Author: kittycalash

Living history enthusiast and museum professional, obsessive writer and costume lover.

Runaway Styles

On By kittycalashIn Clothing, History1 Comment

Many thanks to Becky Fifield (The Still Room Blog) for revisiting the article she published last year on her amazing Runaway Clothing Database (RCD). It is available now as a downloadable PDF from the publisher’s website. I devoured it for its systematic look at classifying–cataloguing, really–not just the runaways themselves, but their articles of clothing.

What Becky did with nearly 900 ads was to create catalog records for each woman who ran away, as well as her clothing. It’s a phenomenal project, and one that works well now, in an age of computer databases and improved cataloguing nomenclature. It is also a testament to dedication and love: the amount of time to construct the database and enter all the records is significant. That’s hours, tens of hours, of work before the fun part of analyzing the data can begin.

Kudos to Becky, for hard work and inspiration!

Fine Sewing

On By kittycalashIn Clothing, Reenacting10 Comments

20120720-211927.jpgI made the time today to finish something I’d started back in June at Dress U. I was fortunate enough to be in Sharon Burnston’s Fine Sewing class, and got started on an apron. Even before I started reenacting and sewing 18th century clothes for myself, I admired Sharon Burnston’s work and the fantastic Fitting and Proper, which I ordered for the library at work several years ago. Ms. Burnston is the living definition of a stitch counter or thread counter in the very best way, and here’s why: she counts threads, and that counts.

20120720-212029.jpgOne of the key points I learned was the relationship between the threads and the stitches– essentially 2 x 2 for this project. Using a traditional New England fabric makes it easy–with a linen check, you can just about “cut on dotted line” and know you’re set.

We started by hemming each side of the apron for a couple of inches, just to get started. Stitch two over, in little crosses. Then, at the top of the rectangle, we gathered. The gathers were the illuminating part: Stroke gathers. Using the check as a guide, we ran even gathering stitches twice along the top.

20120720-212120.jpg I used the every-other check pattern, so the gathers were small. Ms. Burnston suggested that the best way to think of stroke gathering was as proto-smocking, and to make an evenly spaced running stitch with cotton quilting thread. The top row of gathers will be buried in the waistband, the bottom row gets pulled. Just make sure the replicate the top row exactly!

When you pull the threads, the fabric makes lovely even gathers. Pulling them down with a needle or pin–stroking them–makes them lie down even more evenly and nicely.

Then its on to the waistband and finishing with linen tape ties.

So, at last, finished object, green and white check. Along the Connecticut River valley, the predominate check was blue and white, but I look at this and think, maybe that’s what they mean by “bad color” in the runway ads– a kind of end-of-vat green.

ETA: Thread! I forgot the thread part. Fine stitches are achieved by using a fine needle and thread–obvious, right? Size 12 needles, if they suit your hands, and a fine linen thread. When I got home, I used 80/2 white linen thread. It worked really well, with infrequent breaks. Use plenty of beeswax, and the thread will break far less frequently–if at all–especially if you use shorter lengths. Since you need to run the gathering thread the entire width of the linen, cotton or even cotton/poly is best used for the gathers. My hands are really big, but even so I use fine quilting needles from England and manage pretty small stitches. I’ve used John James and Richard Hemming & Sons, but both had to be ordered online. Dritz applique needles can be found at Jo-Ann, if you’re in a hurry, or, like me, discover all your favorite needles are bent, blunt, or stuck in a crack in the floorboards…

Roller Print Doll

On By kittycalashIn Clothing2 Comments

20120717-180141.jpg

Cruising the Tate’s catalog, I found this, a cutout doll by Susanna Duncombe, no date, but clearly 18th century, since Susanna Dumcombe’s dates are 1725 -1812. I had to double check, but yes, she was 87 when she died.

There are fabulous bonnet drawings, and more of these wonderful cut outs. This one struck me, though, because the “jacket” and the petticoat do not match. Conventional wisdom is that patterned jackets and petticoats were always worn together. The title notes it is unfinished, so the petticoat might have matched if Susanna had finished the doll. There is clear line for a jacket hem, though, so it is at least a two-piece garment,

I think we might not know the “always” and “never” rules. And, too, I think that “always” and “never” are likely to be different depending on the status of the wearer. Plenty of runaways took off in calico jackets and short gowns worn with striped petticoats. (The 18th century was probably much more colorful than we credit.)

The fabric looks a lot like a roller print Burnley & Trowbridge had last spring. I wonder about its cut, too; it looks like a pet en l’air, as the loose-pleated kind of saque-back short garments are known. And that reminded me of the caracos fashion plates mimic-of-modes investigated.

Again, I draw no conclusions. But here is a fantastic serendipitous find, a period paper doll in what looks like a roller-printed garment. Too fancy for who I am in camp, but what a lovely garment to make, and then have to plan a picnic to wear to.

Houston, We Have a Tent

On By kittycalashIn Events, Reenacting

Well, almost.

One of the guys in the regiment traded the widow of another guy a RevWar GI Joe for a  tent. But he doesn’t need the tent, so he called us because he heard we were thinking about making a tent. The conversation with Mr. S took many more words than that, but I think that’s about the gist of the transaction. Poles are being sought, and even if they are not found, we have a draw knife. So we have tentage for August– one more thing to cross off the list. I still want to make a hemp canvas tent, but at least we should be set for August.

Today, after we went to an antique mall in Greenville, I started on a delayed project. We have wallpaper-covered boxes at work, and today I found a roll of wallpaper border. It’s not 18th century, but it reminded me of some late 18th-century paper at work. So I bought it, and started on boxes. The housewife I made is nice, but I’d like a bigger box for hiding things in–combs, toothbrush, who knows what. It’s a simple enough project using A. C. Moore boxes, paint, the border, and glue as well as generous applications of sandpaper. Tonight, paint; tomorrow, sandpaper.