Volunteering at an 18th century French fort!

 So as crummy as the first half of my year was with losing two beloved pets, a delightful new opportunity has opened up for me and I'm enjoying it tremendously. Fort de Chartres, the big French stone fort about half an hour from me, has been looking for volunteers so that it can open its little trading post at regular times when the talented and incredibly knowledgeable Fort gardener Carol (see the Jardin Potager site for her well-researched work) is around, or the Les Amis du Fort de Chartres is having a meeting, and/or the gun club is having a shoot in back of the fort.   

 

Me with my basket of sewing... I got most of my Burnley & Trowbridge wrapping gown sewn on that day! You can see the bake oven under the canopy in back.

I first got to volunteer in the Trading Post during the summer Rendezvous, and I jumped at the chance, because as much as I like setting up camp and sitting under the fly watching the passers-by watching us, it's not the best opportunity for talking history to people. Most visitors are a bit wary of interrupting people in the camps and it's more of a tourist viewing experience than a history-learning opportunity (...plus uh some of the 18thc 'history' being portrayed is a bit dubious in some camps... I see you, flour sack 'blouses' and cabbage-rose Victorian skirts 😂).  

 I've read a LOT about the local French colonial history, and understand some of the nuance and complex interplay between the French colonists, the local Native tribes (the more settled tribes were the Metchigamea with a village very close by, the Tamaroa, the Kaskaskia, and the Cahokia peoples, but there were others who would sweep in to war with and raid the settled tribes), and the enslaved Africans brought by the French. But I'm not comfortable calling myself a full-fledged interpreter just yet, and am still learning from people who have been doing it for a while. I don't want to cultivate a single persona at the moment -- although I hope to pursue something along the lines of one of the few women who made it here from France -- most of the women married by the male French settlers were either Native or were hardy French-Canadian women who had a generation or two of the New World underneath them.

So in that regard, staffing the Trading Post is ideal for me, because I can share some of what I know, but being in a building that sells modern coffee mugs and t-shirts with pictures of the Fort on it, nobody's going to mistake me for some kind of expert, haha! The Trading Post is also not an original historic building -- the buying and selling would have been done out of one of the governmental structures on the property: large, long stone buildings that also housed offices, soldiers' barracks, grain and goods storage, and more.

But I so enjoy having the chance to dress up and go down with a purpose. It doesn't hurt that the Trading Post has air-conditioning because it is extreeemely muggy down at the Fort when hot, since it's in the rich 'American Bottom' area, near the Mississippi River, bounded by tall bluffs on either side (and no breeze, like, ever).

 

Always excited to get in the car and drive down the hill to the Fort

 

 

Kinda looks like I'm outside an 18thc tavern, but no such luck, just my workplace for the day, haha.

 

Volunteering with Keni, a sweet lady with Friends of the Fort

 

 

I've been kind of wearing stuff I already had, but I wanted a cuter cap, so I made the JP Ryan Dormeuse in cotton (I have a fancy sheer one in silk) and it's been serving me well.

For Rendezvous, I did bust out the cotton sacque for the first time in a couple of years, and it was so sunshiney-looking that people loved it!

Never quite ready to go home at the end of the day... these are the times I wish I could just stay in 18thc clothing for the whole week.

 

 

Oh! I forgot! I did make the shoes above. Knowing I might need to be on my feet all day, and having a bad ankle and bad knees, I wanted some super flat, super comfy, 18thc-passing shoes. All I had to do was cut out uppers (from black velvet, in this case) with latchets that would work with shoe buckles, and I sewed them onto the all-fabric-upper of some Target memory-foam flats. They have been great so far and I wish I'd bought a couple more pairs so I could make more cloth shoes!

 

The original shoe:

 

I used the sturdy wool from my 1890s jacket to back the latchets and give them some stiffness

Eventually I swapped these buckles out for some non-bedazzled plainer silver buckles, but you get the idea. Everything's bound with black grosgrain ribbon, which works out great for going around curves. Very comfortable, very easy, only took me parts of a weekend, really!
 

1870s summer white, and a picnic

 The StL Georgians (I can't get used to not calling it that, even though the group has branched out into other eras) had a picnic this summer, and it was going to be toasty. My Victorian wardrobe is quite limited so far because I'm a little too in love with the 18th century to really commit to other eras, but I have an 1870s ballgown that has yet to be worn; so what about using the pretty pink skirt from it?  I was having quite a joint pain flare-up and just couldn't countenance wearing a corset that weekend, so this got me thinking... were there any semi-loose, semi-cool summer garments in this era? I went to the fashion plates for answers and found the following:

 

 

 

Sure, they're all most likely being worn with the usual underpinnings, it would have rarely been proper NOT to, but I felt like they were all loose and fluffy enough that maybe I could get by with a modern bra.  Truly Victorian's TV401, the 1870s blouse waist, felt like a good base to use, and by adding some ruched trim and bows, I felt like I wasn't looking too out of place! The blouse went together extremely quickly from an old bedsheet, I'm sure I'll end up using this pattern again.

 

 

Thanks to a very late vet appointment for poor Charlotte (my bunny who at this point was in early kidney failure and we just didn't know it) I knew I was going to miss the first half of the picnic, but everyone was so sweet when I got there that it was a balm for my stressed soul.

 

 

We had such a fun range of eras so that each person was a fresh visual treat! Hot and sweaty though we all were, the afternoon was a delight anyway, with drinks and fruit, sandwiches and desserts, and good stories and laughter. 

1890s Wool Jacket

 This has been a difficult past few months for me... I started out the year with so much optimism, and lost my sweet senior rabbit Coal in January. He was my handsome companion of 10 years, so it left a definitely hole in my daily routine, missing his bright snappy black eyes. Then my sole remaining bun, Charlotte, had months of health struggles until she finally had to be put to sleep in June, and I genuinely feel like I failed her somehow, which makes the grieving process harder.

Sweet babies, barely tolerating each other for a Christmas photo

 

 

For now, I am rabbit-less, although we still have a darling sassy cat (found as a tiny kitten in an alley last year) and three needy dogs, so they are a big comfort.

Slow sewing is a comfort too, so I have managed a couple of projects that I really enjoyed. First was an 1890s jacket from the Black Snail pattern #0520.  This was my first attempt at anything resembling traditional tailoring methods, and I found I really enjoyed learning padstitching!

I had found an incredible deal on a hefty wool blend, and backed it with a canvas in all the spots required by the pattern, giving a really great shape to the jacket. 

Soooo much padstitching

 

While I didn't intend to fully duplicate the raised collar of a coat I had saved from a museum Instagram post, I really embraced the neat swirly design on the back of it and tried to bring a taste of that into the project.

Despite not always being sure of what I was going for or if I was tailoring correctly, I really was pleased with the nice clean lines of the jacket. I chose not to follow the pattern's skirts, as I wanted a tad more pleating around the front.

The sleeves didn't need any internal support, much to my surprise! The pattern had me cut a little half-moon of canvas that gets stitched into the upper armscye, and that was quite enough to keep it standing out from the shoulder.

I got to wear the jacket with a basic wool skirt for a skating party in Forest Park with the StL historical sewing group, and enjoyed the opportunity to put this to the test.

I was PLENTY warm the whole day, that's for sure!! My hubby was a good sport to dress up in black vest, pants, my dad's woolen greatcoat, and a top hat...but I couldn't quite convince him to ditch the sunglasses against the snow glare.

 

Jean of Fabricating History and Alyssa of The Sewing Goatherd looked marvelous and warm in their beautiful green ensembles!

I absolutely loved my hat, which was whipped up the night before from a black straw 18thc bergere, a lot of black matte taffeta, some ostrich feathers, and dotted net veiling. Initially I thought "Oh I'll just take this apart when I need my black bergere back" ...but it's way too cute to disassemble now.

Forest Park has a lot of picturesque spots, but none more perfect for this era than the wrought-iron Victorian bridge, and iron park benches near the lake. We had a lot of fun trying to get just the right feel.

 

 

 

 

 The following are my favorites, and it's fascinating how authentic they look with a bit of an old-timey filter applied!

 

 

Alyssa and I were all smiles that day

 

The jacket had just the dramatic flair I was hoping for, and hopefully will get worn for more late Victorian winter outings!