Category: making things

Projects and Deadlines

On By kittycalashIn Clothing, Events, Living History, making things3 Comments

Here’s what needs to be made, or that I want to make, in the coming months.

Yes, there is a tent on that list. Madness, but what a thing to make! There are also some wool items for November, because Fort Lee tends to be cold.

Project For Due Date Event
Red wool short cloak Kitty 11/22/13 Fort Lee
White shirt, coarse Young Mr 11/22/13 Fort Lee
Blue wool gown Kitty 11/22/13 Fort Lee
Red wool cross-bar kerchief Kitty 11/22/13 Fort Lee
“Quilted” silk petticoat Kitty 11/22/13 Fort Lee
Silk Sacque & petticoat Kitty 1/15/14 Grand Ball, Stetson Hall
Pocket hoops Kitty 1/15/14 Grand Ball, Stetson Hall
Sleeve ruffles Kitty 1/15/14 Grand Ball, Stetson Hall
Fancy cap Kitty 1/15/14 Grand Ball, Stetson Hall
Wool frock coat, 1770-1780 Mr S 1/15/14 Grand Ball, Stetson Hall
Silk waistcoat, 1770-1780 Mr S 1/15/14 Grand Ball, Stetson Hall
Plush breeches, 1770-1780 Mr S 1/15/14 Grand Ball, Stetson Hall
White shirt, fine Mr S 1/15/14 Grand Ball, Stetson Hall
Breeches or trousers Young Mr 4/18/14 Battle Road*
Waistcoat (striped, sleeved?) Young Mr 4/18/14 Battle Road*
10MA Regimental (1781) Mr S 4/25/14 BAR School of Instruction
Wool waistcoat (white, welted buttonholes) Mr S 4/25/14 BAR School of Instruction
Knapsacks Mr S 4/25/14 BAR School of Instruction
Tent Young Mr 6/1/14 Monmouth*
Kettle bag(s) Camp 6/1/14 Monmouth*
10MA Regimental (1781) Young Mr 6/1/14 Monmouth*
Wool frock coat, 1790-1800 Mr S 10/24/14 What Cheer Day
Breeches or trousers, 1790-1800 Mr S 10/24/14 What Cheer Day
Green wool Spencer Kitty none None
Shirt/chemisette Kitty none None
*Presuming it happens again

Green Indeed

On By kittycalashIn Clothing, Events, making things7 Comments
Regency Green: Kochan & Philips + Robert Land = Matchy-matchy.

As expected, Mr Najekci dispatched the K&C wool before the Hook, so last Thursday evening when I arrived home after Gallery Night, there was a box of delicious waiting for me. And, also as expected though mostly hoped for, the wool and shoes were super simpatico. This will be a fun project when I get myself sorted to it.

I have not yet had the time to put all the projects into a spreadsheet, but I think it would help keep things organized and on schedule. For example, I have:

  • to work out the details and rationale of the sacque, vis-a-vis date and style
  • to finalize the Spencer pattern
  • to pattern and fit a frock coat, waistcoat and breeches for Mr S ca. 1775
  • to ask about the regimental for Mr S, which will be wanted eventually
  • to face making a tent by next summer
  • a plan for kettle bags, since I’d like us to pack lighter & more authentically
  • to fix my stays situation
  • an inordinate desire for a splashy bonnet to go with that Spencer
  • two shirts to make up for Mr S and the Young Mr
  • a red short cloak, for easier movement

Once I have a schedule and a plan, making things by deadline is somewhat easier. It’s “bridge” season now, between cooling and heating, summer and winter fashion collections, and that’s as good a time as any to work out plans for the winter. There’s nothing the guys must have for an event that they haven’t got already–for Fort Lee, they can wear their short wool jackets under their 10th MA hunting frocks and be perfectly authentic and warm. (The brown and green coat is 1777, and the Fall of Fort Lee is 1776. The blue and white short-tailed regimentals are 1781. No coat for you!)

So it’s worth taking the time to regroup, even as I rush headlong into projects…and considering I have jury duty (no scissors!) this week, maybe I should add hand-knit stockings to that list.

The ‘Bigger’ Issues

On By kittycalashIn Clothing, Fail, making things, Reenacting4 Comments

What of those wardrobe issues?

1. The Cross-Barred Gown is Too Big. I will have to take it apart and make it smaller as it is too wide across the back in general and the shoulders. This is fairly simple.

2. The stays are Too Big. I can lift them up and do the shimmy inside them. Seriously. Eighteen months ago, when they were made, I had a two inch gap at the back and the front did not lace closed. Now I can lace them shut front and back.

Whether I have some body image issues or am just a crack-addled monkey can be debated among impolite company some other time, but to solve these problems, here’s the half-baked scheme plan I have in mind:

I re-cut and re-fit my bodice block for an open robe and made it smaller. (For the sacque, I need only trim the sides of the back because I haven’t gotten any farther than that, thank goodness! Now I have a better sense of the shoulder width I need to fill with pleats, also good.) For the Cross-Barred Gown, dis-assembly and re-construction can happen in the spring. Simple enough, and adjustable, too but…

Stay pattern mock-up, measured.
Stay pattern mock-up, measured.

The stays are a little different, and much more serious. I’m not yet sure what to do. I could unstitch the binding and the panels and remove some bones, re-stitch the seams and re-apply the binding…or I could start all over, but make the stays a size smaller. The cardboard mockup measures 33 inches across. With a tape measure snugged up, I measure 37 inches around. Seems like all should be well, no? Two inches, front and back?

32 inches, but they don't fit.
32 inches, but they don’t fit.

It is not. Here you can see the green stays and the yard stick: 32 inches. I should have five inches altogether, right? No. These lace shut front and back (see the back lacing, kindly trust me on the fronts).

How did I not notice this before?
How did I not notice this drop before? (The pale line is the tide line of petticoat waistbands & ties)

Then I compared the mock up and the stays. Curiouser and worser!

Somehow when I assembled this hot mess, I mis-aligned the pieces,and the fronts are lower than they should be. This explains much about the increasingly poor quality of fit as these slide down my ribcage…as you can imagine, the stays can’t do their job when they’re not in the right place to do their job.

If I am to reclaim these and my decorum, the first step will have to be dis-assembly simply to get the various panels into the their proper places. I think it would be fairly simple to do to the fronts, and then I could end some of the madness by sewing the front panels shut and converting these to back-lacing stays. It might be only a temporary fix, but that alone would be worth the effort. Fortunately, I won’t require these until November 23, and in the meantime, I know which gowns are too big, and need to be smaller. With open fronts, at least they’re pretty adjustable.

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!