Month: October 2013

Sacque it to Me

On By kittycalashIn A Silk Sacque8 Comments

Every now and then, by which I mean quite regularly, I lose my mind and agree to participate in something that I know little about (tallow candles? hadn’t dipped a candle in decades), haven’t really got time for (Saratoga coats, though I managed one in a week), or feel woefully unprepared for (my life in general). This is either madness or a form of life-long learning.

When the lovely Mrs B proposed the group Sacque-a-palooza, I said, “Sure! What fun!” and meant it, too. (We nearly went to an 18th century party last year, but it was snowed out. We would have had to wear our tenant farmers’ clothes, and we would have been embarrassed.) A sacque with a venue? What’s not to like? (For sacques-piration, which is different from what you do while dancing in a fancy silk gown, I’ve started a Pinterest Board.)

Brown Silk cross-bar sacque, 1760s. LACMA
Really, how lucky was this find? And I got 10% off!

What was not to like at first was the yardage requirement: 10+ yards, and I really can’t skimp because of my height. I looked and did not find enough silk (though that didn’t stop me from picking up 7 yards of lovely pinky-lavender taffeta, because you never know when you’ll need to become a Ralph Earl painting). But, I got an afternoon when I could leave work early, and Sew 18th Century and I headed up to Boston to hit the fabric store before descending upon Mr and Mrs B. We did quite well and I like to think we were rawther restrained, considering the table of tropical weight wools at $2.99/yard…thank goodness there wasn’t enough of a grey cross-bar to make a gown for me! Despite my initial dithering, Sew 18th Century talked me into a cross-bar silk taffeta after we confirmed a very similar extant example.

Mrs B is a patient teacher, and helped guide us through the beginning construction steps. This was fortunate for me, because I’m not sure I was qualified to  open an envelope last night, let alone pleat silk. Making a gown under tutelage is a far different and far better experience than wrangling fabric yourself on the back of a recalcitrant and unyielding dress form.

Getting the party started: find your center.
Get the party started: find your center. (Thank you, Mrs S!)

This morning, though I am a trifle bleary-eyed since the tsunami of What Cheer Day finally hit me on Thursday, I am in proud possession of a back lining and a pinned back ready to have the pleats sewn to the lining. That is quite good for a few hours work among congenial company.

I also learned a new mantra, which will be good for me, and a change from wielding the center-finding ruler: Done is better than perfect.

A Swedish Spencer

On By kittycalashIn Clothing, Historical Sew Fortnightly, making things3 Comments
The Swedish Spencer
The Swedish Spencer

Because I lack good sense, I have fixated upon this Spencer from a museum in Lund. I have inflicted it upon people who have no particular interest in women’s wear, and extracted opinions on the fabric. Shameless, really. But I love the simplicity of this garment, and have therefore closed my eyes, written a check for some Kochan & Phillips bottle green broadcloth so that I can pet the wool to cheer myself up while patterning this beast.

To be fair, I have a Spencer half-patterned, and need “only” to work on the sleeves and collar. I have a sense, from examining a friend’s frock coat, of how to construct this stand-and-fall collar. Pad stitching, here I come. I enjoy the challenge of sleeves and hope this will not break me of that. So far, I have not been able to find a photo of the back of this lovely garment, so I’ll have to extrapolate from other examples.

I’d thought about making this for the Historical Sew Fortnightly # 21: Colour Challenge Green, but it took me too long to commit to the K&P wool, and at that price, you can bet I’ll make a careful muslin. While I’m not certain when or where I will wear this, I already know that I will wear it with my black petticoat and green boots, and will have to make a shirt to go under the petticoat, which will be its own challenge.  

Puffy sleeves aren’t my thing, and they won’t fit under these trim Spencer sleeves, but there is at least one extant example of a long-sleeved shirt-like garment. I expect I will feel about chemisettes much the way I feel about caps…but in the end, it will be worth all the tiny hems and the muslins. After all, the Spencer has a huge bonus: it closes with clasps so there are no buttonholes!

What Cheer Day Photo Gallery

On By kittycalashIn Events, Living History, Museums, Thanks2 Comments

Miss Brown and Mrs Mason receive visitors
Esther rests
Mrs Mason and Miss Brown with visitors
The Reverend Hitchcock called
Mr Herreshoff explained his business to Reverend Hitchcock
Miss Smith spoke with Mrs Brown
Mrs Brown in her parlor
Mrs Brown and a visitor discuss issues of the day
Miss Brown
Miss Brown has received a letter from Mr Herreshoff
A housemaid’s work is never done
Esther takes Mr Herreshoff’s case to his room
Mr Herreshoff and Miss Brown hope soon to be married
Esther was relieved to sweep the steps
Mr Mason’s banyan was quite fine
Mrs Mason is quite captivated with young Abby
Mr and Mrs Mason with daughter Abby
WCD: The Original

Good Help is Hard to Find

On By kittycalashIn Events, Living History, Museums, Thanks8 Comments
Esther helps Mrs Smith with her bonnet
Esther helps Mrs Smith with her bonnet

Esther Hudson here has a terrible fascination for knittin, and an abundant fascination with sheep.I fear sometimes for her sanity, as she spends much of the evening sketchin cats on her slate and showing em to me. Cats, sheep, and knittin are much of her conversation and I wonder if she will ever be settled in a home of her own. I durst not send her away, as her father is at sea, and knowing what might befall her, given her simple ways, I think it best to keep her close. She is fond, as you can see, of dressin, but refuses utterly to quarter a fowle. She will beat a fine pound cake, but the coarser tasks of the kitchen she finds distasteful, preferrin to dress the ladies’ hair. Of her future, I do sometimes despair.

Mrs Smith and Miss Smith
Mrs Smith and Miss Smith

My cousin, Miss Eliza Smith, has donned her new dress to come up to town from her beloved Newport to see about a position. The family with whom she has found employment these many years has suffert in that city’s decline since the late war, and she seeks a new future in Providence. She writes a fine letter, and with excellent references, Miss Smith would be well suited to manage a household for Mrs Brown’s youngest daughter, the recently married Mrs Mason. Miss Smith seems also to steady Esther, whose conversation grows more sensible when she is not with me. Perhaps after speaking with Mrs Mason, Esther, Eliza and I can slip away to enjoy some of the newly pickt apples she has brought up from Rhode Island.

Mrs Smith, ready for some ale
Mrs Smith at day’s end

At the end of a long day filled with visitors– every stage has stopt at our house, some mistaking it, I think, for that questionable establishment operated by ‘Mrs’ Mary Bowen on South Main Street–I was ready to remove my soild apron (thankfully Esther has a spare) and venture down the hill to seek refreshment with my frinds. I may chanst to hear some news of the Ann & Hope, bound for Canton, and on which my son is a sailor. Or perhaps, before the light fails, I may read a bit of Mr Defoe’s most moral tale, Moll Flanders, and think in gratitude that my late husband’s family has seen fit to give me employ. I cant read at home, for if Mrs Brown catchs me readin that book agin, I will surely be trouble.

(Top photo thanks to the Providence Journal; bottom two thanks to Sharon Ann Burnston, our Mrs Brown)