April: Buttons and Fastenings

April's challenge was buttons and fastenings, and at first I was completely stumped by that prompt! Ladies' clothing in the 18th century doesn't have cool fastenings, or at least not ones that are both functional and pretty! I contemplated sewing a riding habit, and making death's head buttons to go on it, but I don't really need another riding habit, or anything else with buttons. I started looking at different extant garments in online collections, and kept finding myself drawn to yellow silk jackets and gowns - then inspiration struck! I could make a yellow silk jacket with a stomacher, which functions as the fastener, since it keeps the jacket closed.

The stomacher goes on first, pinned to the stays, and then the jacket pins closed to the edges

 I quickly realized that I could expand this project. After all, one of the things that I'm most passionate about is self expression through historical fashions, and this was a great interpretive opportunity. If I added black bows to the stomacher and paired it with a black petticoat, I could talk about how fashion is interpreted in both the 18th and the 21st century, and hopefully draw parallels between the two.

In the 18th century, after the American Revolution, black was often seen as a color that showed support for the new American government. We may wear red, white, and blue to be patriotic today, but black would have also been recognized as a patriotic color in the late 1770's through the 1790's. So, in the 18th century, my black petticoat shows that I am most definitely not a loyalist!

It's only fitting that I began this project while watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs!

In the 21st century, my outfit can be interpreted a little differently. Specific colors and color pairings in clothing today often represent support for a specific team or school, and I wanted my new jacket and petticoat to do that too. Even though I live in Virginia now, I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and all of Pittsburgh's teams have the same color scheme: black and yellow (gold). As someone who loves hockey, I can dress like a bumblebee to show my support for the Penguins!

The entire outfit is silk, and the jacket is lined with linen. I won't be able to wear it every day at work, although I should be able to wear it on days at the Capitol or the Palace, when I can be a little bit fancier. I was very fortunate however to be presented with an opportunity to wear my new ensemble almost right away! Colonial Williamsburg hosts a spring garden party every year that is an incredible event, and one of my friends invited me to go with her! I finished my jacket and petticoat in time, and also helped two of my friends pattern and sew new gowns to wear as well!

I even got to wear a wig to the party! And it had a bird in it!

The garden party was wonderful, and the fireworks at the end were fantastic!

For the actual construction of the garments, I didn't do anything too fancy. I leaned pretty heavily on the J. P. Ryan Ladies' Jacket pattern, as well as a few extant garments in the V&A and the Met in order to draft my pattern, and simply added bows to the stomacher. I did have to hem all of the ribbon by hand, as you simply can't find good, wide, taffeta ribbon anymore, even though it was available in the 18th century.

The ribbons decreased in size as they went down the stomacher, which looks great, but takes some planning!

The petticoat was also pretty simple, I sewed a standard petticoat and then added ribbon I had cut from the same silk, with the edges pinked, and then gathered.

April was such a nice month that I could sew outside most days!

Pinked and gathered trim...

...courtesy of my awesome pinking shears!

 I was delighted to meet a few people at the Garden Party who recognized my outfit's nod to Pennsylvania, and it was a lot of fun to dive in to discussions about the evolution of color and self expression over the last 250 years of fashion!

Talking about fashion history while sewing at work is obviously one of my favorite things!

I am eventually planning to sew some matching garters for this ensemble, but until then I will simply say... Let's go Pens!

Day 22: Event

Sometimes, the projects that you plan for the longest get sewn in the last possible minute, and the shortest amount of time. That was certainly the case for my graduation dress, at the very least! I'd been planning what I wanted - something 1950's style, mostly green with gold accents - for most of my senior year, and I purchased the fabric and pattern (Simplicity 1459) around Christmas time. I searched diligently for gold accents, like a belt or shoes, but struggled to find anything that I liked. I also put off sewing the dress in order to work on other commissions and to focus on my studies.

Finally, with just a few days left until graduation, I cut out the pattern and got to work. The dress came together very quickly, and the pattern couldn't have been easier to follow, but unfortunately I was very tired the night I worked on it. I needed less than three hours to sew the dress, but because I was so tired by the end I made one small mistake. I didn't discover the mishap until I put the dress on the morning of graduation however, and tried to put my ID in the pocket I had added - I'd sewn the pocket in the wrong seam! Instead of the pocket being on my right hand side, I had put it in the middle front of the skirt! Thankfully, the skirt was full enough that it wasn't noticeable, and I was wearing my graduation gown for most of the morning anyway.

However, this serves as a good reminder - don't sew your clothing the night before an event, and if you absolutely must, please make sure that you're not loopy from lack of sleep!

A Busy Spring!

This spring has been incredible! I have had so many wonderful opportunities, and I am really enjoying being a part of the historical reenactment community. There have been a ton of events that I've had the privilege to attend, and many of them inspired the outfits I've been posting about recently. So, because I want to encourage everyone to go to more awesome events and support historic sites, and also because I want to share more pretty pictures, here's an update on my spring!

Things really got started for me in March, with Military Through the Ages (MTA). This is an event that is hosted by Jamestown every year, and is a ton of fun. It's a timeline event, which means that it's open to all sorts of period portrayals, and it's neat to see so many different impressions all in one place.

I attended the event with the College Company, part of the 7th Virginia Regiment. They're a great group to hang out with, and it was a lot of fun to be in our camp. However, there were also sutlers at the event, and so I got to shop as well! I've been working to expand my kit in a practical way, so I bought a horn spoon, some scissors from Burnley and Trowbridge, and a little knife. So far, the scissors have been my most-used accessory, as having historical scissors allows me to sew more at events!

By far one of the best purchases I have ever made!

The weekend after MTA was Scotchtown! This is an event put on by Patrick Henry's Scotchtown, and allows visitors to the house to see a little bit of everything reenacting has to offer! Outside, some of the guys were doing military drills and firing demonstrations. Inside the house, two of my friends and I worked on our sewing in the parlor. We then decided it would be fun to be characters from history, so I became Patrick Henry's oldest daughter, Fiona was my sister, and our other friend played a family friend. There was a man portraying Patrick Henry talking to guests in another room, so after giving him a small heads-up that we were now his children, we spent a good deal of the afternoon acting out various scenes from 1776, much to the delight of Scotchtown's visitors! This was, without a doubt, one of my favorite moments in interpretation so far!

A cute family photo

We spent part of the afternoon cooking, and even though our colonial cookery needs some work, it was an incredible experience to work in an 18th century kitchen, and prepare food on the same table that was used to cook the Henry family dinners!


After Scotchtown we took a little break, and then jumped back into things with the Fort Frederick Market Fair! For someone who loves both shopping and history, this was an awesome event. There were so many sutlers in attendance, and I loved looking at all of their wares! Because I didn't want to be too impulsive, I made a list before going of the things I needed, and gave myself a budget for each item. I stayed under budget, and I got everything I needed!

I bought the twill tape for my new petticoat first thing in the morning from a blanket sale, and that was my only impulse buy of the day. I then shopped around, eventually buying a new straw hat, a great little basket to hold my sewing and other supplies, an awl, two thread winders, and a pair of earrings. The straw hat came from Burnley and Trowbridge, the awl came from Royal Blue Traders (I have just discovered them, and I am completely enamored), and the earrings came from one of my favorite sutlers, K. Walters at the Sign of the Gray Horse.

It was important for me to buy things like the basket, thread winders, and earrings, because I need things to have and use at my new job - with Colonial Williamsburg! That's right, my dreams are all coming true, because on March 15th I was hired to work as an Orientation Interpreter with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation! I start on May 23rd, and I couldn't be more excited!

There was a historical grocer at Fort Fred, and even though I didn't buy any of his wares, I really enjoyed learning more about the things he had on display. Dobyns and Martin has an awesome interpretation, and Mr. Dobyns was so nice!

The weekend after Fort Fred, I got to put all of my new materials to good use! That Friday was the last day of classes for everyone, so after bidding goodbye to all of our professors we jumped in the car and headed up to Mount Vernon for the National Event they were hosting! I was very excited for the event, but I was not excited to be sleeping outside for two nights. I've camped out a few times before - my first time was when I was very little, and my Uncle Doug set up a tent in the backyard for us when I came to visit. Then I camped out in my best friend's backyard a few times in the same manner. The only true camping I had done was when I went to the beach with the same friend and we stayed in a tent, but there were showers on-site. There were no showers at Mount Vernon. However, I did get a tent to myself, because I was the only girl who stayed the night!

As much as I hated sleeping outside (it was cold and it rained the second night), the event was incredible. I got to see my friends from the 7th VA again, as well as getting to socialize with the German Regiment. The skirmish in the morning was well done, and in the midst of the fighting, I saw a familiar face! In the generals standing behind the Continental line, there was a man who could only be the Marquis de Lafayette! After the skirmish, my friends and I introduced ourselves, and took a couple of pictures. We went to hear him speak later on, and he was a fantastic Lafayette.

Isn't he a great Lafayette?

The day ended for the public with a battle, and even though the Continental line won in the morning, the Red Coats won in the afternoon. I got a lot of sewing done during the day, including sewing black silk ribbons from Burnley and Trowbridge onto my new hat! In the evening, we all ate dinner, and then enjoyed the food and drink Mount Vernon set out for us as we sang songs and had fun. I was sad to leave the reenactment the next morning, but I was very happy to go home and take a warm shower!

I love this photo!

Sewing the ribbons onto my hat while the soldiers prepare for battle

A few of us hanging out beside the 7th VA's dining fly - they had the sweetest strawberries I've ever tasted!

Finally, one last event before heading home for a week - a cricket match! I've been attending the practices of the Capital Cricket Club in CW for a few weeks now, and I'm really enjoying playing a sport (incredible, I know)! So, I was very excited for the opportunity to spend a Saturday playing cricket with so many wonderful friends in 18th Century clothing at Bacon's Castle. The morning started with a ferry ride across the James River, which was fun, and once we arrived we split into teams. I was playing for Governor Berkeley's team, and I am proud to announce that we beat Bacon's Rebels! While I enjoy every event, it was nice to do something in kit that didn't revolve around the military, and this event really gave me the chance to socialize with everyone. There was even a brief moment of dancing in the middle of the day, which is one of my favorite colonial past times, and was a definite highlight of the weekend.

A moment of play, while my team was fielding - I'm on the far right

Keeping score while my team was striking; we ended up scoring over 100 points!

I am so blessed to have had such a fantastic spring, and I am looking forward to a great summer!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I intended to publish the above post much earlier, but I was waiting to get all of the photos before I could publish it! However, in the meantime, I've had a few more exciting events, so I thought that I would share those as well in this post.

At the end of finals, Colonial Williamsburg had a sale on a few fabrics, so I ran down the street to Mary Dickson's store and purchased a few yards of lovely cottons to make some new jackets out of!

"Serpentine Vines" and "Wythe House Midnight"

After taking all of my finals, moving out of my on-campus apartment and into a house in Williamsburg, I drove back home to PA in my new car! I got to visit with my parents and some friends for a few days, as well as making a trip up to Massachusetts to visit some of my extended family. But, nine days after leaving Virginia, I was back in Williamsburg, and ready to start working!

I absolutely love my job. My coworkers are the best people on the planet, I get to work in buildings that many of my heroes spent time in, and I get to talk to wonderful people about my favorite subjects.

I also get to wear pretty clothes and sew at work! The stays on my lap are almost complete, so expect a post about them soon!

Finally, since I'm essentially a Virginia resident for the rest of my life now (one of my friends has even been trying to get me to get a VA driver's license already), I have really been enjoying getting to know the people in my community, and not just the people on campus. I'm ecstatic to be playing cricket with the Capitol Cricket Club, and I love going to English Country Dance meetings every week.

This Monday's costumed cricket match at Basset Hall - my team won by three points, and it was a great game! In this photo I have just sent the ball flying, and the fielders are running to catch it while I'm ready to run for the other wicket.

I couldn't be happier to be in Williamsburg, surrounded by history, and getting to spend my life with incredible people doing my favorite things.

I love this picture from Mount Vernon, and wanted to slip it in this post too! My friend Jack is trying to get more reenactors to go barefoot whenever possible, and I just love the way we look in our civilian clothes approaching the soldiers and walking towards Washington's home.