Long-overdue event pictures

Wow I have had a case of the summer lazies, bigtime.  I haven't even attempted any projects since the first weekend of June, which was when the biggest 18thc event around here was held -- the Rendezvous. There are always a deplorable number of the ole grizzled mountain-men types with their amazingly Caucasian-looking squaw wives making Hamburger Helper meals in the skillet, but I do think it's improving little by little. The actual context is a range from 1720-1820, in an area where the French first settled and established a series of forts along the Mississippi, then the English came and took over, and Americans filtered in after that. So it certainly allows for a lot of re-enacting leeway (still doesn't excuse Plains teepees and slovenly looking wenches in chemises, paisley drawstring skirts and bare feet, but that doesn't stop some people. Sigh.).

The weather was so beautiful this year compared to last year's, which was in the 90s and 100s and humid as a sauna. In fact, it was downright chilly in the evenings and early mornings! I was so glad I had brought my mitts and heavy wool wrap! I did a lot of sitting by fires until the sun was up and going. I didn't make a fire near my tent because I figured I'd never be there to watch it anyway, so I wandered around until I found friends with fires. Friday I wore my grey linen petticoat, navy blue jacket, and pink-checked apron, and was very cozy with my grey mitts.

Mr. E and I visiting while we wait for the day to warm up

My wretched Simplicity gown came out of the closet again, although the addition of cuffs, a better stomacher front, and polonaising it made me much happier to be seen in it than last year, or the year before. I'm hoping that when I get another gown done this fall, I can retire the Simplicity yellow gown for good. It's just got a lot of structural issues that I cannot fix because I haven't got any more of the fabric. It is some sort of nice linen blend and feels great even on hot days, but the sleeve seam in particular is in the wrong spot and the back is a hideous faux-fourreau. The linen is really too limp to polonaise but I've already hemmed this thing like five times and wasn't about to do it again just to get it off the ground. I had a quilted "puffer petticoat" that made it stand out a lot better but I got too warm by the afternoon to keep it on. My pretty painted Devonshires were on but I didn't get a good shot of them in action. They stood up pretty well to all the grass and gravel with just a few nicks in the leather.

But I did get invited to be in the "fashion show"! So excited! They put me up with a couple of other ladies of various stations, and a really knowledgeable young woman, whose name I forgot (Kate, maybe?), gave a lovely talk about what clothing would have been seen and on whom. I was so grateful for many of the points made during the show, like if women went without stays which was rarely, they would have worn a bedgown, that men just did not do anything without waistcoats unless they were laboring, and that the Indians in the area did NOT live in teepees and wear full Plains headdresses. Hopefully the visitors who attended then went away and looked at some of the more stubborn "old-timers" who refuse to change and maybe asked them some questions like "why are you dressed like such and such? we just heard that they didn't do that here."  There were definitely some fantastic Indians who were part of the fashion show, and they were so well researched as to their clothing, facial markers, head feathers, and accessories. I was really impressed by them and so was Mr. E., who is determined to be an Indian next year, and got in contact with one of the guys. Guess I get to make him a new shirt with a print on it...HE can go live over in the Indian camp and I will stay on the respectable side of the fort with the other palefaces.

The final day I wore my new pink gown, which, while pretty, was HOT. No more heavy fabrics for me. Parasols, I found out recently, were definitely in the area about 1730-40, being mentioned in a will, so heck yes I was gonna carry mine even if perhaps the shape isn't quite right. I was tired of being in the sun. And I wore one of the little miniatures I made, so fun! And no neckerchief because I was a hot cranky loser.

And I got to be in the fashion show for the second day as well! The young woman again narrating the women's section looked down at my pink silk-clad feet, paused in the middle of what she was saying, and said "Girl, are those American Duchess shoes?! Hot dog!" I had to giggle that out here smack-dab in the Midwest, Lauren's lovely shoes have gained notoriety already!

I had a really lovely time and got pictures taken a lot although I apparently ALWAYS smile like a chipmunk on crack, sigh. Will have to make my goal for next year to smile in a more civilized and mysterious manner.

A project most common

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and with it came time with friends and family that has kind of cut into my sewing...but that's not a bad thing! Hand-sewing alone at home is my way to unwind from a day of working with the public as a librarian (you would not believe the requests we get...ranging from "can you help me find a washer on craigslist?" to "would you write my resume/essay/thesis for me?"). Still, it's good for me to remember that I can also recharge myself by being with people who love me, so I enjoyed my time away from projects.

Last night though I did finish the accessories to go with my lower-class outfit. For re-enacting, which I wish I could say I do a lot but it's really only in the summers, I have what I think is probably an upper-class undress/day gown for the mid 1770s (a 'quarter-back' gown, for lack of a better term for the back seams) in a pretty pale rose color with a maize-yellow petticoat, as posted earlier in this blog. I also have a middle-class, probably linen-blend gown in yellow with blue and white stripes, which is now on its 3rd life and has undergone some pretty drastic alterations....it's turned out nicer the more it was altered, and will get its own post sometime after this one.

But a good lower-class (and I don't mean grimy drudge...just farmer's wife having to make ends meet) ensemble was kind of eluding me because I was having a hard time picking convincing accessories. After looking through a lot of 18th century art in the Lewis Walpole Digital Image Collection and browsing through other costumer/re-enactor suggestions and photos on blogs, I realized that solids are all well and good, but they can look boring and two-dimensional without some patterns mixed in. Then again, correct fabric prints can be such a stumbling block for re-enactors, so that was another consideration to weigh...do I want to risk accuracy for the sake of a print?

Luckily it became clear that while floral prints are sooo easy to get wrong, stripes and plaid ("cross-barred", I think the pattern was called) are a little harder to mess up and are quite common in art prints of the time. I really seized on this art print in particular for some of the outfit's inspiration:

                                                 "The Curate" from the Walpole Collection

This print is, to me, a lovely example of lower-middle-class; I hesitate to say "lower class" because they look clean and comfortable, and because country curates usually had enough of a living to keep them from being destitute. However, the colors of the fabric are also rather sober and plainer than I'd expect of upward-trending middle class, and the lady of the house is doing her own fire-starting rather than having a servant to do so. I already had a blue jacket, and made up a grey linen petticoat to go with it. Also in my stash was some blue and white plaid...but sadly not enough for an apron! It became a nice kerchief instead. When I went to Hancock to see if I could find something suitably patterned for an apron, my life got a little harder...NO blue and white checked or plaid fabric. A light-pink check was the closest I could get, and after some consideration, it'll do.

So I think for one of the Rendezvous days I'll do my errands and cooking in a white cap, dark blue corduroy jacket, gray linen petticoat, check apron, plaid kerchief, medium-blue stockings, and probably boring black shoes. I put my blue silk Georgies on...but they're just a little too frivolous still. Maybe if I were a servant running away with stolen clothing from my mistress, they'd work, but I just don't feel like I could justify it now since I'm clearly not even in "Sunday best." So I will have to take a picture of the outfit later...my camera is out of batteries!

A nice fall day

I went to a benefit event for the Fort in my blue jacket, new maize petticoat and sky-blue Georgies (from American Duchess) and it ended up being the nicest event I have done yet, because it was smallish reenactor-wise (compared to the hundreds at summer Rendezvous) and a number of the people who had bought tickets to attend were very curious about the reenactors and what they were doing. I was asked numerous times about my outfit, what I was sewing (a haversack), what I knew about the Fort and the area's history, etc. I think it was a great deal more enjoyable to go by myself (usually I'm with a very, well, shall we say extra-talkative gentleman-friend) because it made me a little more approachable and I got the chance to share some of what I do and know and I really loved being informative instead of just decorative. Hopefully I'll get to do this a lot more often!

Alright, enough of the text stuff...time for a few pictures...

Finally...a few pictures

Rendezvous was great fun this year albeit extremely (as in record-breakingly) hot.

My tent is teeny tiny but I wasn't about to pay a ton for a larger tent I didn't need; nobody even spends time in them during the day because they are SO HOT. Even in the shade, it's much cooler to be outside under the canvas fly than it is inside the tent. I was sewing a shirt here at the dining table but I kept getting interrupted so it still isn't finished.

There's my little hand-made housewife after the pattern in Tidings from the 18th Century. I actually lost it later that day while watching a slander trial but it turned up in the lost and found.

Next year I want to make a jacket like these girls'...they were so cute. I liked their shorter skirts but didn't have time to hem mine up that high.

This was me on Saturday...the jacket, which you can't see very well, is after a Janet Arnold jacket which I did all myself just by looking at the pattern in the book, so I am quite proud of it as my first non-paper-pattern outerwear. My 18th century lining skills are awful though. I need to practice. And I should have put my shawl around my neck the proper way because I got rather sunburnt despite the hat. Live and learn!

Captain Jack Sparrow is an acquaintance whose costume and mannerisms are so fantastic that he has been hired to put in an appearance at the St. Louis pirate festival in September! It was hard to get a picture with him because of all the kids swarming around. 

I sewed the clothes on the gentleman on the right; it was pretty gratifying that he got called up on stage during the "fashion show" later as a good representative of a local farmer. Even if I didn't have time to give him buttons down the knee of his breeches.

Here I am on Sunday, cooking a peach cobbler in the dutch oven...with my skirts dragging because that poor gown really needs panniers or to be polonaised. Next year, next year. It was just way too hot to wear more than one petticoat anyway, sigh. This dress is a truly nasty Simplicity pattern that I have modified the best I could. When I bought it last year around May, I knew nothing about 18th century clothing. I sewed it, wore it proudly to the Rendezvous, and came home feeling embarrassed...not because anyone said anything or looked at me strangely, but I could just tell that it wasn't quite right. Particularly the back, which wasn't a quarter-back, or that pleated-down-anglaise back....it was just wrong. So I re-worked it over and over during the past year (I didn't want to waste all that effort and fabric!) and now it doesn't look too bad, I think, but it would be better with the right supports around the sides. I needed an Ugly Puffer like American Duchess has. The more I work on the gown the more accurate it gets, so maybe when I wear it again next June it'll look even better!

The back...not TOO bad, right? Other than the length. I was a lot happier with the gown this year also because of the stays. I am in love with my stays! I even wore them to sleep in, which I know they didn't do back then, but I am having a lot of back problems and they seemed to really help keep me stable in my sleep because I woke up a lot less stiff than usual!

  

Gratuitous hat-and-teapot shot. I had been dying to get that teapot since I saw it at a previous event, and the same folks showed up here so I absolutely had to get it! It matches my teacups almost perfectly...I should have put one in the shot. And my hat, which the ladies in the milliner's tent all liked, so I must have done ok with it! I bought a new blank one to decorate for whatever outfit I choose to sew next. I would really love to do a matching caraco and skirt but my problem is that I just don't have enough pieces of the same fabric in my cabinets, so it might be more separates for me next.