellow even took with him 4 pair of shoes (1771)! There was also a man who apparently couldn't decide what kind of footwear he wanted, so he took “both a pair of pumps and a pair of shoes” (1772). Not to mention the man who stole at least 6 pairs of children's shoes.

Gender:
Gender is rarely mentioned when referring to shoes, presumably because men would be wearing and taking men's shoes and vice versa. The few times gender is mentioned however are a “pair of men's shoes” (1738), “country made women's shoes” (1746), “three Pair of Boys Shoes, three Girls ditto” (1755) which was also mentioned above and “two Pair of Women's Shoes” (1771).

Materials:
The majority of shoes mentioned do not list material. However, of the materials that are mentioned, leather is the most common. There are shoes made of “leather” (1738 & 1752), “Leather pumps or shoes” (1739), “the other [pair] red Leather” (1755), shoes of “stiff leather“ (1771), “English made Leather” (1773), “new Leather Shoes, with wooden Heels” (1773), “a pair of leather shoes, with wooden heals” (1775) which were apparently not so new anymore, and a pair of “high-heeled leather shoes” (1776). There were also “Leather-heel'd sharp-toed Shoes” (1752) and just plain “Leather heeled“ (1773) shoes.

Only a few examples of non-leather shoes are listed in the runaway advertisements, which makes sense considering the generally lower class status of the runaways. What good are pretty silk shoes going to do when you are either working, or escaping from your master? There are listings for “one Damask, [and] one Callimanco” (1755), “blue calimanco shoes” (1767), “black calimanco shoes” (1770) and "old black calimanco shoes with plain silver buckles” (1772).

Colors:
Not much is said about the color of shoes worn by runaways. The few listings include a “pair of black shoes” (1768), “country made shoes not blacked “(1771 & 1775) and a pair of “white Shoes” (1774), hopefully not worn after Labor Day.

Closures:
Buckles show up the most often when closures are mentioned. If you couldn't afford buckles or had sold them for gin money though, don't worry! An “old Pair of Shoes tied with Rope Yarn” (1755), “shoes tied with leather strings” (1768 twice), “tied with strings” (1768, 1772 thrice) when leather strings weren't available, will work. There are shoes listed with “strings” (1768, 1775) or “having stings in his shoes” (1769, 1772), tied, or even “to tie” (1771) for those times when you haven't gotten around to actually tying them.

Can You Describe Them?
Are they a Pair of “neat stitched Pumps” (1771), “new or almost new” (1763), good, neat, plain shoes or old, poor, “coarse” (1772) or “coarse store shoes” (1770), only “pretty good” (1752), just “bad shoes” (1776) or worse, “very bad shoes” (1768). They could be a “little worn” (1775), “part worn” (1770), “half worn” (1763) or “pretty much wore” (1767).

Would you call them “thin” (1770) or are they “solid or strong thick, shoes” (1770), with “uncommonly thick soles” (1769)? They could be “handsome square toe'd Shoes” (1738) or “old square-toe'd Shoes” (1739) and not so handsome a year later. They could even be “peaked” (1768) or “half soled” (1772) if that's the way you like them.

Speaking of soles, shoes could be “hobb nailed” (1738), with “hobnails in their shoes” (1775), “nailed round with hob nails” (1769), “nailed all round both heels and soles” (1775) or just “with the heels nailed” (1767). You could have the “Soals (sic.) thick set with Hobnails” (1773) and the “bottoms very broad and nailed” (1771) or they could be just “small old shoes, with nails in the heels” (1774).

Who Made Them & Where?
Negro or “negro made” (1775 twice), Country-made, Common made or just common? “Store shoes” (1770, 1774) “such as are usually sold in Stores” (1772), “stout imported Shoes” (1773), English or English-made, “British made” (1774), “London made” (1775). They could be Virginia, “London Fall Shoes” (1745), “Glasgow coarse made Shoes” (1773), “Scotch Shoes new soled” (1750-1) and later just “Scotch shoes” (1771) once the soles break in a little.

What To Wear With Them?
The majority of folks mentioned wear shoes and stockings, while some unfortunate souls have neither shoes nor stockings, poor fellows. A few people have shoes without stockings but no one is mentioned wearing stockings and without shoes. How logical of them!

What About Bob?
One fellow named Bob (1774), “can make shoes, play on the fiddle and is fond of singing with it”, presumably not all at the same time though, while another fellow by the same name only “pretends to make shoes” (1767). Wonder if it is really the same guy and he got better at making shoes and picked up a hobby in the seven years between the ads?

Say What?
Sometimes you just can' describe them! There is a listing which includes “old shoes, turned pumps” (1775) and another for “either shoes or boots” (1774) in case you like a little more variety in your footwear. The “new black grain dogskin shoes” (1775), should be counted under leather, right? Meanwhile the “stitch down shoes “(1768), “sand shoes with uncommon thick soles” (1769) and “light Pair of Shoes with Straps” (1773), defy my ability to describe them. Suffice it to say, these guys weren't barefoot!

One listing even includes a horse with his “hind shoes feathered” (1774). After all, we wouldn't want to leave our four legged friends out.
***
Works Cited:

Virginia Center for Digital History. “Virginia Runaways,”
http://www2.uvawise.edu/runaways/ (April, 2011).

Shoe, leather, wood and linen thread, 1700. (Victoria and Albert Museum, London). http://collections.vam.ac.uk/

Childrens Shoes, leather, late 18th century. (Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). http://www.metmuseum.org/

Shoe, Silk damask, linen and leather, 1760-1770. (Colonial Williamsburg Collection, Williamsburg). http://www.history.org/History/museums/index.cfm

“By Our First Strange and Fatal Interview.”

2011-03-23T00:05:00.003-05:00

The Widow Black, explaining the finer points of French Coffee in 1751.

This Feburary, while attending Military History Fest 7, I had the honor of being interviewed by my friend Stephen of Living History Podcast fame. It was a lovely chat, covering everything from my goals with the history of the coffeehouse demonstration and first person interaction space, how I hide my hair when in period clothes, the difficulties in doing first person at largely 3rd person events, dealing with kids and of course the perenial question of what defines living history vs. reenacting.

It was an honor to be able to share my thoughts on living history with a wider audience. I hope hearing this will get some of you excited about visiting the coffeehouse during the upcoming season, encourage more people to try first person reenacting or to remain dedicated to their impressions and most of all I hope you all enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed talking!

http://livinghistorypodcast.com/?p=267

A survey call for HELP!

2011-01-19T10:45:00.003-06:00

Passing this information along to my readers & circle of 18th century blogging friends. You all know how much I love quizzes, blogging & historic clothing; having all 3 at once is just too good not to share.

Colonial Williamsburg on March 17-18 will be hosting a Colloquium

A Reconstructed Visitable Past:

Recreated Period Attire at Heritage Sites

DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum

Colonial Williamsburg.

Please see a note from our friend Abby Cox!

For the upcoming symposium on costume interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg this spring, I will be presenting a presentation entitled, "Educating and Constructing over the Internet: The Popularity, Potential, and Perks of Historical Costuming Blogs." which will discuss historical costuming blogs, their relevancy, influence, popularity, and influence on historical costuming and its interpretation. In order to provide valuable and quality information I have created a survey to provide a base foundation of research. This means I need reader & blogger participation, because, ultimately, this paper is about you, the bloggers and the readers. Your answers and opinions are greatly needed and I would really appreciate your participation. Questions are focused on historical costume blogs, sewing & reenacting, museums, some marketing, and your general opinions. The survey is anonymous, but I hope it is understood that I intend on using some comments as a part of my presentation.

Here is the link: http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=HBIIGL_29ff570a

Thank you so much!

Abby Cox

Whip it, Whip it Real Good!

2011-01-16T12:36:00.002-06:00

Or directions for making whipped-rolled gathers, useful in many applications, chiefly fine sewing for ladies & children.

We have already discussed how to make a plain rolled hem. The next step from that simple hem finish, is to use it in-conjunction with another technique to produce fine gathers. These gathers can be found on the ruffles of men's fine shirts but most commonly, as the ruffles on day caps for women & young children.

Photos for this tutorial are coming soon! Had I been thinking ahead I would have taken the step by step photographs while finishing the ruffle on my newest Regency era day cap. I didn't. I am not, however, crazy enough to take it off & do all that work again just for a tutorial! Instead I'm working on another cap which I will will remember to photograph. Good thing I can never have too many caps.

To start, cut the piece you wish to gather. Finish 1 long and both short sides of this strip with a plain rolled hem. For ease, this will be called the "ruffle" for the rest of the tutorial.

Decide where you are going to attach your ruffle. This is happens to be the band of a mid-18th century French day cap.

Finish the hem edge of your attachment piece with another plain rolled hem. This is the piece that will remain flat & un-gathered once the ruffle piece is attached. Alternately you can finish this edge with a very narrow plain hem if the piece won't take a rolled hem neatly.

The next step is to begin whipping & gathering your ruffle piece to fit the attachment piece. This is two step process but time & patience will result in very nice little gathers.

First roll the unfinished edge of the ruffle with your fingers, as if starting yet another plain rolled hem. I know, groan.

However, instead of sewing a straight stitch & whip stitch combination as you would with a plain rolled hem, only sew a whip stitch over the finger rolled edge. I prefer this to go from the outside over to the interior for neatness.

This whip stitch needs to be a little wider than you would normally sew the rolled hem edge. When you have sewn a few whips, pull just enough to gather up the fabric. If your stitches are too closely spaced at this point, the fabric won't gather up & you'll end up with a ruffle-less ruffle. If that's the case, as it was for me the first (few) times I attempted these gathers, just snip off your starting knot, pull out your thread & start over, spacing your stitches a bit further apart, yet still even of course.

Continue down the entire length of your ruffle. Alternatively, if you run out of thread, or your ruffle piece is particularly long, you can separate the piece into sections. Just remember to leave nice long tails on your thread so that later we can adjust the gathering as needed.

Once your ruffle edge has been finished it's time to gather! Finally!

Start by pinning the short finished ends of your ruffle to the ends of your attachment piece or where ever the ruffle is to end. Make sure the finished sides are together.

Pull your loose threads, gathering up the ruffle until it fits the size of your un-gathered attachment piece. Adjust the gathers back & forth to make sure they are neatly balanced and not all concentrated at one end or the other. This is where using several threads can help on large pieces, making the adjustment of the gatherings easier to well, adjust. Pin like crazy.

The final step is to actually attach the ruffle to the attachment piece. To do this you simply whip stitch over every single one of those gathers, in the same places where you whip stitched over to create the gathers in the first place. I have found it easier to stitch with the gathered side facing me, that way I can easily get the needle between each of those gathers.

Crack open a beer, you're finished! No more rolled hems & endless whipped stitches on top of whipped stitches. Open out the two pieces, tugging slightly so that they lay flat & marvel at your handiwork. Vow to stick with pleats after all.

Never hold anyone by the button, or the hand, in order to be heard out.

2010-11-16T16:55:00.003-06:00

To keep myself busy while sitting in the seemingly endless hours of lecture each week, I have been working buttons. lots and lots of buttons!

Perfect for the cuffs and collar of your finest linen shirts or shifts, these solid thread buttons are sturdy yet never uncomfortably hard. As a bonus, they don't break, rust or wear away the sewing threads during the harsh laundry treatment 18th century underclothes frequently under go.

Fear not for the future, weep not for the past

2010-10-14T18:32:00.045-05:00

It has been a quiet year in the coffeehouse. My busy educational schedule limited travel severely however we were still able to attend a few of my favorite events and share the coffeehouse demonstration with public all over the Midwest. In an effort to conserve journal space while still keeping everyone up to date with the past year of events, here is one, all be it long, entry for 2010.

~~~

The spring events persisted in their cold & windy way. Despite the warmth of a constant fire and layers of sturdy wool, the chill was hard to avoid. Being the hearty souls that we are however, we continued on our merry way, sipping at hot chocolate to keep our spirits & stomachs warm.

Bloody Lake Rendezvous

Bloody Lake and The Gathering at Macktown traded weekends this year and to be honest, this sent most of our early reenacting season out of whack. Macktown is a mere 5 minutes from my home, the perfect distance for the season opener, especially for all those little things that you have either forgotten to pack after being off for 4 months, or that you've forgotten to replenish over the winter. Still the weather was acceptable for spring in the Midwest, cool at night, sunny and warmer during the day and the company top notch. No amount of sun however, could fix L's sour mood.

Miss L demonstrates "melancholy" while the widow Black shows the proper use of the lap grinder.

The Gathering at Macktown

Cold, rainy, terrible weather means it must be the weekend for the Gathering at Macktown. School day was canceled due to the weather, which was especially frustrating for me, as I had rescheduled an exam that day in order to participate. I toughed it out for the remainder of the weekend, thankful for a warm fire and the constant cup of hot tea at my side.

The widow isn't angry, she's just very, very cold!

~~~

In stark contrast to the spring events, our summer season was miserably hot and humid. Still we soldiered on, and in the mean time found new and interesting ways to keep cool despite the weather.

Grand Encampment V

The coffeehouse wasn't in attendance at the Grand Encampment, however both L & I did our best to aid in the naval support offered to the British by the Great Lakes River Pirates. Sadly this weekend found us both suffering from a recurrent bought with consumption. It was very fortunate that I wasn't presenting for the weekend, as in addition to the frequent coughing fits, I found my voice nearly gone.

Quarter Master B & the widow Black enjoying well deserved sustenance while Lob tastes a newly imported blend of tea.

Pike River Rendezvous

Pike River saw the debut of First Person Interpretation Day at the coffeehouse. This was a nerve wrecking experience for many of us, since first person interpretation is so rare in the mid-western rendezvous circuit. However, armed with a little preparation, a list of 25 period terms and the support of our entire crew the day was a smashing success. In fact, it was such a success that I continued the practice for the remainder of the 2010 season.

Young D makes a great indentured servant while Lt. G has a blast at first person interpreting.

L keeps a weather eye on the horizon, and on the caffine deprived horde about to decend on the coffeehouse.

Pirates of Paynetown

Incredibly hot does not begin to describe the weekend at Paynetown. Thankfully there was a ready source of water to be had, once the public had abandoned it of course. The most memorable moment of the weekend was during the defense of the town when a well timed cannon volley ended in the opening up of the heavens and a sudden summer downpour. Of course I too enjoyed the weekend, there is nothing quite like a Regency lady of leisure defending her town.

From mild mannered proprietress to defending the town, in no time flat. Take that Miss Elizabeth Bennett!

L practicing her penmanship while the adults take a cool evening paddle in the lake.

~~~

Proving again that the weather can never be predicted, our fall events were simply lovely. Warm sunny days followed by cool, clear nights with just the right amount of chill to make snuggling under a warm wool blanket enjoyable. It just goes to show that just because you expect the worst, doesn't mean that you will get it.

Mississinewa 1812

Mississinewa is a lovely event, made even more so by the spectacular view. This year the coffeehouse was situated at the crossroads at the front corner of the north pirate camp. Despite the some what questionable neighborhood, I can assure you that we continued to up hold the honest business practices we always have at the coffeehouse! Well until the sun went down, and then it was cards, dice & debauchery but I believe we have paid off enough members of the militias on either side for such behavior to be over looked, at least this time.

Roasting all day in the fall sun, with a beautiful view for company.

Hard work on the river, deserves a hearty dinner at the coffeehouse.

Trail of History

The coffee house debuted at Trail of History this year, and even brought home a Booshway award for best new presentation. I also had the pleasure of being interviewed for an upcoming documentary on first person interpretation. On top of the busy demonstration for school day and the public it was a very successful first year. I look forward to next season and establishing the coffeehouse as the place to visit while at the event for both the public and the other participants.

The widow snuggles baby J while the oxen are hard at work on the kames.

The ONW Colonial Ball

The reenacting season ends as it always does, with the Colonial Ball. This year I was fortunate enough to be escorted by Mr. C. He was a little trepidatious over the idea of a "ball" but was gracious enough to humor me and dance each and every dance though out the night. I was even able to dance my all time favorite, a variation of Nonesuch in the round for as many as will. This dance has been at the top of my list for the last 4 years, it is the entire reason I look forward to the ball as much as I do!

Mr. C and the widow take brief rest between songs.

Until 2011, I'll keep the coffee hot for you...

~~~
photos © K. Garland, J. Legg-Bagley, M. Kehoe, N. Garrett & J.... (thanks everyone!)

A just war is in the long run far better for a man's soul than the most prosperous peace

2010-10-01T13:29:00.012-05:00

Once a year I pack up my things and travel far from my usual 18th century persona, to enjoy a weekend in the near past, at the WWII reenactment at Midway Village in Rockford.

This year I was honored to be included as a guest of Herr D at the 2nd Panzer Division reenactment groups 20th anniversary. I even got a ride to the hall in the side car of one of the wonderful motorbikes! It is amazing to be surrounded by a group that has been demonstrating living history successfully for so many years. Not only was the authentic German dinner sehr gut, but the speeches given by the group members were facinating. I especially enjoyed the comments by the former member of the real 2nd Panzer division. Listening to someone who actually experienced what we are trying to recreate is unique for me. I am so used to the silent history of the 18th century, that contact with real *living* history is moving to say the least.

I also learned that I speak & understand a lot more German that I ever realized. Once the wheels started moving the language started flowing. Of course Ein paar beir never hurts!

As usual, my innocent trip to the café on Saturday was interrupted by a unit of German's, searching for French partisans. Luckily K & I had enough paperwork to keep them from bothering us for more than a cursory few moments. I can't say as much for one gentleman however who seemed to cause more trouble the more he spoke. Luckily for us a contingent of Russian snippers took advantage of the German's distraction while dealing with us and used the opportunity to open fire. K & I fled to the back of the building with the French girl who worked in the café and didn't return until everything had settled!

That evening, following the 2nd Panzer's dinner, I found myself at the annual hanger dance. While this is usually an enjoyable evening of drinking and dancing there was something different this time. Come to find out many of the other dancers were not reenactors, but members of the Rockford swing dance scene (Forest City Swing I believe). While it was nice to have experienced dancers on the floor, it also seemed to discourage those that didn't know how to dance. In the past I have never had a problem finding a partner, from those who are almost standing on your toes the entire song, to those that put Fred Astaire to shame and everyone in between. This year, well, I kept hearing "I don't know how". I couldn't help but wonder if the "swing kids" had toned down their fancy moves a bit, or even offered to dance with other people besides their equally experienced dance friends, if it wouldn't have been more inviting to the less experienced. Needless to say though, I did get in a few good turns on the floor, re-learned the foxtrot & picked up a little number called the Cotton Eyed Joe.

On Sunday L decided that the lure of tanks and large scale artillery was too much & she wanted to attend as well. She had such a good time, drinking soda, oohing & ahhing over machinery and watching the large battle, that she determined to attend on Saturday & Sunday next year. She was especially disappointed in missing many of the more elaborate foxhole creations. She didn't even mind my requirement that she dress in period clothes. Believe it or not, she went so far as to say that her 1940's dress was something she would "wear in daily life too". Looks like might have a WW2 reenactor on my hands!

Play Ball Before the Ball

2010-09-21T10:36:00.004-05:00

The newest event planned for the C. Black Coffeehouse, a period correct Trap-ball game at Mississinewa 1812. Everyone is invited to join the fun! Give the ball a few good whacks, play in the outfield or come to cheer on your friends and enjoy the period correct fun.

Saturday October 9
4-5 PM
the green by C. Black's Coffeehouse

We will finish in time for everyone to have dinner & dress for the "other" ball!

The Coffeehouse is located at the North end of camp, adjacent to the Great Lakes River Pirates camp.

"“There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out."

2010-09-16T12:14:00.005-05:00

As many of you who follow this blog, or have at the chance to talk to me in person, may know, my particular bailiwick is the social history of women during the 18th century. I am also a lover of primary source research. What you might not know however is that I have a particular fondness for reading through old laws & statutes. I find a certain satisfaction in not only being able to say "here's how they did it" but in also being able to back that up with "because here's the law that says so."

For the past several years I have searched for one, very specific piece of information. Sometimes vigorously, sometimes half heartedly, yet I was always looking. I knew it was out there. I even knew the dates & location it was coming from, but I was never able to actually find what I wanted.

Wouldn't you know I found it the one time that I wasn't actively looking!

What exactly is this mythical "thing" that I've spent nearly 3 years hunting you might ask?

The 1717 Pennsylvania Act Concerning Feme Sole Traders (!)

The full text of the statute is included in The Legislative Reference Bureau of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's on-line archive which includes laws dating back to the beginning of Pennsylvania in 1682.

I can not even begin to express my excitement at finding this document. It's the perfect "final piece" to all the research I've gathered on feme sole traders in the era.

Hopefully at least some of you, my faithful blog readers & fellow history fanatics, will appreciate my joy!

***
works cited:

Sansom, Joseph. Silhouette of Mary Pleasants. c. 1800. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA.

An Act of February 22, 1717-18 (3 St.l. 157-59, Ch.227). "Pennsylvania Session Laws, Introduction to Statutes at Large." Pennsylvania Session Laws Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. http://www.palrb.us/stlarge/index.php.

You Will Never Be Alone with a Poet in Your Pocket

2010-07-26T20:38:00.000-05:00

or sewing a single welt pocket on a Regency era waistcoat.

(extant wool waistcoat, early 19th C., Museum of Fine Arts Boston)

Welt pockets are the square edged, flap-less pockets frequently found on very late 18th & 19th century man's clothes. They are especially popular on waistcoats or breeches and are sometimes referred to as "watch pockets" because, well, men kept their pocket watches in them! If you have never sewn an inset pocket before, much of the construction might seem counter intuitive. However, in the end, all those seemingly backwards steps will come together. Welt pockets may look complex, but they are really just a slight variation on regular pocket construction. This makes them a perfect addition to your period sewing skills & a great way to challenge yourself.

1. Start by marking your pocket opening on the outside of your jacket. The opening in this example measures 5 inches in length, ½ inch in height. If you are following a pattern with suggested pocket measurements, follow those. Otherwise, I usually just wing it!

2. Mark a line down the center of the pocket length and extend all your corner marks. This will make seeing them, and lining everything up, much easier in the next few steps. I also like to mark the vertical center of the pocket, which makes lining up the welt & interior pocket pouches nice & consistent.

3. Make your welt (the little flap). Cut a piece of fabric as long as your pocket opening plus seam allowance and 2 ½ times the height. This welt measures 6 inches by 2 inches tall. I like to round my measurements up because it makes the math easier. Plus, I already had a scrap close to those dimensions.

4. Fold your welt in half lengthwise, wrong side out and sew both short ends together along the seam allowance. The space between both seams should match the length of your pocket opening EXACTLY! This is very important so take the time to measure carefully and adjust your seam allowances if needed. If the welt it too short or too long it will not fit the opening properly & you will find yourself frustrated.

5. Trim the welt seam allowances if needed & flip it right side out. Use a point turner or pencil to make the corners nice & crisp. Press.

6. Lay the welt piece with the raw edge aligned with the center mark on your pocket opening, folded edge facing down. Pin in place. Sew the welt to your waistcoat. Your line of stitching should follow the bottom line of the pocket opening marks which you made in step 1. Again, this is an important step in making a well constructed welt pocket, so take your time. Mark the straight line if that helps your stitching stay consistent.

7. Cut two pocket pouch pieces the width of your pocket opening, plus seam allowance. To determine the pouch length, measure from the pocket opening center line to where you want the pocket to end. Cut one pocket pouch to this length. Cut the other pocket pouch the same length, plus two times the height of the pocket opening. This will account for both seam allowances and folding it down to form the back of the pocket pouch. When in doubt, I cut pocket pouches longer than necessary & trim them to length before sewing them shut.

8. Place the longer of the two pocket pouches facing upwards, with one short edge aligned with the pocket opening center line. Place the other pocket pouch facing downwards, on top of the welt, also with one short edge aligned with the pocket opening center line.

9. Sew the pocket pouches in place. Make sure your stitching is straight & aligned with the top & bottom lines of the pocket opening. This is where extending those marks out helps, you can still see the placement even with pieces over the actual pocket opening. Don't worry, you are supposed to be sewing over the welt stitching when securing the bottom pocket pouch.

10. This is the trickiest, most delicate part of the entire pocket construction. Fold back all the fabric from the pocket opening. With small, sharp scissors, cut along the pocket opening center line. Stop approximately ¼ inch from the end. Create a “V” shaped cut from the center line to the very corner. Repeat from the center line to the other corner, making your entire cut line look like a large “Y”. This allows the pocket opening to turn & lay open without tearing. Repeat on the other end of the pocket opening center line.

11. Now my favorite part, stuffing everything to the inside! Tuck the pocket pouches in through the pocket opening. Turn the welt so it is standing up on the outside, with the seam allowance on the inside. Press, press & press some more.

12. Blind stitch the short sides of the welt to the edges of the pocket opening. A blind stitch consists of a little stitch in one edge and a little stitch in the other with a straight line of thread between the two points. When pulled snuggly, the thread disappears leaving your two pieces "magically" sewn together.

13. Sew the pocket pouches shut. Trim the final pouch length if needed to fit your jacket. Pay special attention to sewing right up next to the pocket opening.

14. Find something to put in your nicely finished welt pocket!

(hey, it works!)

An Echo of the Past in the Future

2010-07-14T11:43:00.005-05:00

The Widow Black Requests Your Presence for the inaugural

First Person Interpretation Day
Saturday August 7th, 2010 at the C. Black Coffeehouse
during the Pike River Rendezvous

All interaction within the coffeehouse will take place in character during the year 1813. All eras and personas are welcome to attend & encouraged to participate. Games, newspapers, music & refreshments will be provided for your enjoyment.

This is a unique opportunity for everyone interested in living history to experience first person interpretation with the support of like minded reenactors.

I know that this is a new experience for most of us. Hopefully, we will each be able to support each other in this first person experience and the interactions will become natural over the course of the day. Everyone will have varying degrees of comfort with first person so don't feel that you are alone if it takes you a while to get comfortable. The important thing to remember is not to ruin those around you and to have FUN!

I look forward to seeing many of you there!

“And the Spring comes slowly up this way.”

2010-05-14T12:23:00.001-05:00

Things have been busy in my life recently, and while I have gotten a lot done in the past 4 months, sadly little of it has been reenacting oriented. Still, a few small projects always seem to creep in.

First was a very special project for a very special little girl. Unfortunately until she decides to join us the details will have to wait. Aren't I the worst kind of tease?

Second was the long awaited project of re-sizing one of L's linen gowns. A few years ago, when I had the time and the fabric to do so, I made L an "extra" gown. I sized it up from the blue wool gown she was just beginning to fit into with the intent that she would grow into the new gown, as kids tend to do. Unfortunately, I didn't take into account the way my child grows! I enlarged the gown in the length but also in the width. 2 years later and she still hadn't filled out in that width, although the length is now almost not enough. Just this past week I finally sat down & took out the excess size from the bodice, re-pleated & re-attached the skirt & added ties to the back. Now not only is there one less UFO* in my sewing room but L also has a second 18th C gown. Come summer when she returns to camp coated in mud, soaking wet & complaining, she will have something fresh to wear!

The third project on my list was a silk bonnet for L. She has light sensitivity & in modern life usually wears a baseball cap or sunglasses to shade her eyes while out of doors. In reenacting life neither of these was a viable solution. However, a brimmed bonnet is. On our trip to Minnesota last November L got to choose any fabric that she wanted from the silk department at SR Harris. She choose a very dark, almost black, navy blue silk taffeta. I decided to use the Kanniks Korner pattern for her bonnet strictly as a size guide. The instructions, well, anyone who's read this blog before knows that instructions are the first thing that I ignore. I did want this bonnet to be large enough that L could continue to wear it as she grows into adult sizes. I decided to use 2 layers of buckram & inexpensive floral wire in the brim to support the shape. The brim is also lightly lined with some scrap of dark blue wool. Unfortunately L has yet to wear the bonnet for more than a moment while fitting. What's a hard working mother to do? Why borrow the bonnet for herself of course!

The final project on my list has been the reorganization of all my research materials. When I first started reenacting I kept all my book lists and notes in a simple spiral notebook. However, this method hasn't worked out in the long run, especially as I collect more & more images to go along with my readings. Then when you add in the number of journal articles and books that are now available as digital copies through Google Books and EBSCO, my old fashioned notebook just wasn't enough. Over the past month I've gone through everything, sorted into relevant eras and specific categories, deleted any duplicates, double checked that every image has a date, author or at least location attached to it, made a database of all the books & articles I have read and those that I still need to read and best of all, loaded this wonderfully organized collection onto one flash drive. Now when ever I need anything, it is right there at my finger tips. What will I do with all this easy to find information? That, my friends, is another long term project that you all will have to wait & see!

*A UFO in sewing lingo is an "Unfinished Object" ie those projects that are half finished & waiting for the right time to be done.

Run like the Devil from the Excise Man

2010-04-10T21:45:00.004-05:00

The latest addition to the C. Black Coffeehouse demonstration is this fine journal, hand made by Mr. P McClintock, the stationer. It will soon house 2 years worth of research on taxation & laws concerning the business of an 18th century coffeehouse, as well as the detailed accounts needed for the proper reporting of said business.

In preparation for this ledger, over the past 18 months I've been keeping waste-books, the preliminary stage in the so called "Italian style" of bookkeeping popular during the mid-18th Century. I've steadily been writing down various the "transactions" at events; who took so much coffee on Sunday, who I purchased ribbon from in exchange for a cup of tea, who promised to pay for that 1/4 pound of coffee and those newspapers, who owes so much in gambling &c. Now all that remains is translating the information into the new ledger, which I'm sure will require many more trips to my bookshelves to check that I'm following the proper format. While not necessarily difficult, I do find the act of bookkeeping to be daunting. So many steps, so many things to remember & above all, it has to be organized well for fear the King's Man might find something questionable!

Remembering the Regency

2010-03-27T01:02:00.002-05:00

This gown from Vintage Textiles is another classic example of the clothes worn by girls during the Regency era. It is surprisingly like those gowns I used as reference for L's "Jane Austen in Miniature" gown, the notable acceptation being the pointed details & the way the back ties but doesn't gather down to fit the growing child.

I'm especially curious about the buttons on either shoulder. What could they be for, are they pure decoration, a way of attaching something? Inquiring minds want to know!

clipped from www.vintagetextile.com

Cotton roller print child's dress, c.1810-1820

The cotton dress is roller printed with alternating stripes of brown and blue leaf patterns. The sleeves
and hem are edged with Van Dyke points of plain ivory cotton. This is an enormous amount of work since everything
was sewn by hand.

The fullness of the Empire bodice can be adjusted with the cords inserted into casings. The dress has back
sash ties. Everything is completely hand stitched. This dress from a Vermont estate could be American or
English.

Letters Are Never Worth Going Through the Rain For

2010-03-06T15:02:00.004-06:00

I have vowed to spend the next few days of my spring vacation attempting to catch up with all the small projects which fell by the wayside these past months. Up first was a long awaited letter to the Doctor. Our correspondence has been enjoyable thus far and I would not want to be the one to let the letters drop. Plus, he's never once complained about my atrocious handwriting or spelling which is enough to send lesser men fleeing in terror!

A life well spent brings happy death.

2010-02-22T15:23:00.010-06:00

On cold, snowy days like today I frequently find myself enjoying one of my favorite pastimes; research.

Most recently I have been browsing the Farber Gravestone Collection, a fascinating database of nearly 9,000 gravestone images. What is even more interesting is that the majority of the database is of graves prior to 1800. Talk about an amazing resource!

Whether you're a genealogist looking for specific family names, a historian interested by the dates on the stones, an artists looking for inspiration or simply have a morbid fascination with graves there is sure to be something of interest within this amazing collection.

***
Works Cited:

Farber Gravestone Collection American Antiquarian Society. http://luna.davidrumsey.com:8280/luna/servlet/FBC~100~1 .

"A day well spent brings happy sleep, A life well spent brings happy death." Leonardo da Vinci. 1452-1519.

Any Road Will Get You There.

2009-12-26T21:18:00.023-06:00

While looking through old photos this evening I discovered that I have not yet properly shared the photos of my 1943 outfit, constructed for the Midway Village World War II event this past September.

The dress is made from the above Simplicity pattern. I had the luck to pick this up earlier in the spring for only a few dollars. Very little alteration was needed from the patterns original sizing. Although future incarnations will likely have slightly larger, and more "dance-able" skirts. The entire outfit was constructed from stash material. The green & white are a linen-cotton blend that I collect for last minute clothing projects while the black rick-rack & cloth covered buttons were found my great-grandmother's vintage stash which I inherited last winter.

The dress is entirely constructed by machine, save attaching the buttons. I used a combination of sewing techniques from the Singer Illustrated Dressmaking Guide, copy-write 1941. This book is a great way to learn more traditional dress making techniques and maximize what can be done with just a straight & zig-zag stitch on your machine. All interior seams for the dress are overcast with a zig-zag stitch, the front buttonholes are functional as well as the "regulation placket" along the left side. I am especially pleased with the side placket, since I've never done one before this project. Typically if the front buttons, I will eliminate the placket out of laziness. This time I took the time to do it as historically as possible and get the perfect fit, which the placket emphasizes.

The matching bag was inspired by the second, unknown pattern. The design is just a double layered drawstring bag, the same design I use to make all my random pouches & gift bags. It was only natural that I also use it for this period outfit as well. The bag is constructed from dress scraps with a twisted cord, again from my great-grandmothers collection, as both the opener & shoulder strap. It is just big enough for all my important information including those much needed "papers"!

I accessorized with a while cotton snood; custom made by Arthelia's Attic on Etsy, vintage 1940's shoes; which hurt my feet but look too cute not to wear and the requisite white cardigan & bobby socks. The wonderful vintage suitcase was purchased at the event from one of the sutlers for a mere $15. It is now the home to all my 1940's clothing and accessories, with plenty of room for more!

For the photographs my trusty photographer A & I headed to our home town outside of Chicago. The intention was to take photos at the semi-vintage train depot in town. 35 degree weather, fog & sporadic rain derailed that plan, no pun intended. Instead we set up shop in front of my mother's vintage 1920's office building where I pretended to hail every car passing on the street.

The Gingerbread Man

2009-12-12T01:16:00.007-06:00

"I'm a gingerbread merchant, but what of that there,
All the world, take my word, deal in gingerbread ware."

Eighteenth century gingerbread cakes, although the name is a bit deceiving, are very similar to the gingerbread cookies so many of us will indulge in this holiday season. The chief differences between the modern & historic versions include the use of treacle, baking soda and the final shaping of the cookie. However, the differences are so slight that they should not deter the amateur historian from attempting these tempting treats.

Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language from 1768 defines gingerbread as a “farinaceous fweetmeat made of dough, like that of bread or bifcuit.” His colleague, Francis Grosse defines it in the 1788 publishing of A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue as, “A cake made of treacle, flour, and grated ginger”. From these definitions it is clear that gingerbread cakes are actually a cookie with a floury texture, sweetened with the foam created during the processing of sugar, highly spiced with ginger. Molasses, although also part of the sugar refining process and frequently used in modern gingerbread, is not the same as treacle. It is interesting to note that not every recipe surveyed uses treacle; the trend later in the decade leans toward sugar, specifically brown sugar, and molasses so that by the 1814 publishing of Maria Rundell’s A New System of Domestic Cookery not one of the four different recipes for gingerbread include treacle as an ingredient.

Modern bakers rely on baking soda and other chemical leaveners to create lighter textured in their baked goods. In the 18th century, some 50 years before the first commercially packaged baking soda, the main choice of chemical leavener would have been potassium carbonate, commonly known as pearl-ash. None of the surveyed recipes include this leavener, suggesting that period gingerbread was a rather dense, unleavened cake. Period cooks further encouraged the density of the cakes by circumventing the meager expanding power of the included butter. Elizabeth Cleland’s recipe from A New and Easy Method of Cookery suggests that cooks “prick them with a Fork” before baking. Such docking prevents the baked goods from rising by providing release points for the build up of internal steam. The resulting density of the cakes alone does not though suggest that they were ideal for long term storage since many recipes still included butter which can compromise the storage potential of goods, even after baking.

To the modern mind, gingerbread conjures up thoughts of elaborate cookie houses, decorated with sugared icing and tiny candies, inhabited by little gingerbread men. The 18th century gingerbread man bore little resemblance to his modern counterpart. Instead of a cut-out, he would have more likely been pressed or printed, the stiff dough rolled & pressed against a carved wooden mold to produce a relief image. Thanks to the lack of leavener, the resulting image would stay crisp and clear even after baking. A more common period option for shaping the cookies is to take John Farley’s advice and “make them up into thin cakes”. These cakes were most likely round in shape, cut out “with a tea-cup, or fmall glafs” or rolled “round like nuts” as both John Farley & Hannah Glasse suggest in their respective books. In her extensive collection of gingerbread recipes Maria Rundell adds, “Of some, drops may be made”. There is even a recipe specifically for so called gingerbread nuts in the 1807 version of The Complete Confectioner. The trend of calling them gingerbread nuts rather than cakes not only references their shape, but further suggests just how dense the resulting cookies were.

Since historic and modern gingerbreads are so similar in both ingredients and cooking method, it is easy to substitute a favorite modern recipe and enjoy these treats at all your period holiday gatherings. However, for those of an adventurous nature, it is just as easy to directly follow a historic recipe; in fact gingerbread might be one of the best first historic recipes simply because it is so similar. Plus, if they turn out poorly, you can always package them up & give them as a gift to another reenactor friend who might not enjoy the taste, but will certainly appreciate the attempt.

~~~

Works Cited:
Cleland, Elizabeth. 1755. A New and Easy Method of Cookery: Treating, I. Of gravies, Soups, Broths, &c. II. Of Fish, and Their Sauces. III. To Pot and Make Hams, &c. IV. Of Pies, Pasties, &c. V. Of Pickling and Preserving. VI. Of Made Wines, Distilling and Brewing, &c. W. Gordon.

Farley, John. 1787. The London Art of Cookery, and Housekeeper's Complete Assistant.

Glasse, Hannah. 1774. The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy: Which Far Exceeds Any thing of the Kind Yet Published. W. Strahan, J. and F. Rivington, J. Hinton.

Grose, Francis. 1788. A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. S. Hooper

"Hot Ginger-bread, Smoking Hot". John Johnson Collection. Bodleian Library. University of Oxford.

Johnson, Samuel. 1768. A Dictionary of the English Language. W. G. Jones.

Nutt, Frederick. 1807. The Complete Confectioner: or, The Whole Art of Confectionary Made Easy: Containing, Among a Variety of Useful Matter, the Art of Making the Various Kinds of Biscuits, Drops &c. as Also The Most Approved Method of Making Cheeses, Puddings, Cakes &c. in 250 Cheap and Fashionable Receipts. Richard Scott.

Rundell, Maria Eliza Ketelby. 1814. A New System of Domestic Cookery: Formed Upon Principles of Economy: and Adapted to the Use of Private Families Throughout the United States. R. M'Dermut & D. D. Arden

Wilson, Charles Henry. 1803. The Myrtle and Vine: or, Complete Vocal Library, Containing Several Thousands of Plaintive, Sentimental, Humorous & Bacchanalian Songs, Collected From the Muses of England, Ireland & Scotland. T. Dean.

Yes, she may forgetful be, Yet will I remember thee

2009-10-07T23:22:00.000-05:00

Belated Event Reviews

I find myself with little to say about the events of the past 2 months. They were what they were, as far as historical events go. Much like all the previous years of attendance at these events. Coffee was made & drunk, battles were staged, powder burned, boats sailed. Fires were kept hot for days at a time, songs sung around them at night, more coffee roasted & brewed over them during the day. Tents were set up and struck in short order only to be repeated again days later & several hundred miles away.

For now I leave you with a simple, wordless view of the last several events for the C Black Coffeehouse 2009 season.

Pike River Rendezvous

Pirates of Paynetown

Heritage Days Rendezvous

Mississinewa 1812

To Make Macaroons

2009-08-20T12:57:00.000-05:00

The Saturday night potluck at events seems to be a growing trend. While I am sure for many these meals provide not only an opportunity to demonstrate period cooking to the public, but a much needed fill up after a long day of activities and an excuse to socialize with your neighboring camps, they are more stressful than enjoyable for me. I generally find myself with no time to prepare even basic foods for myself or L, much less time to prepare something for a shared meal. Plus, I have never been very good at knowing what to bring to a potluck, add keeping things historically accurate and I find myself completely lost. For the past year The Pie and it's variations has been my Saturday potluck friend and frankly, I'm tired of pies.

Please welcome my new potluck savior, the macaroon.

To make Macaroons New England Manner- TAKE half a pound of almonds and as much double refined fugar beat and fifted lay the almonds in water all night blanch and dry them well in a cloth beat them in a mortar with a little rofe water take the whites of two eggs beat to a froth and fift the fugar into the eggs put in the almonds and drop them upon wafer duft them over with fugar.

In the interest of time, and sheer laziness, I followed a modern recipe with the following modifications suggested by the highly skilled Boulanger: lower the cooking temperature to between 325'-350', and bake for about 20 minutes. Further, the macaroons will have a more distinct puff, and not spread Willy nilly all over the baking sheet, if the batter is allowed to sit for 30 minutes prior to baking. I substituted orange extract for the original rose water, which gave the cookies a nice fragrance without overwhelming them.

I'm pleased to announce that not only were these easy to make, but they traveled extremely well and even remained crispy and delicious after sitting out all night!

~~~
works cited:

Charlotte Mason, The lady's assistant for regulating and supplying her table, 1777, p. 377

The Seige of Fort Wayne

2009-07-16T16:04:00.026-05:00

Friday last, the forces of the Great Lakes River Pirates, under the guidance of Lt.'s Garland & Lith, gathered at the confluence of the St. Joseph, St. Marys, and Maumee Rivers for a planned raid on Fort Wayne, situated there. Previous visits to this fort proved quite profitable, the location being well provisioned yet poorly manned. Thus we have come to depend on this raid to provide needed supplies for our continued summer travels.

The forces of the fort, forewarned of our presence or perhaps remembering the slaughter from our last visit, were more prepared for our advances than in the past. Two days of unsuccessful attempts left us unable to break the artillery line and gain access to the fort itself. Wounded, demoralized and low on basic sustanance, we will have to push north with urgency now, ever more anxious for the yearly gathering of our full forces in early August.

The good Lt. Lith, having taken much to drink and gambling at Black's Coffeehouse on Saturday night, attempted to alter the outcome of a dice game, instead found himself engaged in a duel the following morning. His opponent, being an upstanding military man, insisted on following proper protocol for satisfaction, although it seems he was not as forthright as one would have believed. During the loading of the dueling pistols, Lt. Lith's weapon was falsely charged, as a result when the two gentlemen turned to fire it was only his opponent's weapon which discharged, leaving Lt. Lith mortally wounded. Rather than risk further losses to our crew, we hauled anchor after said duel and left the cursed fort in swift manner, hoping for the less hostile territories to the north-west and fair winds as we journey to the Big Lake.

Photos © K. Garland 2009

Jane Austen in Miniature

2009-06-16T22:55:00.010-05:00

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

2009-05-26T12:27:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-05T17:00:00.006-05:00

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

2009-03-29T23:04:00.011-05:00

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.

2009-03-21T12:58:00.012-05:00

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

2009-03-19T12:41:00.005-05:00

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

2009-03-17T12:13:00.010-05:00

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!

A Malignant Sore Throat is a Danger; a Malignant Throat not Sore, is Worse.

2009-03-02T12:28:00.008-06:00

Late winter is sore throat season here in the upper Midwest. For the obsessed reenactor, a sore throat isn't a drawback, but another excuse to try 18th century receipts. To begin treating our sore throats in the more period correct manner we have many choices. They don't all include toxic chemicals either, a particular bonus if we don't want to die in a period correct manner as well!

E. Smith in the 1739 issue of The Compleat Housewife or, Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion suggests both a stay and a plaster for sore throats. Both of these are very similar to the home remedy that my own mother used: a warm wash cloth safety pinned around a painful throat.

Stay to prevent a fore Throat in the Small Pox. Take rue, fhred it very fine, and give it a bruife, mix with it honey and album-greacum, and work it together; put it over the fire to heat, few it up in a linen stay, and apply it to the throat pretty warm; as it dries, repeat it.

(P. 90)

For a fore Throat. Take a plaifter of Paracelfus four inches broad, and fo long as to come from ear to ear, and apply it warm to the throat; then bruife houfleek, and prefs out the juice; add an equal quantity of honey, and a little burnt alum; mix all together, and let the party often take fome on a liquorice ftick.

(p. 3)

In his 1764 The General Practice of Physic Extracted Chiefly from the Writings of the Most Celebrated Practical Physicians, Richard Brookes suggests the use of black currant for so called "inflammatory distempers of the throat". Even a simple sore throat sounds better when said in 18th century English. Black currant lozenges & teas are commonly used today as natural remedies for throat complaints, proof that our home remedies haven't changed much even in 200 years.

In the Philosophical Tranfations, the Jelly of Black Currants, fwallowed down leifurely in fmall Quantities, is afferted to be a Specific for a quinfcy; and in the Winter, a Decoction of the Leaves or Bark in Milk, when the Jelly cannot be had, ufed as a Gargle, is faid to cure all inflammatory Diftempers of the Throat

(p. 174)

Popular cookbook authoress Hannah Glasse agrees with Mr. Brookes, offering a receipt for black current jelly in The Complete Confectioner, Or, Housekeeper's Guide to a Simple and Speedy Method of Understanding the Whole Art of Confectionary. She goes so far as to specifically mention the jelly is only used for the treatment of sore throats.

To make Black Currant Jelly. Make it the same way as the red currant jelly, only with this difference, make it with the coarsest lump sugar. Note.-- This jelly is never used in a dessert, but is a very good thing for a sore throat.

(p. 90)

The Complete Confectioner offers several options for making currant jelly, both white & unspecified in color. The easiest involves creating a simple juice from the berries & preceding with a standard jelly process. Either hartshorn or isinglass, available from Deborah Peterson's Pantry, could be used when duplicating this soothing jelly or modern unflavored gelatin may be substituted.

To make Currant Jelly. Wash your currants well, put them into a pan and mash them, then put in a little water, boil them to a mummy, strew it on a sieve, and press out all the juice of which make your jelly.

(p. 89)

If the preceding wasn't enough, Francis Penrose offers an entire book on the subject. A Dissertation on the Inflammatory, Gangrenous, and Putrid Sore Throat: Also on the Putrid Fever, Together with Their Diagnosticks and Method of Cure, published in 1766, promises to answer just about every possible question regarding the throat, at least from an 18th century physicians perspective.

Here's to our health!

~~~
Works Cited:

Longhi, Pietro. The Apothecary. 1752. Oil on canvas. Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.

Smith, E. 1739. The Compleat Housewife: or, Accomplished gentlewoman's companion. J. and J. Pemberton.

Brookes, Richard. 1765. The General Practice of Physic: Extracted Chiefly from the Writings of the Most Celebrated Practical Physicians. J. Newbery.

Glasse, Hannah and Maria Wilson. 1800. The Complete Confectioner, Or, Housekeeper's Guide to a Simple and Speedy Method of Understanding the Whole Art of Confectionary. J. W. Meyers, for West and Hughes.

Penrose, Francis. 1766 A Dissertation on the Inflammatory, Gangrenous, and Putrid Sore Throat: Also on the Putrid Fever, Together with Their Diagnosticks and Method of Cure. London. D. Prince; and W. Owen.

The Excessively Diverting Blog Award

2009-02-16T15:27:00.004-06:00

Mrs. Woffington of Memoirs of the Celebrated Mrs. Woffington, and one of the circle of 18th century bloggers, has generously nominated Slightly Obsessed for an Excessively Diverting Blog Award. Started by the blogging team at Jane Austen Today the "aim of the Excessively Diverting Blog Award is to acknowledge writing excellence in the spirit of Jane Austen’s genius in amusing and delighting readers with her irony, humor, wit, and talent for keen observation. Recipients will uphold the highest standards in the art of the sparkling banter, witty repartee, and gentle reprove." What can I say to that other than my most modist thanks!

Now, for my part, I have to nominated 7 other Excessively Diverting blogs. Naturally, many of my other 18th C. blogging companions have already been nominated. In the spirit of spreading the love, I'll attempt to add those that haven't already recieved the award. Enjoy!

18th C. Cuisine With recipes, history & those food photographs, Carolyn's blog is enough to make me drool.
Tempus Fugit The Dr. is not only an excellent blogger, but a wonderful reenactor as well. I'm especially fond of his ability to post in both modern & 18th C. first person.
The Old Foodie Janet shares recipies & food facts from every imaginable period of time. You never know what will come up next!
Boston 1775 J.L. Bell's blog focuses on the early days of the American Revolution in and around Boston. Always full of interesting details!
The American Revolution Blog Brad & Brain cover more aspects of the American Revolution than I would even think to research & I adore them for it.
Mom in Madison Denise is one of my real life friends and one of the few non-history related blogs that I read. Her blog is a great glimps into the every day life of homeschoolers.
Wistful Wanderlust Laura's blog is my other favorite non-history blog. Need a good laugh, you'll probabily find it here.

Recipients, please claim your award by copying the HTML code of the Excessively Diverting Blog Award badge, posting it on your blog, listing the name of the person who nominated you, and linking to their blog. Then nominate seven other blogs that you feel meet or exceed the standards set forth. Nominees may place the Excessively Diverting badge in their side bar and enjoy the appreciation of their fellow blogger for recognition of their talent.

Enjoy!

Whatever with the past has gone, the best is yet to come

2009-01-24T15:52:00.006-06:00

In honor of just over 2 years here at Slightly Obsessed; 100 posts on a seemingly endless variety of topics; just over 17,000 visitors, 20 followers & nearly 2 years of reenacting, I'm hosting a little give away for you, my beloved readers.

How To Enter:
Anyone who posts a comment, here or anywhere else on this blog, between now & Feb 4th 2009 will be entered in the give away. The winner will be announced on Feb 8th, upon my return from Reenactor Fest V.

The Prize:
Well that waits to be seen. Traditionally the second anniversary is celebrated with gifts of cotton. I will be keeping with that tradition, however, the individual prize will be tailored to the winner, making it truly unique. It could be a flamestitched wallet, a calico neckerchief, a crosstitched pin cushion, a hand sewn cap, &c. The options are endless, only limited by my imagination & the winners preferences.

My thanks go out to everyone who has made writing these past two years so enjoyable; to those that I've been fortunate enough to meet at events & those that I've only met online; to those that have been my mentors as I lept head first into 18th century reenacting & to those that have let me teach them. Most importantly my thanks go out to L & J for nodding & smiling when I go off in an obsessive tangent, happily letting me drag them around to event after event & being there for me every minute of this amazing journey.

As the title quote by Lucy Larcom says, the best is yet to come.

Stay the Course Part 2

2009-01-18T01:50:00.004-06:00

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

Step two: the construction.

If you're just joining us, please refer to Part 1 for the fitting tutorial. Stays are custom items so the most important step is in the fitting. Take your time making the pattern perfect for your shape before proceeding. Trust me, it's well worth the effort.

materials

Custom pattern from Stay the Course, Part 1.

~1 yard chosen outer fabric. Linen or light weight wool are good choices, easy to come by & work well.

~2 yards inner lining fabric. Heavier weight linen works wonders as inner lining on stays

1 roll reed boning of your choice. I have used both 1/4" full round and 1/4" half oval reed. The full round is significantly stiffer but both work well. The choice will depend on how firm or flexible you want the final stays to be.

plenty of durable thread

ruler

disappearing marking pen or chalk

something good to watch on TV or a new audio book to listen to while you work.

1. Cut 2 layers of piece out of inner lining leaving a generous seam allowance around all sides. If you are, however, working from random scraps as I am, then cutting directly on the pattern lines might be necessary. Do Not separate the tabs at this point, instead cut a box around them. You can almost see this in the photograph below. Leaving the tabs for later makes the entire piece so much easier to handle & insures that your boning channels don't land on a cut line.

2. Lay your lining & pattern pieces on top of your outer fabric. Cut out the outer pieces, leaving the same generous seam allowance around all sides, but especially around the sides that will be connected.

3. Measure the width of your reed and round up slightly. This make it both easier to slip the boning in each channel & accounts for any variation in each piece.

4. Measure & mark your boning channels. This is the point where I usually find myself running to the V & A or another museum site to look at every extant example of stays I can find. Take your cue from them as to which direction the channels on each piece of your stays should run. Straight at the center back and lacing strips yet with the direction of the tabs seems to be the most common arrangement I have seen.

5. Sew all those channels. If sewing by hand, a back stitch is the best bet as it is very sturdy. On the sewing machine a nice small stitch is preferred. When sewing the channels by machine it is faster not to cut the individual threads until the last line is reached. Instead, simply move the needle to the next line leaving a short tail in between each. These strings can all be pulled to the inside of the stays once each channel is sewn.

6. Fold the excess outer & lining fabric to the inside of the stays along the pattern line. Why did we leave that extra fabric? Two fold (sorry bad pun!). One, because it allows the material to shift while sewing the boning channels without disturbing the final construction and two, so that there is excess to "let out" should we need to expand the size of these in the future.

7. Place 2 pieces right side to right side, lining up the edge we just folded inside. With a sturdy thread whip stitch the two sections together. Stitches should be consistent and close together, these are the main seams after all. Many seamstresses will use this seam as the second side of the last boning channel. I prefer to sew the channels fully by machine & simply sew over that line when whip stitching sections together. Either way is just fine.

8. Mark your lacing holes. The back of these stays is laced using spiral lacing. The stomacher front is laced using 1 cord through parallel eyelets. On front & back lacing stays without a stomacher it's best to use spiral lacing on both pieces. I always check my marks at least twice, mentally lacing them up to check the arrangement & spacing.

9. Sew all those eyelets. You are allowed 1 complaint about how much of a pain they are to sew per hole. In this pair I stitched the eyelets twice, going around once with 5 or 6 stitches to hold the opening, then filling in the space on the second round. I have since been advised to use a doubled thread & only sew around the holes once. Surprisingly, I've found the double thread to make a much nicer, durable opening & it doesn't seem to take as long!

10. Decide where the best separations for your tabs are going to be, making sure that no tab as too few or too many boning channels. I generally try to have ~4-5 channels per tab. Mark & cut the tabs apart.

10. Stuff each channel with reed. I'm using 2 pieces of 1/4" half round reed back to back to create an oval reed. I've found this to be both supportive & flexible. I also discovered that very lightly waxing each piece of reed helps cut down on splintering & keeps it from catching on any stubs in the material as it's being pushed into the channels.

11. Trim each reed to fit leaving an ~1/4" space at the top & bottom of each channel. This gap will make adding the binding easier in the future. The photo is of how I mark the individual reeds. This method doesn't conserve much reed, but it's what I've found works best for me.

11A. (optional) If you are going to be wearing these stays prior to finishing the binding, as I did, it's best to sew along the top & bottom of the channel's to secure the reed. This little trick gave me the time to wear the stays before I found the time to fully finish them.

12. Remember that outer fabric that was folded to the inside? Now is the time to tack it in place with a loose whip stitch. This isn't mandatory, but it does make for a nicer inside. Just try not to stab yourself & bleed all over the stays. Ouch!

13. Repeat sewing & stuffing the boning channels for the stomacher front. The boning can either run vertical or connect in a center "V", which is very attractive but a little harder to bone.

14. Attach the straps. Leave extra length at the front for customization. While wearing the stays, mark where the straps hit the front edge & trim to fit.

15. Check yourself out in the mirror. Marvel at the lift, the curves & all the hard work that's gone into these stays so far.

16. Take a nap before proceeding to Step 3, finishing!

Back to the Future II

2009-01-08T00:26:00.011-06:00

A new schedule of events for the 2009 reenacting season. A few are missing dates but will be updated as soon as the information is released. However since most are repeat events on fixed weekends each year, it's safe to say there won't be many overlaps. Events marked with a (*) are east coast events and long shots but on my "trying" list for the season. After all, you never really know what will present itself. I did get to England last year after all!

2009 Event Calendar

February
5-8 Reenactor Fest; Arlington Heights, IL
21-22 Echo’s of the Past Trade Show; Oshkosh, WI

March
21-22 *Military through the Ages; Jamestown, VA

April

23-26 *Ft. Fred Market Fair; Big Pool, MD

25-26 The Gathering at Macktown; Rockton, IL

25-26 Colonial Days at Lyon Farm, Yorkville, IL

May

1-3 Bloody Lake Rendezvous; Woodford, WI

16-17 100 Years on the Ohio; Louisville, KY

16-17 Muster on the St. Mary’s; Ft. Wayne, IN
16-17 Janesville Ren Faire; Janesville, WI

23-24 Spirit of Vincennes; Vinicennes, IN

30-31 Reclaiming Our Heritage, Milwaukee, WI

June

5-7 Port Washington Pirate Festival; Port Washington, WI

6-7 Women on the Frontier; Fort Boonesborough, KY
13-14 AWI Western Front; Ft. Wayne, IN

July

11-12 Seige of Ft. Wayne 1812; Ft. Wayne, IN

11-12 Battle of Prairie du Chien, Prairie du Chien, WI

August

1-2 Fort St. Joseph Community Weekend; Niles, MI

1-2 Pike River Rendezvous; Kenosha, WI
7-9 Pirates at Payneton; Burlington, IN

September

12-13 Gathering on the Theatiki; Bourbonnais, IL

19-20 Kohkohmah & Foster Encampment; Kokokmo, IN

Autumn Pioneer Festival; Belvidere, IL

Feast of the Hunters Moon; Lafayette, IN

October
2-4 Mississinewa 1812; Marion, IN
Trail of History; McHenry, IL

November
5-8 NAVC; Poynette, WI

7 ONWC Colonial Ball; Poynette, WI

The 18th "Scent"-tury

2009-01-01T17:32:00.000-06:00

or the Manner of making various Sorts of thefe little Bags or Sachets to scent linen or wear in the pocket.

To Make A Sweet fcented Bag to wear in the Pocket

TAKE thin Perfian and make into little bags about four inches wide in the form of an oblong fquare. Rub the infide lightly with a little Civet then fill them with coarfe powder a la Marechale or any other odoriferous Powder you chufe to which add a few Cloves and a little Yellow Sanders beaten fmall and fow up the mouths of the bags.

FOR this purpofe may be ufed different parts of the Aromatic Plants as Leaves of Southernwood, Dragon wort, Balm Min,t both garden and wild Dittany, Ground Ivy, Bay Hyfop, Lovage, Sweet Marjoram, Origanum, Penayroyal, Thyme, Rofemary, Savoury, Scordium, and Wild Thyme. The Flowers of the Orange, Lemon, Lime, and Citron Tree, Saffron, Lavender, Rofes, Lilly of the Valley, Clove-july-flower, Wall Flower, Jonquil, and Mace. Fruits as Anifeeds &c The Rinds of Lemons, Oranges, &c Small green Oranges, Juniper berries, Nutmegs and Cloves. Roots of Acorns, Bohemian, Angelica, Oriental Coitus, Sweet Flag, Orrice, Zedoary &c The Woods of Rhodium, Juniper, Caffia, St Lucia, Sanders &c Gums as Frankincenfe, Myrrh, Storax, Benjamin, Labdanum, Ambergreafe, and Amber. Barks as Canella, Alba, Cinnamon &c

Care muft be taken that all thefe ingredients are perfeftly dry and kept in a dry place. To prevent their turning black add a little common Salt. When you chufe to have any particular Flower predominant a greater quantity of that plant muft be ufed in proportion to the other ingredients.

Pierre-Joseph Buc'hoz, The Toilet of Flora; Or, A Collection of the Most Simple and Approved Methods of Preparing Baths, Essences, Pomatums, Etc. 1772, pp.216-219

The above pictured "bags" are remembrance gifts to a few lady friends. They are a quick way to practice some period needle work skills; stem stitch, split stitch & (not so well counted) cross stitch and a nice small detail to have in ones kit. The bags measured ~4x5" prior to sewing. I added a little roving to each, not enough to make them pillows, but enough to give them some puff and softness. They are scented with a combination of cloves, anise seed and juniper berries, all items dug out of my spice cabinet and appropriate to scents in the last half of the century as seen in the suggested list above. I hope the ladies enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them, I just might have to make a few for myself now as well.

The very ink with which history is written

2008-12-17T21:46:00.000-06:00

Or the simple process of making black walnut ink using objects found around the home and yard.

I will start this tutorial by admitting that I have not found any definitive evidence that black walnut ink was used by the English in North America during the greater 18th century. However, the materials are easily obtained often for free, the process is almost fool proof and the resulting ink creates a nice dark brown to black color which looks nice on reenactment paperwork and personal letters.

Materials:

Large, non-reactive pot. I use an old canning pot that I have reserved for just such an occasion.

As many black walnuts as you want. I simply went into the yard & gathered what ever semi-green, semi-black nuts that the squirrels had left scattered in the grass. Three handfuls later and I had plenty of nuts for more than one batch of ink.

Two or three rusty objects. In ink, rust creates an iron-tannate solution which deepens the final ink color. I found 2 old bolts in the basement that were suitably rusty & tossed them in.

Enough water to cover your walnuts with plenty of room for the nuts to move.

A wooden spoon that you don't mind staining a darker color.

Process:

Toss everything in the pot, cover & allow to boil for several hours. This will smell up your kitchen, so use your oven vent fan if you don't want everything smelling strangely organic and musty for the next several days.

At this point some instructions suggest crushing the walnuts outer hull. This is beyond messy and not something I wanted to tackle indoors, so I skipped it. I've seen no ill effects in my resulting ink. If you want to dye your hands, floor, stove top and everything else within 10 feet of the pot, feel free to crush away.

Allow the walnuts & ink to steep over night or longer.

Strain out the walnuts and rusted pieces.

Continue to boil the strained ink until the liquid is reduced by approximately half. Periodically test the ink color as it boils using a paint brush or quill pen.

Allow the ink to cool in the pot.

Add 1 tablespoon gum arabic to increase ink flow. I prefer to use powdered gum arabic because it stores indefinitely & is inexpensive when purchased on-line. Adding 5% denatured alcohol can prevent mold if this becomes a problem in your ink bottles.

Bottle, label & use.

In One Autumnal Face

2008-11-27T21:43:00.004-06:00

Just few little photo mosaics from a very successful photo shoot this past weekend. The gown shown is my 1770 era silk polonaise, affectionately dubbed the "Pretty Penny Gown". The matching hat & shoes were finished just in time for this years ONW/Colonial ball earlier this month. I'm wearing it over my standard underpinnings; red stomacher fronted stays, linen petticoat and cuffed linen shift. I did splurge and wear the delectable silk stockings from Spencer's Mercantile, which I received as a gift from my dear friend T. The outfit is accessorized with fresh water pearl drop earrings & matching necklace. Of course I couldn't dress up without including a few beauty marks. These are simple hearts, as I seem to have misplaced the tiny dancer I cut last year.

Photos are courtesy of my wonderful & talented friend A. I can't begin to thank her enough for braving the 35* weather with me (even though she had gloves!), chasing me around the gardens, making me laugh endlessly & most of all just being there to work on this project with me. She an extraordinary friend & I'm blessed to be the recipient of her talent.

All images were taken at Sinnissippi Gardens, a beautiful public garden and greenhouse in Rockford IL.

No Glove, No Love

2008-11-25T01:13:00.002-06:00

From the Spence Collection at Bath.

Aren't these the most fantastic knitted mitts. I simply adore the pointed flap over the back of the hand. While the green mitts that I knitted myself are perfectly functional, I'd gladly trade them in for a pair that was even half as nice as these. Do you suppose if I started knitting them now, I'd have them finished by, oh, the tricentennial?

clipped from www.glovecollectioncatalogue.org

A pair of ladies’ knitted mittens, probably Italian, early 18th century, unlined, knitted in silk/cotton mix in fine stocking stitch, with large carnation and pomegranate repeats in yellow, white and green on a pink lilac/ground, 37 cm long.

Part of the Collection donated to the Livery in 1959 by the late Robert Spence.

Conservation 1995 – 1999 sponsored by Past Master Margaret Linton.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

2008-10-30T16:07:00.000-05:00

Or the deceptively simple technique for hand sewing a rolled hem on just about anything.

This technique has eluded me for nearly 2 years. I had tried everything I could think of to no avail. As it turns out, no ONE technique could fully do the trick. No wonder my rolled hems always seemed half done. They were!

1. Cut a nice straight square of fabric with no loose strings. Linen works best for your first project because it will easily hold the roll as you work.

2. Place fabric with the wrong side facing you.

3. Spit on your thumb and index finger. Hey, nobody said sewing was sanitary.

4. Place your fingers under the fabric, with your thumb on top. Use your thumb to gently pull edge towards you into a narrow roll. This is where that little bit of spit comes in handy. The moisture helps the fabric "take" to the roll. If you're lucky the material will hold the roll for it's full length. If not, simply do the thumb roll as you go.

5. Take a straight stitch into the body of the fabric, going towards the outside edge. This helps secure the thread & makes rolling at the edge easier.

6. Next, take a stitch *through* the roll from step 4, going towards the right side of the fabric.

7. Bring your working thread over the roll as you take a straight stitch into the body of the fabric again, this time going towards the far end of the piece.

8. Repeat stitching through the roll & body fabric for 2-3 stitches.

8a. Alternately, you can take both roll & body stitches at once, always ending with a stitch through the body fabric.

9. Gently pull the working thread towards the far end of the piece, holding the near end with your other hand. Do not however, pull to much or you will pucker the resulting hem.

10. Marvel as the hem rolls into itself!

11. Repeat for the full length of your project.

11a. To turn a corner, simply tie off & start the next side in the same way you started the first side. The very end of the first side will get rolled into the second side but that's OK. This gives your corners a neat finish.

12. Find all kinds of places to use a hand rolled hem. This happens to be a nice little handkerchief to keep in my pocket. Very useful for blowing your nose after taking snuff from Sanctuary Traders.

13. Embroider your monogram onto the wrong side of the handkerchief because it was 2AM ad you weren't paying attention.

14. Oh well, make another using your newly mastered hand sewn rolled hem stitching!

Trail of History Recap

2008-10-28T18:16:00.004-05:00

Ahh, the Trail of History. Such a beautiful site, with such unpredictable weather!

This year, due to a busy early season & some measure of confusion on everyone's part, we were day tripping rather than camping. L had asked earlier in the season when we were going to attend an event "as the public". At the time I had a good laugh. See, once you've done a few events & started to know as many people as I do, it's not really possible to pretend to be "public".

Entertainment, 18th century style

Day tripping was a good compromise. L was able to sleep comfortably in a bed at my mothers over night and yet we were still able to be dressed & social during the day. Luckily our friends in Brigands Folie, The Amazing Budabi Brothers , and several ONW members were camping. We redily took advantage of their camps to relax through out the day and as a central place to leave things like my always overflowing basket.

A tisket, a tasket, everything in my basket.

We watched the Brother's show, I participated in the servants auction (but didn't win anyone). L enjoyed the horses & ended up spending a great deal of time simply standing near their pens, watching them. I spent time socializing, shopping at the few sutlers, picking up the last little bits for my winter projects and generally trying to keep myself busy without the coffeehouse. I gave up on counting the number of people that asked where we were camped & where the coffeehouse was. I'm guessing that means that next year I'll have to be more alert to registration deadlines!

And always twirling, twirling, twirling

As an added bonus, my dear friend A came out Saturday afternoon with her camera. She was a photography major in college and is one of the best photographers I know. Best of all, because I've known her all her life, I am comfortable enough around her to not do the ugly face freeze like I do with so many other photographers. We're already planning on several more photoshoots of my historic projects. I've needed professional grade pictures for a while. Not sure why it's taken so long for me to ask A to help.

Reenacting with mom.

The widow Black

See you in camp next year!

Belated Event Reviews

2008-10-22T11:47:00.002-05:00

Sunrise
Originally uploaded by bartnnick

My apologies for not reviewing the last several events. It's nothing against the events themselves and everything to do with the fact that I can't find the darned cord to upload my photographs! I'm convinced the cats ran off with it. Just when I was remembering to actually take pictures too.

Kohkohmah:

Kohkohmah-Foster Encampment

This is my all time favorite event site. The natural ampitheatre, the wonderful stockade fort, the tree cover. I love that it's so easy to forget about the modern world when on this site. The event itself is well organized which makes it easy to participate & feel involved. This year was a little disappointing at the coffeehouse. Our camp lost it's main road frontage to the French, which limited the number of spectators who came around to my demo. Ideally I need to be set up in a main drag, the more people walk past the coffeehouse, the more people stop to listen to me talk. I was also surprised at how few of my fellow reenactors stopped by for coffee in the mornings (or even during the day). Last year I could barely keep up with the demand, this year I actually had extra! Still it was a good event. L made friends with the French children, played in the creek and on the bridges and dipped her own candle. I barely saw her, which means she was having a good enough time not to want to hang around complaining of being board.

Feast of the Hunters Moon:

Feast of the Hunters Moon 2008

I attended this event at the last minute, playing "shop girl" for J. Henderson Artifacts. When the opportunity came up I simply had to take it! I'd heard from others that Feast is the "biggest dog & pony show around", and they weren't kidding. I was boggled at the sheer number of participants. With an event this size it's expected that not everyone will be of the highest caliber, but there were quite a few fantastic camps to balance it all out. I especially enjoyed working all weekend, strange I know but I felt great having something constructive to do. I also learned that working in the pottery shop is great fun because everyone comes to you to say hello. i don't get many visitors while doing the coffeehouse demo, mostly because people are trying not to interrupt. In the shop however, no one worries about interrupting.

Mississinewa:

Mississinewa 1812

This is our only 1812 event and one of the best for enjoying the river. This year the weather was completely cooperative. Cool at night but not too cool, sunny and warm during the day but not scorching hot. L spent most of the event at the far end of camp playing with the kids in the River Rogues group. The one drawback to this was that "the other side" of camps was close to a mile away. I didn't have the coffeehouse demo with for this event (it's not 19th century appropriate) so I was able to spend most of my time with her, hanging out, painting with watercolors and splashing around in the river. We attended the ball Saturday night and enjoyed watching the dancers, even though we didn't dance ourselves. The Saturday night pirate party was, as always, indescribable, which of course leads to the rather sedate Sunday. I spent the morning working in the pottery shop while L played in camp. The best thing to come from the event though, was that L finally got over her fear of the boat! I'm looking forward to being able to take her out on the water more often now that she actually enjoys it.

Well, that's basically it for the event reviews. Now that the busy season is over I'll be back to regular blogging and sharing the little bits of research that I've managed to sneak in while running from event to event soon.

Who said, `Peacock Pie'?

2008-09-18T00:42:00.005-05:00

CHAP V Observations on PIES from

The Experienced English Housekeeper For the Use and Ease of Ladies, Housekeepers, Cooks, &c. ... By Elizabeth Raffald

RAISED pies should have a quick oven, and well closed up, or your pie will fall in the sides; it should have no water put in, till the minute it goes to the oven, it makes the crust sad, and is a great hazard of the pie running. --Light paste requires a moderate oven, but not too slow, it will make them sad, and a quick oven will catch and burn it, and not give it time to rise; tarts that are iced require a slow oven, or the icing will be brown, and the paste not be near baked.-- these sort of tarts ought to be made of sugar paste, and rolled very thin.

A savoury CHICKEN PYE

LET your chickens be small, season them with mace, pepper, and salt, put a lump of butter into every one of them, lay them in the dish with the breasts up, and lay a thin slice of bacon over them, it will give them a pleasant flavour, then put in a pint of strong gravy and make a good puff paste lid it and bake it in a moderate oven: French cooks generally put morels and yolks of eggs chopped small.

Rather than my usual pie, this weekend I am bringing pasties to share with the camp. I used the above recipe as inspiration for the filling, substituting cooked chicken breast for the whole chickens and regular white mushrooms for the suggested morels. I added crumbled bacon, chopped hard cooked egg yolks and a splash of chicken stock along with a healthy dose of mace for flavor. My favorite pie crust recipe, which uses all butter rather than lard or shortening, was rolled into small rounds & filled before being folded in half & pinched closed. My "moderate" oven was 350* for approximately 45 minutes.

Of course I had to try one before cooling & packing them for the drive tomorrow. The mace has a good flavor, similar to it's growing partner nutmeg, but a bit more orange in tone. The egg completely disappears, although I can see how they help the filling hold together. Of course the crust is my favorite part, flaky & buttery with just enough egg wash to give each pastie a nice golden color.

I am adding this to the successful 18th century recipes folder! Lets hope that everyone else in camp agrees. If nothing else, at least I'm not torturing them with another onion pie, or worse (spinach pudding anyone)!

Treasure Island, 2008

2008-09-02T21:29:00.018-05:00

English flag at the top of Elizabeth Castle

There is simply too much to say about my 5 days at Elizabeth Castle on the Isle of Jersey for their Treasure Island event. The 200 plus photographs don't even begin to show how amazing the site is, or to express what it feels like to reenact in a place where everything around you is over 200 years old. I am endlessly greatful to the site, the castle guardian and the Jersey Heritage Trust for hosting such a wonderful event at such an amazing location; to all the various UK Pirate Brotherhood, Sheppey Pirates, C.H.E.S and Bonaventure members who shared their event, tents & beer with me and especially to my dear friend Ed for inviting me in the first place. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I will be honored to talk about for years to come.

Home Away from Home: Elizabeth Castle at high tide

Without further ado, a small collection of photographs from around the site. Unfortunately there are very few photos of the other reenactors or myself, just one of the drawbacks to having the public around at every turn; no chance to have a photoshoot!

The Admiral Benbow Inn

Ben Gunn; Marooner

Nightfall on the Upper Castle and 18th Century Garrison

Lintel over an archway: G3R 1781

a view of the Lower Castle from the Upper Castle

R & baby W nap in a window sill

A secret passageway

View from our private beach

Stepping back in time

Pirates of Paynetown Recap

2008-08-15T13:54:00.004-05:00

Another quick recap as I pack up for my historic trip to Jersey next week.

Last weekend we attended Pirates of Paynetown, a wonderful event on Lake Monroe outside Bloomington IN. What is special about this event is the focus on small water historic boats. Everything from pirogues, dorries, skiffs etc.

As usual, I spent the majority of the weekend demonstrating to the public and keeping everyone in much needed coffee after late nights at the tavern. During the battles I helped the terribly undermanned town defend itself by tending match with the cannon crew. Of course, the town falling into the hands of the pirates had nothing to do with half our cannon crew secretly sympathizing with the rogues. Nope, nothing at all!

Sunday afternoon I had my promised sailing lesson. The weather was perfect and after only hitting one dead spot in the water, I was able to catch a good wind, tack several times with ease & guide the Tantrum back to shore. The more I practice, the easier the reverse direction of the tiller & keeping proper tension on the mainsail becomes. Although my shoulder was a bit sore after the exercise, I wouldn't have passed it up for anything!

Unfortunately, it seems the "professional" photographers at the event aren't much on coffee, as there isn't a single photo of Black's Coffeehouse, or myself from the entire weekend. Disappointing, but photographic proof isn't the reason that I reenact. The 2 young teen girls who spent a good 30 minutes talking with me about coffee and then brought their mother over to "meet the coffee lady", however, is!

L spent most of her time running a muck with the other reenactor children; splashing in the water & sand at the beach, running the resident dog from one end of camp to another, watching the Amazing Budabi Brothers juggling act and threatening one playmate with a wooden spoon when he tried to step on a grasshopper. I managed to get her to wear her bun cover cap all day Saturday, though not without serious bribery. The neckerchief took no convincing. It's silk, dyed with natural dyes at the Pike River Rendezvous, by our camp mates V & A. We both love the bright, orange-peach shade of the material.

All in all a very nice weekend event and another that I look forward to attending next year.

Pike River Recap

2008-08-07T10:10:00.005-05:00

Just a quick post as we pack up for Pirates of Paynetown tomorrow.

The Pike River Rendezvous is one of our yearly events. We camp along the beach, bring the fully compliment of boats and weaponry and throughly enjoy ourselves with local friends. This weekend included 3 battles, two by land and one by water. The ladies and I made out like bandits; looting the fallen bodies after each skirmish, although I'm still searching for the perfect pair of buckle shoes. It seems everyone was either wearing high-lows or moccasins, not a single good buckle shoe in sight!

Photo by K. Garland L-R: Miss Sarah, Miss Kelly, Widow Black & Mrs. Bit

L naturally has a great time as well, running around with her friends. This weekend they spent most of the time in the coffeehouse, playing with watercolors, pick-up sticks and various rocks & bits of fabric. They even made 2 batches of butter, demoing for the public and explaining the process as they shared the work. Although the second batch was meant to be whipped cream for our black berries. They were just having too much fun churning to stop! I guess it really does go faster when there are three hands at work. Churn churn churn "Switch"!

Our new beach set-up worked wonderfully. There were no major incidents with the boats this year and the mini camp provided the perfect spot to sit and watch the kids swim. As you can see from this found photograph. JH & I enjoy a chat while sitting on the Catspaw and supervising the swimming.

Here's to another year on the big lake!

Stay The Course Part 1

2008-07-14T14:03:00.007-05:00

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

Step one: the fitting.

This is the most important step, so take your time, enlist friends as needed and it will pay off in the end.

materials:

Pattern. I am using Reconstructing History #833 with the natural back & stomacher front options (shown in red on the pattern cover)
tracing of the chosen size of your pattern with any preliminary changes already marked
duct tape
large piece of corrugated cardboard. I get all my cardboard boxes from the local recycling center, so long as there aren't any raccoons living in them.
Sharpie marker
strong scissors
scrap linen
lacing cord or old shoelaces
hole punch
optional: small hammer

1. First make the tracing of your stays pattern. Because stays are an individualized item, there is no way that even the best commercial pattern is going to fit perfectly. I use pattern ease for all my pattern tracings, although any large, easily see through material would work. Note: Kitten help optional.

2. Lay out your cardboard in one large sheet. Place the cut out pattern tracing on the cardboard, orienting the pieces so that the channels in the cardboard run the same direction as any boning lines. On pieces where boning will run in multiple directions there are two options. Option A; cut multiple pieces of cardboard and tape them together to create the needed piece or option B; cut the piece with the channels in the direction that the majority of the boning channels will run. Trace all pieces with your Sharpie marker.

3. With sturdy scissors and a good movie on TV, cut out all the cardboard stay pieces, including the fingers (aka tabs). Use duct tape liberally to connect all the pieces into a 3-D cardboard copy of 18th century stays. Add extra tape at the waist near the top of the fingers and on either side of all laced openings.

4. Mark the lacing holes on all 4 pieces. The back should be arranged off-set to accommodate spiral lacing, while the front holes are set parallel for straight lacing. Use a hole punch to make all the holes, using a small hammer to force through the cardboard as needed.

5. Before trying on this cardboard creation, if you pattern has straps now is a good time to add them. I use scrap linen for my straps, since they will not be boned in the final set of stays, and therefore do not need the stiffness of cardboard. Cut & duct tape the shoulder straps in place but be prepared, their placement may need adjustment during the next step.

6. Lace the back panels together edge to edge. Now put the cardboard mock up on, lacing the front over the stomacher panel as if they were real stays & not some odd recycled art creation. While wearing this mock up note any discomfort. Move and bend as you will while wearing the final set of stays. Are the arm pits too high? Stomacher seem a little short? Back standing out & giving you that oh so 18th century ridge? How about the strap placement? What about the length of the fingers when you sit down? Use the Sharpie marker to mark any changes and areas that just don't feel comfortable. Remove the mock up and make any cuts and tape alterations. Alternately if you've got a trusted friend at hand, have them make the needed changes while you're still wearing the mock up. I also find have photos taken of this fitting stage to be extremely helpful. I can't always see my own back, but with photos I can & can make changes to the pieces by looking at the images.

7. Remove the altered mock up and lay as flat as possible. Over lay your pattern tracing pieces with the corresponding cardboard piece. Use tape, additional pattern easy & your scissors to transfer all changes to the pattern, adding or cutting away from the pattern tracing to customize the pieces.

8. Congratulate yourself with a big glass of Mikes Hard Lemonade, you've just customized your very own pattern for stays!

Next up: Cutting the fabric!

All the News That's Fit to Print

2008-06-28T00:50:00.004-05:00

My current pet project for Black's Coffeehouse; newspapers.

18th Century coffeehouses were repositories of information, much of it in printed form, newspapers, broadsides, mail. True to that, I've been researching, reading, scanning, altering & printing historic newspapers for the visitors at Black's to enjoy. The initial response was exactly as I had hoped; people loved them. In fact, we did as I have read was done in period, we sat around in the coffeehouse reading bits out loud to each other (most still use the medial S, so the reader was frequently someone comfortable with the text), passing the pages back & forth, pointing out interesting advertisements & engaging in discussions about the news. They turned out to be the ideal fuel for first person interpretation and conversations.

I initially stared this research using the internet. The Virginia, Maryland & London Gazettes all host on-line archives of their historic papers. With a bit of Photoshop work & the industrial printer I was able to come up with several period approximate editions for the years our events revolve around. I have since focused on a single year for simplicity sake and because for all except one event we do, that year is appropriate.

However, those three papers were not enough to satisfy either Black's customers or myself. After all we taut that visitors can enjoy "the latest news from London & around the colonies". Through a bit of research and cross referencing I was able to make a small list of mid 18th century newspapers from New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Massachusetts as well as another imported paper from London. But most importantly, all of these papers are archived on microfiche and available through Inter Library Loan courtesy of the State Historical Society . All that remains now is some dedicated time with the computer aided microfiche machine, flash drive and photo editing program.

I simply can't express the enjoyment that I am getting from this project. I find the period articles to be endlessly educational, the advertisements to be a wonderful glimpse into day to day lives and being able to share so much authentic "history" with friends and the public, well it just brings me countless joy. I am seriously considering further research into these papers and the information they contain. It seems a shame to have them so easily accessible and not do something extensive with them.

Under the weather or just feeling Flemish?

2008-05-20T00:29:00.002-05:00

In honor of my 3rd year in attendance at the Janesville Renaissance Fair, I made myself a new outfit. Big surprise right.

This is 16th century Flemish based entirely on Reconstructing History's pattern 209 (Netherlandish Common woman), which I bought because I like the little jacket, then didn't get to making said jacket! Oh well. I also spent a lot of time looking at Aertsen & Bruegel paintings to make sure I got the details right, especially since I went into this not knowing a darned thing about 16th century Flemish clothing and only had a week to work.

I'm wearing (from inside out), a linen/cotton blend smock, my 18th century stockings, one of my 18th century linen petticoats (the red one), a brown linen stomacher; lined & interlined with linen, a dark green wool kirtle, blue wool sleeves, white linen partlet, black wool partlet, yellow linen square ticked into a lace at my waist as an apron, white linen coif & my 18th century flat crowned straw hat. I wore my wooden shoes for the event and boy did people notice. I also learned that the wooden shoes while great on dirt & in the mud are terrible walking around in the Walmart!

The kirtle laces up the center front with a thin cotton lacing cord. On either side of the opening I slipped in 2 pieces of half round reed for support (of the bust more than anything!) I just poked the lacing through the material since I didn't think that rings on either side would take the strain that I was putting it under to hold my shape with no other support. The linen stomacher pinned in the center front & that helped a lot too. But look at that profile! I'm still amazed that with no bra my bust still managed to be high & round. Who says dressing historical isn't sex.

I got the kirtle wool from Hancock fabrics & it is the most beautiful forest green soft material ever! The black wool for the partlet was actually found in my local JoAnn's clearance section under spring suitings, as was the linen/cotton blend used for the smock.

The back without partlets on. I could have set the straps a bit wider on the shoulders but I tend to have trouble with things falling off the edges when I do & I didn't want to risk any slipping. The most interesting thing is that the entire bodice is constructed from 1 rectangle of fabric! This is what it looks like without the straps attached to the back yet and an in progress picture. As it turned out the entire kirtle is hand sewn. The bodice construction meant that hand sewing was easiest so I figured, why not, and attached the skirt by hand as well. I was a little worried that it wouldn't hold up but then remembered that L's blue gown is hand sewn & held up fine so why was I to worry. I certainly don't "wear" my clothing as hard as a 7 year old does.

The fair was fun as usual, although too short! I got to see friends that I only see once a year, drank more root beer than a normal person should, saw 3 watermelons get shot to bits & enjoyed authentic 16th century gingerbread. Luckily I should get to wear this outfit again when we go to the bigger statewide renaissance fair in July. Hopefully by then I will have gotten around to making the jacket!

Thanks for looking! Now back to my regularly scheduled 18th century work.

Bloody Lake Recap

2008-05-09T12:55:00.003-05:00

Just a few photos to share & a quick recap of last weekends event, The Bloody Lake Rendezvous. All photos are thanks to Karen Garland of Brigands Folie

To start, my darling daughter L, the camp urchin.

Here she's covered in mud after jumping into an ankle deep puddle. She's wearing a typical back lacing child's gown, hand sewn from blue wool, lined with blue linen. The material is from her mantua, which no longer fit either in size or time period. She is also wearing a linen shift, apron and petticoat. Underneith she's wearing her hand sewn wool petticoat, considering how cold it was most of the weekend I don't think she took it off for more than a moment. Her cap & neckerchief had disappeared for the thousandth by the time this photo was taken. The necklace is a trade silver owl that she picked out at the Midwest Rendezvous last summer. It's her favorite piece of period "bling". She seems rather cheerful for a wet & cold child with no shoes doesn't she!

Later in the weekend the weather warmed up quite nicely, resulting in this dirty & devious look. This is the same dirty striped linen gown as she wore last year at the Pike River Rendezvous. I added new, longer sleeves and patched one of the larger rips with a scrap of hand dyed yellow linen. It is her favorite gown to wear because she can get as dirty as she wants without harming the gown. As you can tell, she takes her getting dirty very seriously. Oh look, we found her cap again & this time it's managed to stay on for more than a few minutes. I can't account for the particularly "pirate" expression on her face. She looks to be plotting something particularly sneaky though.

Finally a few shots of me.

Here I'm wearing my 1770's wool polonaise gown, the same gown that I wore to the ONW/Colonial ball in November. It's since been shortened to a reasonable camp follower length & its proving to be quite nice in the cool weather.

I've accessorized with several layers in order to offset the brisk weather. First I'm wearing my cuffed linen shift, 2 neckerchiefs; an under layer of silk with an over layer of linen. I'm wearing no less than 3 petticoats, 2 linen & 1 wool flannel. Filthy apron, wool stockings, buckled shoes & my favorite pleated cap complete the outfit. This is obviously mid afternoon, as the sun had beaten out the passing rain clouds. The haversack on my shoulder, while not documentable for a woman, is the perfect storage location for the various newspapers & magazines available for reading at Black's Coffeehouse. Be sure to stop by at the sign of the Janus Face for all the most recent news from London and around the colonies.

Earlier that same morning I was busy making breakfast & staying warm near the fire. Sure waking up at dawn to get the fire going is tough, but the benefit of staying warm no matter the weather is well worth the early wake-up call. Here I've got on a few extra layers. My green fingerless mitts; one on, the other tucked in my apron waistband, a heavy fulled wool mitt that I use as a pot holder and my linen coif draped around my neck rather than over my head where it belongs. Breakfast consisted of bacon, mushroom sausage, bread, cheese and butter & plenty of strong black coffee. I fell in love with the trivet & enjoyed practicing hearth cooking techniques all weekend. I'm rather proud too, as that fire was started in the rain, with nothing but period materials & survived though everything that the early May weather could throw at it.

To make an Onion-pie

2008-05-06T17:17:00.003-05:00

To Make an Onion-pie

WASH and pare some potatoes, and cut them in slices, peel some onions, cut them in slices, pare some apples and slice them, make a good crust, cover your dish, lay a quarter of a pound of butter all over, take a quarter of an ounce of mace beat fine, a nutmeg grated, a tea-spoonful of beaten pepper three tea-spoonfuls of salt; mix all together, strew some over the butter, lay a layer of potatoes, a layer of onion, a layer of apples, and a layer of eggs, and so on till you have filled your pie, strewing a little of the seasoning between each layer, and a quarter of a pound of butter in bits, and six spoonfuls of water. Close your pie, and bake it an hour and a half. A pound of potatoes, a pound of onions, a pound of apples, an twelve eggs will do.

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy Which Far Exceeds Any Thing of the Kind yet Published by Mrs. Hannah Glasse, 1774 edition. Page 224

The preceding recipt has quickly become a camp favorite. Despite the name the pie has no over powering onion flavor, favoring instead the apple & potato end of the spectrum. With a particularly buttery crust and a side of ale, this pie makes a nice starter to a full 18th century meal or a light evening repast when served at temperature.

When In Rome

2008-04-13T16:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the 2000th Anniversary of the Roman festival of Cerealia. The college had a roman festival to commemorate the event & their restoration of the 100 year old plaster casts of roman statues at the art museum. The day ended with a "toga party". Of course, I couldn't attend a toga party in just any old bed sheet!

I'm not 100% happy. Mostly the material was too heavy & not falling in "dead folds" like it should & I had trouble keeping the palla wrapped the way I wanted it, but it worked well enough for an evening.

I'm wearing a linen under tunic (not visible), a blue linen gap necked tunica (with only 1/2 the sleeves fixed because I was short on time) and a yellow linen palla. I'm also wearing a belt that wrapped around the waist, formed an X in the back & acted as straps on my shoulders. Sadly, I didn't think until this morning that we didn't get a picture of the back. I wore sandals & a chunky stone necklace. I tied by hair back in a dread version of the 1940's "donut roll" which looks really similar to the hair styles on some Roman statues.

It was a fun day. Lots of interesting art to see, a few interesting presentations (& one that was terribly disappointing). It would have been even better if the weather had cooperated, 35* and raining was not the ideal time for a Roman event. I really have no idea how the Romans took Britain. I would have taken one look at the weather & said "NO thanks!"

Once more unto the breach, dear friends Part 2

2008-04-10T23:57:00.002-05:00

Finally, a completed pair of 1770 fall front breeches. I took my sweet time with these blasted things for a variety of reasons.

This is a pattern I've never worked with before, from a company that I've never used before. I'm a creature of habit & adjusting to a new pattern & a new company was a trial. I've heard good recommendations from others about the company but in all truth, I was less than impressed. From now on I'll be sticking with patterns that I choose, even if that means adding a pattern cost to orders.

There were several parts of this pattern that didn't "combine" well with my sewing personality. For starters, there were no finished measurements on the pattern and none of the on-line retailers that carry the pattern seemed to have measurements either. I'm not sure how W decided that this was the proper size for him without measurements. Another issue was that the pattern is given in more "words" than my visual brain could deal with. The instructions include steps such as "Seam from J to K"; "Match points D, E, H & J". I found myself constantly having to refer to the finished drawing; the only image included in the pattern but thankfully labeled to match these alphabetical points. My final complaint was the lack of actual historical information. The pattern only includes a list of other books, fine if you have easy access to those books or have read them before, less than helpful it you don't.

Add to that, the oddities of the fabric. This was suposed 100% wool from my stash. Although on further examination, it might be a blend after all. The material has a nice nap to it. I took my time making sure that the nap laid in the proper direction on each piece. It was extra work, but the finished product is nice & smooth.

The final stall was all the hand sewing. They are sewn with my usual hybrid method of machine foundation with hand finishing. The most labor intensive part was the buttonholes. I am still refining my hand buttonhole stitching. The individual stitches need to get closer together for starters. Yet when I do manage to get the stitches tightly next to each other, I have more trouble keeping their size consistent. Thankfully I'll get plenty of practice when I get to the finishing stages of the great coat. I also decided not to do any top stitching on these, as they will not be a washable item thanks to the wool and the inner and lining laid together neatly enough without the extra sewing.

Please pardon the modeling photos. J is a reluctant model but I insisted. These breeches do very little for the male figure, and even less on a hanger. I did cheat a little in the name of getting flattering photos. What you don't see is the nearly 2" extra gap in the waist that I pinned up so that they weren't falling down at J's feet. Although he has already laid claim to them if W changes his mind.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends Part 1

2008-03-27T23:43:00.004-05:00

Fall front breeches are entirely more complicated than a stinking pair of pants really needs to be. Seriously!

And that's about all I have to say right now.

Nose to the Grindstone

2008-03-14T15:22:00.001-05:00

Another interesting artifact found in a random search. This does seem consistent with what I've been reading about coffee procedure & tools in the 18th Century.

clipped from www.objetsobjects.com

18th century Dutch coffee mill in brass, wood, forged iron and brass
inlay with removabe handle, most probably replaced at some point in time. Excellent condition with small tear in brass
body height 6 1/2"

June Cleaver in My Pocket

2008-03-07T12:46:00.008-06:00

or, the 18th century housewife being a kit for sewing or storage of coin and not for use in washing of windows.

The term housewife, meaning a small wallet like object, often used as a sewing kit by women, seems to have come into use sometime during the 1730's. Housewives are useful things for the 18th century reenactor, perfect for practicing your hand sewing, an excellent use for those endless scraps of fabric & ideal for keeping modern items "hidden in plain sight".

Trial records from The Old Baily in London list numerous cases of theft and grand larceny involving "housewives" between 1730 & 1790. The first use of the term is during the robbery trial of Priscilla Scott in 1731. In addition to being put "in Fear of her Life" Mrs. Scott was also robbed of "a Snuff Box, value 10 s., a Silk Housewife, and six Shillings in Money". During the trial of Sarah Morgan in 1756 the constable from Kensington parish states he "found five shillings in silver in a housewife, put under her arm pit." In 1765, Spinster Eleanor Johnson was indited for theft thanks to "a housewife, in which there were two guineas and two half guineas". Later in 1767, thieves Elizabeth Merchant & Anne White were noted to have taken "money out of a housewife".

Robberies aren't the only period reference to housewives however. Newspaper advertisements from 1768-1770 often include housewives among other goods for sale. Catherine Rathell lists "housewives for ladies with instruments" in her advertisements in the Virginia Gazette from October 1768 to April 1769. Ms. Rathell's monopoly on housewives is supplanted by Sarah Pitt who lists "neat pincushion housewives with looking-glasses" in her Nov. 1770's Virginia Gazette ad.

Should you be neither a thief nor in the vicinity of the Ms.s Rathell & Pitt, your next option is to make your very own housewife.

1. Draw a pattern. This will come in handy if you plan on making more than one. Mine measures approximately 4" x 11", with a pointed end. Remember to add at least 1/4" seam allowance on all sides. The pointed tip is optional, I have seen them with both square or rounded ends as well.

2. Divide the pattern into roughly 3 sections, or how ever many times you plan on folding the wallet. This will help when cutting pockets for the interior.

3. Cut out several layers from scrap fabric. I've chosen to use wool for the outer, a heavier linen inter lining & plain linen for the lining. You could use any combination of scrap fabrics, even being as fancy as Mrs. Scott above and make your housewife out of silk.

4. Cut out a selection of pockets. There is no limit to the style or number of pockets you choose. If making a housewife to hide modern items, such as a cell phone or drivers license, use those items to determine the size of your pockets. Otherwise use the divisions marked on the pattern in step 2, leaving a little space to allow the housewife to fold closed.

5. Hem the open ends of the pockets as needed based on the type of fabric being used.

6. Lay your pockets onto the lining. Stitch them into place, leaving 1 side open for use. Alternately, if you'd like an attached pin cushion, stitch both the top and bottom sides closed, leaving only the sides open.

7. Lay the lining on top of the inter lining & outer. Pin the fabric sandwich together for ease of binding as desired.

8. Lay tape or a long thin strip of scrap fabric along the outer edge. Stitch in place, turning corners carefully. Make sure to catch the sides of the pockets with the binding. If adding a pin cushion, be sure to stuff the pocket before catching both sides with the binding.

9. Turn the binding around the raw edge, pinning in place as needed. Stitch in place, turning corners carefully again.

10. Attach thin tape to the outside, near the pointed end. Leave one side of the tape longer than the other for ease of wrapping & tying closed. Alternately you could attach the tape to the point itself, wrapping & tying the housewife closed with a single end, rather than two.

11. Stuff your housewife with all manner of things, from sewing supplies to your cell phone, id & money. Fold up, wrap the tie around & knot securely. Successfully add one more period accoutrement to your collection.

What A Cat-astrophe

2008-02-22T13:26:00.006-06:00

What a catastrophe!

I washed my beloved green mitts. Scrubbed them lovingly with my favorite handmade lye soap, wrung them out and draped them over the edge of the bathtub to dry. Later that day I went into the bathroom only to discover the above. One of my mitts had been eaten. Not by giant moths but by the furry monsters that call themselves my cats! Don't let the innocent looks fool you. These are cold hearted knitting killers!

Oh I was livid! The only positive to come out of this catastrophe, was that the mitt they destroyed was the first one, the one with the accidental yarn-overs, twisted stitches & other first time errors. Since no particular culprit was found at the scene of the crime, I accused both cats. Mr. Mistofelees attempted to kiss up by laying nicely on my lap as I diligently knitted a replacement mitt. Barley Mow chose to snuggle at my side while I slept, purring away.

The replacement mitt only took a day to complete, with no errors and surprisingly no need to back track for accidental yarn-overs. The thumb gusset took a bit of thought, since I've obviously forgotten how I did it the first two times. However, I now have two "good" mitts, a full pair. No more feeling the need to hide my hand or explain that one was my learner.

Still, I've moved the yarn basket to the top of my shelves, well out of the reach of the yarn eating monsters!

Extant Inspiration

2008-02-18T02:35:00.001-06:00

Apparently using ClipMarks for notes saves the photos and text, even after the original source is gone.

This is a stomacher that I've lusted over for nearly a year. It's almost enough to make me learn embroidery. I am adding it to my "future sack-back gown ideas" mental folder and sharing it here for the other lovers of historic clothing.

clipped from www.vintagetextile.com

Superb English stomacher c.1730

The stomacher, which was a part of fashion from the 16th to 18th centuries,
was generally moved from one gown to another, like
a piece of jewelry. Elaborate embroidery, sometimes
including jewels, covered its surface.

Superb English stomacher c.1730

The polychrome
hand embroidery is executed in silk and bronze metallic
floss on a ground of écru linen. The stomacher
is backed with linen.

It measures 11" long by 7 3/4" wide, excluding the
tabs.

Tied in Knots

2008-02-14T00:12:00.003-06:00

I learned an interesting, unintentional lesson at Reenactorfest this past weekend.

The way your stays are laced significantly effects the way your stays fit & feel.

Saturday S laced me up. Since she rarely laces me into my stays, I walked her through the basics of spiral lacing. Over from one side, under the other. Despite not having worn my stays for nearly 2 months they were still comfortable. Bending, moving, dancing, nothing felt wrong or off about them.

Sunday S laced me in again, however this time I didn't walk her though the lacing pattern. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why they felt different. My arm pits felt bruised. I checked and it wasn't the reeds under my arms poking. I thought perhaps it was from the stays being stored flat over the winter, and the adjustment of wearing them for long periods of time after months off. As it turned out, I was subconsciously pushing my stays down with my arms, resulting in the bruised feeling under my arms. But why were they bothering me Sunday when they were fine on Saturday?

I found out when I got changed; S had laced me wrong. Rather than under one side, over the other she had laced me over one side, over the other, as if she was lacing one side of a shoe lace.

I never knew how much difference stay lacing could cause. From now on, I'll be keeping a closer eye on how my lacer does their job.

Of course it's even more encouragement to make a pair of front lacing stays for myself.

A Pretty Penny

2008-02-05T20:39:00.001-06:00

So called the Pretty Penny Ball Gown due to the beautiful shining copper color of the fabric. This gown flew off the needle, taking only 2 days from cutting to completion.

Pattern: JP Ryan Robe a l'Anglaise. The same pattern used for my 1770 Polonaise.

Inspiration comes from various sources including, gown #2 in Fitting & Proper by Sharon Ann Burnston, Koshka the Cat's green & gold 1770 gown, endless image searches of the V&A archives and the National Portrait Gallery.

Fabric: 100% silk in an amazing copper color, possibly a mild dupioni or light taffeta. The slubs in the bodice became more apparent when the fabric was stretched (some appeared due to pins while fitting) but otherwise it's rather smooth with a lovely rustle. I purchased the fabric this time last year intending to make a 1690's mantua. In fact I had already cut out the basic shape of the mantua and assembled the main side seams & gores. In a very true to 18th century mentality, I ripped out the seams, laid the fabric flat & re-cut the yardage. I was able to fit all of the bodice & sleeve pieces on both the mantua's side gores. The remainder was used for the four skirt panels.

Trim: I cheated twice on the pleated trim for this gown. First, while I love the reproduction pinking tools I had neither the time, nor the money to acquire one. Instead I took advantage of my modern options & used a pinking blade in my rotary cutter. Second, for the lengths of the pleating I used the ruffle foot on my sewing machine. This leaves a visible machine stitching line down the center of the pleats. To eliminate that, without loosing the pleating, I used long-short backstitches to attach the trim to the gown, catching each pleat with the short stitch. All that was left was pulling out the machine sewing for perfect pleats & no machine sewing.

I realized while I was doing these cheats that it isn't, for me at least, an issue of "if they would have had it, they would have used it", a common reenactorism. For me it's an issue that "I have it, I *am* going to use it" (but I'm going to make it look like I didn't)

I have not yet added the loops for polonaising the skirts. I also still have to decide on a color for the petticoat. I do have a few pieces of the copper silk left over. However, it's long than it is wide. I could either run the join horizontally and place a ruffle over the join to hide it. Or I could attempt to hide the joins vertically in the pleats. The other option is some blue silk. It's very pretty but a very stubbly dupioni.

I'll be wearing this gown, with the usual adornments and possibly a new hat, at the Reenactorfest 4 (Chicago) ball on Saturday night. I'm looking forward to several period dances, although I will probably sit the modern dancing out.

This gown is up for the current Craftster challenge. My entry is way down at the bottom THE PRETTY PENNY BALL GOWN. If you're so inclined, feel free to vote for me.

Bootleggers & Bathtub Gin

2008-01-25T13:32:00.002-06:00

J& I popped out for Prohibition Night yesterday, which in my historically obsessed brain translates to "new clothes!".

My circa 1927 dress, inspired by a sketch in Nora Waugh's Cut of Women's Clothes (p. 290) Made from Potting Soil & Turquoise colored jersey knit. The belt is lined with heavy duty interfacing to remove the knit stretch. I made the scarf separately & blind stitched it to the already faced neckline. It was the fastest, easiest solution I could come up with. Took about a day to make, machine sewing is such a nice change!

Underneath I'm wearing a really quick slip made from a few rectangles of silky fabric from stash & some bias tape for the straps. I whipped it up about 30 minutes before getting dressed. It's just enough to keep the knit from getting too clingy. No, I'm not showing it! I also wore a sports bra & control underwear to slim my shape to the right 20's silhouette. Call it the modern version of a girdle.

The hat is from a resized children's pattern. Made from uncut corduroy in the same shade of Potting Soil that I just happened to have (I have grand plans to use it to make slipcovers for my living room chairs). It's lined in the left over turquoise knit, interfaced again to remove stretch & provide a little stiffness. The flower is just some scraps to give the hat a little punch.

Unfortunately Prohibition Night at our local bar was a flop. We'll have to go to the gatherings in the next city over to be around a big crowd. Although the band did play one of their 20's sets for us & we made some new friends. Plus, I won't complain about a night out in period clothes

Here We Come a Wassailing

2008-01-03T22:36:00.000-06:00

Here we come a wassailing among the leaves so green, Here we come a wandering so fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you and to your wassail too
And God bless you and send you a happy New Year
And God send you a happy New Year.

Wassail falls into that category of 18th century foods that people have heard of, but never tried. For our new years celebration I made a batch! As it turns out, wassail is an acquired taste, most of the people who tried it like it, but don't go rushing back for a second cup. I on the other hand, have a new favorite winter beverage.

Traditionally wassail is a spiced beer, with apples and spices, one of many variations of warmed alcohol our forefathers enjoyed. Modern versions are closer to spiced apple cider than spiced beer. We just don't consume beer as regularly as they did in the 18th century. It used to be a regular drink, not limited to adults and happy hour, but good for everyone. Breweries were some of the first businesses established when colonization began. Immigrants were often advised to wean themselves off it slowly when coming to the colonies since the shock of going to straight water could make them ill.

Following is my favorite Wassail recipe, the one that I have been keeping in my beautiful narrow jug from J. Henderson

Wassail

2 pints and 1/4 cup English or brown ale
3-4 cinnamon sticks
4 cloves
Zest from 1/2 lemon
4 apples
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup good red wine
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground all spice
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

In a large sauce pan, pour in 2 pints of ale. Add the cinnamon sticks, lemon zest and cloves and bring to a simmer over low heat.

Core & score the apples with a knife. Place in a baking dish. Pack one cup of brown sugar into the apple centers. Pour over all of the wine. Cover baking dish and place in oven, cooking for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.

While apples are baking, place remaining sugar and spices into the sauce pan, ensuring it's well mixed.

When apples are done baking, place entire contents of baking dish into sauce pan. Allow to cook over a low heat for another 30-40 minutes.

Serve hot!

Little Bits of Mitts

2007-12-12T14:02:00.000-06:00

(insert a chorus of exuberant cheering here)

I finished my knitted fingerless mitts yesterday! I've been wearing them since, & I have to say, they are the best things around. I'm sitting here typing & my hands are actually too warm, when does that happen?

Thanks to sitting down and talking out how to insert the thumb with the General's Wife, it went rather smoothly. I did end up frogging down on the 2nd thumb about 2 rows thanks to an accidental yarn over but that was really all. I was determined to have at least 1 mitt that didn't have a huge visible error. Of course in both you can still see the line where I change from 1 needle to the next. It's not terribly obtrusive, but it's still there if you look. I'm not sure what to do about that. Is that just part of knitting in the round?I thought I was doing pretty well with keeping the first stitch tight in the transition.

Unlike the first mitt! That was the learner right? Because it certainly looks it! Can you tell in the pictures which is which? I am actually toying with either frogging all the way down to the first YO error or starting a third mitt just to have a "perfect" pair. By the time I got to the palm on the 1st, I had to do no less than 6 K2tog to get it back to the proper stitch count. Oi!

Still, I'm going to wear these for the Historic Holiday event this weekend. They are perfect for playing the mandolin without freezing my hands off. Plenty of space for my fingers to move, not to bulky in the palm, well fitted but flexible in the thumb and best of all, they are long enough (elbow length) to keep my bare forearms covered and warm!

I did learn something during this project. I prefer knitting in the round. I don't purl so well & like the look of a stockinette stitch best. The natural solution, knit in the round. No purl and yet you get a stockinette stitched item.

Next up on the needles, 18th century mittens from the Mara Riley pattern. Should they be in the yellow that the Generals Wife gave me, or the left over green? Should they be for myself or for L? Should I start them today or save them for this weekend? Should I contact the CDC about this infectious knitting disease?

Back to the Future

2007-12-06T15:34:00.001-06:00

My tentative 2008 schedule is here!

2008 Event Calendar

February
8-10 Reenactor Fest 4; Arlington Heights, IL
23-24 OshKosh Trade Show; Oshkosh, WI
? Character Workshop, McHenry, IL

March
15-16 Military through the Ages; Jamestown, VA

April
25-26 *The Gathering at Macktown; Rockton, IL

May
2-4 *Bloody Lake Rendezvous; Woodford, WI
17-18 *Seno Woodland Center; Kenosha, WI
17-18 --Janesville Ren Faire; Janesville, WI
24-25 Fort Koshkonong; Fort Atkinson, WI

June
6-8 Historic Ft. Wayne; Ft. Wayne, IN
6-8 Port Washington Pirate Festival; Port Washington, WI
14 --Maritime Festival; Saint Mary’s City, MD

July
3-12 Private Event; Washington Island, WI
12-13 Gathering on the Theatiki; Bourbonnais, IL
19-20 Bristol Renaissance Faire; Bristol, WI
26-27 Fort St. Joseph Community weekend; Niles, MI

August
1-3 *Pike River Rendezvous; Kenosha, WI
8-10 Pirates at Payneton; Burlington, IN
16-17 Frenchman’s Frolic; Rockford, IL
22-25 --Treasure Island; Jersey, Channel Islands, England
31-Sept 3 Baraboo Rendezvous; Baraboo, WI

September
20-21 *Kohkohmah & Foster Encampment; Kokokmo, IN
27-28 Pioneer Autumn Festival; Belvidere, IL

October
10-12 *Mississinewa 1812; Marion, IN
18-19 *Trail of History; McHenry, IL

November
1st ONWC Colonial Ball; Janesville, WI
8? --Lock House; Harve De Grace, MD

In a way my mind is spinning thinking about doing so many events in one year. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to miss anything either. I know that there is already a conflict between the Janesville Ren. Faire that I've gone to in the past 2 years and the Seno event in Kenosha. I also know that it's possible I won't get out to the east coast for either the Saint Mary's City or the Lock House events, although I do want to at least try. While I'm having a hard time with travel arrangements, I *must* do MTA in March. It's Jamestown for Pete's sake, there is no way I can pass that up! The same goes for the big Jersey event. It's going to take some heavy duty planning but as J says "this is your resume". The events that I attend, the work that I do, the time I take, this is basically my "career" right now and I need to build it. Plus I'm never one to do things half way. It's all the way or nothing.

Original Inspiration

2007-11-12T21:34:00.001-06:00

Wow. This cotton 18th century round gown is amazing. Thankfully it's both extremely expensive and wouldn't fit me! But this is good inspiration. I've been thinking of making a round gown in linen for camp wear during the hot summer months. Honestly it's also because I'm in love with the round gown look & just want one to wear.

clipped from www.vintagetextile.com

Cotton block print gown, c.1780

While most late 18th century gowns were in the open robe style, others—like this one—were closed in front. The skirt front has an adjustable drop panel that allows the wearer to step into the gown—see the detail picture below.

The condition is almost excellent. The minor flaws include two small (1/4") holes
on the skirt and a few faded spots in the same vicinity. There is no underarm damage. The waistline
seam has been reset several times, but the original pleating pattern of the skirt was not altered. Everything
else is all original.

Had a Ball, at the Ball

2007-11-04T15:54:00.000-06:00

A quick wrap up of the ONW, Colonial Ball, which until I arrived last night, I had no idea were the same event. It was a nice surprise though, to see friends I wasn't expecting & to meet some new people.

Prior to the ball J, W, L & I headed over to the college to take advantage of their settings for some photographs. This is part of my new project of getting really good photos of all my clothing. Part of my goal is to have a large portfolio of photos for jurying into events, part is for posterity; 40 years from now I'll be able to look back & say "this is what I did etc" and part is for current sharing rights with my on-line friends.

The last one is one of my favorites. I really liked all the ones we took inside but most of them weren't focused very well. Part trouble with the camera, part trouble with the lighting. The secret to that last picture is that I'm glaring at L for trying to make me laugh. I was having a very hard time keeping a straight face. There is something that's just not right about grinning like a Cheshire Cat while in 18th century clothes!

Baby Got Back

2007-10-31T22:54:00.000-05:00

or the modestly endowed ladies guide to enhancing her god given assets with a false rump.

Step 1: Collect you supplies

Sheet of tin foil, unused please.
Fabric. In this case, left over 6oz linen from lining the Hunting Coat

Stuffing. Lots & lots of stuffing.
Sewing thread. In this case, linen of course.

2 Waist Tapes. Enough to go around your waist and tie in the front. I ended up using slightly narrower than normal cotton tape since I seem to have run out of my standard 1/2" wide linen tape (again)

Step 2: The Tin Foil Form

Form the tin foil into a long snake. Using your duct tape dummy, or yourself, bend the tin foil in a curve around your waist, just above you're "assets".

Step 3: The Pattern

Carefully remove the tin foil pattern. Laying it on your 1/4 folded fabric. Trace the curve and sketch a similar lower curve to create the kidney shaped rump.

Step 4: The Cutting

Cut out the pattern, remembering to leave extra for seam allowance. Be sure to get 2 full kidney shapes, one for the top and one for the bottom of the rump.

Step 5: The Sewing

Leave both pieces together if they were cut together, or lay one piece on top of the other. Tuck one end of each waist tape between the layers at the point of the kidney shape. Start from slightly off center in the inner curve and sew around the shape until you reach a similar point on the opposite of the inner curve. Don't forget to leave an opening for turning & stuffing.

Step 6: The Flip & The Stuff

Flip the fabric right side out. Press if you are feeling particular. If not, begin stuffing. Start with the narrowest areas and stuff in small clumps until your rump feels nice & firm, like a strangely shaped pillow.

Step 7: Close It Up

Pin the opening and carefully hand sew (blind or whip stitch works well) the opening closed.

Step 8: My Rumps

Tie the rump underneith your outer petticoat. The extra padding tends to make the back side of the skirt higher. If you intend to wear a rump with a particular petticoat or gown on a regular basis, make the rear panel longer to compensate for the added size. Alternately, wait to hem your gown until wearing the rump to ensure proper length all around.

Step 9: The Jokes

Proceed to make as many jokes about "rumps" "back" "ass" etc while wearing what amounts to an 18th century travel pillow on your backside. Marvel at a time period where even JLo would need extra padding to pull off a fashionable silhouette.

**Seriously, apologies to my more sensitive readers for the butt jokes. J threatened to send them in as comments if I didn't title the post after his favorite Sir-Mix-A-Lot song. And honestly when you're hopped up on Halloween candy & sewing a false rump at midnight, everything is funny**

Historical Halloween 2007

2007-10-28T14:42:00.000-05:00

Since I was already working on the 4 day Polonaise Project for the Colonial Ball next weekend, I took advantage of Halloween to do a trial run of the gown.

I very quickly "polonaised" the gown by gathering up the back in two places and stitching the gathers with a sturdy linen thread; the same I used to make the green lucet cord I tie my stays with. This isn't a perminant solution, just something so that I didn't have to worry about evening out the hem while in a rush to get to a Halloween party. I plan on evening the hem in the coming week and possibly wearing the skirt down for the ball with a false rump underneith instead.

I wore my standard other clothes, brown fully boned stays, regular shift, white petticoat, lavender cotton stocking and buckle shoes. I left off the neckerchief & did "spoobs" instead (this was Halloween at the bar after all). The fake wig that I purchased turned out to be mispackaged, so I wore my pleated cap & straw hat instead. I also found some white face powder and played up the 18th century "white face" look with that & some red lipstick. In the photos you can almost see the velvet beauty patch I made in the shape of a dancer, the simple choker of white fake pearls and the guillotine gash that J painted for me.

Unfortunately no one at the bar "got" the costume. I thought for once it would be semi clear, but again people asked if I was Amish. Yeah, when was the last time you saw an Amish woman with cleavage. Idiots. But at least I know the gown fits & is comfortable. I'm looking forward to the ball next weekend and being around people who will appreciate the work I put in.

Day 4: Polonaise

2007-10-28T14:21:00.000-05:00

The final day in the 4 day Polonaise Project!

The night before the skirt had been roughly pleated and attached to the bodice. Today's tasks consisted of refining the pleats and attaching the skirt to the bodice. Luckily I had plenty of cat help from Barley Mow

To start I based the pleats in place to eliminate shifting as the bodice & skirt came together. Next I finished the top 4 inches of the front facing with a 1" wide doubled hem, whip stitched closed. Next I worked from the front to as close to the center dip as I could. The skirt starts about 4" from the center of my hip, right at about the same place that my petticoats overlap. This is flattering, leaves enough that I can still get into my pockets and leaves enough of the front V as well.

I also left about 2" extra on either side of the very bottom of the bodice V for a final inset box pleat. This wasn't 100% intentional but it was easier to leave the pleat until the rest of the skirt was attached. Then the center back pleat is set in by hand, the extra fabric whip stitched in line with the other pleats to keep everything tidy.

For the front bottom of the bodice, I folded the seam allowance for both the lining & the outer in on each other and whip stitched them in place with the smallest stitches I could stand.

Finally I folded the front facing of the bodice over and whip stitched it into place. The original pattern suggests using hook and eyes along the center front but I nixed that idea. To begin with, I like the adjustability of pinning my bodice closed. Second it eliminated needing to make the bodice front "straight" or in my case, not straight. I found when I pin the front the top over laps significantly more than bottom. Closing with hook and eyes would mean I have to make the front edge just match. Entirely too much work in my mind when I could just let it over lap how ever it needs too and pin in place.

The final gown on Sticky, with my green wool petticoat & a simple silk neckerchief (& J's straw tricorn where I hide all the feathers out of cat reach)

Day 3: Polonaise

2007-10-28T14:06:00.001-05:00

Day three wasn't a highly productive day in the four day polonaise project.

The sleeve outers had already been mocked up and roughly set into the arm scye. All that had to be done was sew them in place for the long term. To do this I followed the same technique I had learned while doing the sleeves on the Hunting Frock/Riding Habit.

First, I caught the outer & lining along the bodice side of the arm scye while setting in the sleeve. Next I attached the sleeve liner to the cuff edge of the sleeve. The lining is pulled up and whip stitched over the bodice to sleeve seam, leaving a nice, covered interior.

Just like at the neckline, I folded the wool outer over the linen liner at the sleeve cuffs and whip stitched the outer in place. I prefer this finish and like that it provides a nice stable spot to baste later sleeve ruffles without wearing on the lighter linen lining.

The semi finished bodice. The only unfinished seams are along the bottom edge where the skirt will be attached and along the front center. I'm saving the front center seam for last so that it's as neat & tidy as possible.

After the sleeves where set in & the lining completed I still had some sewing energy, so I got a head start on the skirts. I sewed the two skirt panels together along the back center and roughly pleated the skirt in place. I left plentiful amounts of fabric at the front opening, both for the facing and because the wool didn't pleat as tightly as a lighter fabric would have. Frankly there was just more in the skirt piece than was needed. Still not enough to have made a round gown out of the scraps though.

Day 2: Polonaise

2007-10-28T13:56:00.000-05:00

Day two of the four day polonaise project was spent laying out the outer wool, getting up the nerve to cut into it and fitting it over the lining.

Fitting the outer follows the same steps as fitting the lining, only now the goal is to line up the outer and lining as much as possible. Pins, pins and more pins are essential in this process. I sometimes call it "sewing with pins".

By the end of the evening I had also sewn the sleeves together and was roughly fitting them into the arm scye. Note the nice little pleats on the back of the shoulder being held together with pins.

I also turned under the seam allowance around the neckline and whip stitched it in place. I'm amazed at how nice my hand sewing has become in just under a year. I used to sew with these big Frankenstein stitches, and now they are actually neat and even enough that I want to show them off.

At this point in the project I had stopped following the directions that came with the pattern (naturally). I ended up relying on the techniques I learned in other projects and finished interior photos I've seen on-line.

While I could have turned under both the lining and the outer around the neck and done something like machine top stitching and/or prickstitching, I prefer the wool covering the linen. The flannel doesn't fray and will wear better around the neck. While in the end removing the lining for replacement will mean completely dismantling the bodice, I think the long term benefit of having a more sturdy edge will out weigh the possible non-historically based construction.