setting a sleeve

First thing you need to do when setting a sleeve is to run easing stitches over the top curve of the sleeve head.

This is two rows of machine stitching at the longest stitch length. The first row is just to the seam allowance side of your final stitching line when you set the sleeve, the second is 1/4" inwards from the first, towards the seam allowance.

The second step, 

Is to pin the bottom curves of the armscye to the sleeve's bottom curve. It should be fairly straight forward to match up the bottom curve of the armscye to the bottom curve of the sleeve. They should appear to be remarkably similar in contour. You might want to even stitch this curve in, between the start and finish of the ease stitching. Only stitch the bottom curve, and be careful not to catch your easing stitches when you sew.

Next, The easing stitches are pulled up just until you get a rounding to the top of the sleeve head. There shouldn't be any real gathers or pleats, only a little bubbling and a nice rounding to the sleeve head. Like this...

see the nice rounding to the top of the sleeve head? You want this rounding in your finished sleeve.

Then I pin this into place, making sure there are no puckers in either the armscye on the body, or on the sleeve itself.

Stitch this remaining section into place. When sewing by machine, I follow the first row of ease stitching for my final seam. I also make a little pulling motion to either side of the seam with my fingers to help calm the bubbles. This pulling is not fore and aft of the pressure foot, but perpendicular to the seam itself, in front of the pressure foot. Be careful not to sew your fingers.

Depending on where your shoulder bone sits on your body, you can often move this fullness forward or towards the back of the sleeve head to accommodate the fullness of that shoulder bone. If you do not account for any ease in the shoulder, especially in historically cut coats, the sleeve will actually pull the body of the coat off your body, as you haven't given your arm enough room in the sleeve head. A horizontal crease in the top half of the sleeve itself can also often be fixed by narrowing the shoulder line of the coat body itself, but still allowing for ease in the sleeve head.

If you have a lining, bring that up now. Be careful to not make it too short for the sleeve. You can even tack the seam allowances of the sleeve and it's lining together at the top back arm. Fold under the armscye seam allowance of the sleeve lining and cover the raw seam allowances of the coat body and sleeve. Whip stitch around the armscye to encase the raw edges. This to me is the sexiest stitching in tailoring, next to a fabulous hand worked buttonhole.

And the finished sleeve...

body of mannikin is not the body of a Pierre, and so the underarm is collapsing just a bit.

A close reading of Don Hagist's 'Wives, Slaves, and Servant Girls: A study in sock colours on a blustery day

I decided to sit and do a quick afternoon research project the other day. It was a blustery day, and I didn't really feel like sitting in the studio as I was nursing a headache.

This is what I found: the number one colour after white (or un-described colour), is blue, 29 times. Dark, Black, Brown stockings were mentioned 6 times. Clocked with a different colour, 5 times, and the clock contrast ranged from white with blue clock, blue with white clock, blue with red clock. Clouded stockings appeared twice. Grey, once. Re-knit, or different coloured feet to stocking appeared five times. Ribbed stockings, five times.

Interesting cross section of lower ranks society, but leaning towards the female side of things. I did note both the sex of the person in the ad, as well as ethnicity if it was stated. There was a good smattering of men alongside the women mentioned, despite the female leaning of the title of the book. I doubt though, we would see much of a difference in an equal m/f ratio. I'm cool with sticking to this colour palette. The current pair of stockings on my needles is natural sheep white. I have more of this yarn, and an even whiter yarn. I also have some light blue on the way. Deep in the ready use yarn stash bucket I have some mustard coloured, that I fell in love with, but I can dye that to a more brown colour if need be.


And that's not even touching the wool dye sample bin I have far too much of. Though the sample bin may become a bed rug this Fall if I can get time on a loom at school.

Again, with service...

sitting and stitching, watching Pierre in the lists

In a former life, I was known as the fabulously dressed coat tree, the perpetual dameoiselle, Lady in Waiting to several, including at least one Queen. Yes, I played in the SCA.

Learning to be served is as often difficult as learning how to serve. In today's world, we are expected to be able to do everything ourselves, to ask for help is seen as weakness. In reality, none of us would get by if we didn't rely on the people around us. I am naturally a helper, I love to help other people, I love to cook for them, to make things for them. I show my love through my actions more than by words. Close friends smile at how I seemingly wait on other people, especially my husband. This is especially true when he is gaming. Food and coffee magically appear at his desk when he is in the game, his buddies in the Twitch stream laugh and say 'good morning Mrs. Onix!' Little do they realize that Pierre waits on me too, in other ways. We are a team.

But back to service, from an SCA standpoint...

When I was in service, I would take it upon myself to learn what my Lady/Laurel/Queen liked to eat and drink, and how it was prepared. I carried a basket with things like a notebook and pen to take notes on everything from who to later write thank you notes to, to finding out where to make dinner reservations and for how many. I helped them dress at the beginning of an event, change during the event, and undress afterwards. I made sure their table was set properly, washed dishes afterwards, and helped repack the vehicle at the end of the evening.
Then I became an Honourable Lady, then a Baroness myself, and I had to learn how to be served. I found it far easier to have people around me who knew me very well. There were growing pains, for sure, as I was so used to handling everything on my own. But I had to give up that control to another. I still don't do it very well. But I try.

What does this have to do with living history events? Well, to start, we have been going about attending events in a way that may not do service to either the site, or to each other. We have been going about eventing from an individual's standpoint instead of a community standpoint. And this often happens to both the re-enactor and the site coordinator. From a site coordinator's perspective, they want visitors through the door, money in the bank account. They may not know how to deal with the influx of temporary staff though, either in sheer numbers, or with volunteers who travel a distance to get there. The best events I have attended have provided a good bit of background information on why the event is being held. There is often enough time in advance for me to tweak our kit, if necessary, but also to allow me to develop our own personal interpretation for that event. Each event is different, and a good living historian understands that. It's not simply a matter of showing up with all our material culture, setting up, and camping for the public. We have some kit that we bring that we can carry on our backs, like when we are portraying refugees, and other times we can bring the whole tavern set-up. I also need to know what clothes we need to be wearing, even as civilians. Fashions change by the year, even in wartime, but also in social scenario. It's not simply about providing firewood, straw, water, and a clean blue rocket. I need information. A site coordinator should also provide an event scenario, and this is where dramaturgy comes into play. What is the event? What were the events, in history, that lead up to this event happening? Who were the key players? Who were the common men and women? What are the guidelines that we should be following? This is all service that event staff need to be doing for the living historian.

And the living historian needs to do the service of preparing for that event in order to provide the best experience for the visitor. What year are we portraying? What social class are we? Would we even be there as military? or civilian people? We have a lot of 'stuff' but it's not all appropriate for every event. In fact, the full tavern has only been out once in the three years we have been here. There are other opportunities for different interpretive experiences. We have played Loyalist refugees, British army support staff, American army support staff, common folk just evacuated from their homes in a time of crisis.
In all these situations, I have relied on my community to help me to prepare for the event. I learn from other community members as much as from books. The public sees this as well. They notice the differences between event types, and there is a noticeable shift in how that public goes to and consumes living history events. There is still a market for the 'really big show' types of events, just as much as there is for the small, immersive experiences. The difference is in the quality of the show. The public is learning what looks 'right', versus what seems to be 'historical fantasy'. They understand the difference between history and Hollywood. There is a place for each, but they should not be at the same event.

It behooves us to put our best foot forward, both as event organizers, and as living historians. We should be spending more time as a community to help provide the best experience possible for the visitor. These notions of service can help us understand our roles when we are interacting with each other in eighteenth-century living history too though. The more we get to interact with each other, the better we get to know one another, the better a team we become. And we really need to understand that we are a team, both site coordinator and living historian. I would love to be able to interact with everyone more personally than on facebook. I would love to be helping to coordinate living history events so that everyone can have the very best experience. I would love to see more opportunities for us to get together in the off-season to help each other grow and develop broader programming, more interesting experiences for each other, as well as the public. I guess I am missing that camaraderie that develops among friends and colleagues. That working together as a team. And I am still better at the serving side of things than I am at being served...

Feeling a bit lonely these days.

Elizabeth Hickman, d.1784, Cook

For want of shelter

We have been gearing up for an event at Saratoga in September. This will be an opportunity for us to live as Loyalist refugees for the weekend, surrounded by other living history people enacting the beginning of the downfall of General Burgoyne in the Fall of 1777. I have been considering what we will need to wear, but also what we will be bringing with us. And how all of this will pack, as we are not allowed to bring our pack basket. This event is an invitational, vetted event. To register, I had to send in photographs of us in our clothes, and received feedback on how to tweak it to achieve the look event staff are going for. It helps that we have a footing now with Fort Ticonderoga, and that we are a known quantity now, after working a couple of events there. People are getting to know us, this is a good thing.
Clothing has been easy. I've been working at upgrading that for over a year now. Currently, I'm working on other peoples clothes, making new gear for friends, and teaching them how to make their own clothes. We will be taking two completely new people to this event, I want them to fit right in. Alison is a close friend in my PhD program, she is a dramaturg, and we have talked extensively about how our careers have overlaps, we even read the same authors and texts when we've been writing our comprehensive exams. It will be interesting to see the event through her eyes.

At the same time I have been looking at the Revolutionary war, I have been watching our current refugee crisis unfold. It was interesting to see how people were leaving their homes in Syria for extended stays in camps in Turkey and Europe, but then the crisis got very close to home...like 50kms close. That's only a half hour drive. These refugees are coming up through New York state, following a similar path that Loyalist refugees took when escaping the Revolutionary war. They are being dropped off by taxi-cab at a path through the woods near LaColle Quebec, following the Richelieu River into Canada. Once here, they can claim refugee status. The RCMP and Canadian Border Control have set up a camp at this border to process people, as many were getting lost in the woods, and it gets cold here in the winter. They've been carrying a suitcase with all their worldly possessions. During the Revolutionary period, refugees were marched all the way up to Sorel, where the Richelieu meets the Saint Lawrence. They were then loaded on to ships and sent east and west. The British didn't want any Loyalists to stay anywhere near the border, in case they too started something...
I'm comparing these two crisis' and thinking, "we have hotels, and cars now, the Loyalists wouldn't have had those things to ease their journey". If I am portraying a Loyalist, what would I have, really, by the time I got to Saratoga? How long would I have been walking?

Now, just note that modern day Kelly doesn't sleep well under the best of conditions, camping is not 'fun' for me. I sleep with an apnea machine, and don't like to be cold. We will not have those things that make for happy Kellys at Saratoga.

And so, I have been also thinking about shelter...

Encampment of the Loyalists in Johnstown, a new settlement on the banks of the River St. Lawrence, in Canada West; James Peachey June 6th, 1784. Copied by J.R. Simpson August 12, 1925 Archives of Ontario, Ref Code: RG 2-344-0-0-89

Almost everyone who does Loyalist living history in Canada has come across this image. This lovely sketch shows people with tents, encamped, waiting for land grants and houses to be built nearby. They are not in the process of running for their lives. Their running is done. They are starting over.

I realized that having a full tent on such a trip would be a heavy prospect, not one I wanted to inflict on Pierre. That, and our tents are all sunforger canvas, following Parks Canada regulations on tentage. This event at Saratoga is a progressive event, so linen canvas or none at all. I didn't want to also have to hand stitch a full tent at this time, I still have clothes to make for Zac, Alison's husband...and now less than a month to make that happen.

Pierre and I talked about sleeping rough, after weighing modern options. We both wanted the full experience of the event, so a hotel was just not going to fly. That, and finances are too tight to be thinking about hotels for a living history event, especially with conferences coming up. I don't think I could do completely rough, with just a blanket and the stars to shelter me. Further options were considered. And then we figured a small lean-to might be a good thing to build.

Not knowing what sort of conditions we would be walking into, at a National Park, I wanted to plan for the contingency that we would not have any supplies in order to build a lean-to. What could I bring with me that I might have had in the period. A linen tarp was just the answer.

but not just any tarp...

In a past life, I apprenticed to a historical sailmaker by the name of Derek Harrison at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. I could build a rough sail easily enough. And with the gift of some linen canvas from another friend, Lynn Griffiths last week, I set to start.
Remember, we are considering our trek to be up the Hudson river, to the Champlain, then into the Richelieu river valleys, all along bodies of water where boats could be found.

I made up a trapezoidal shaped sail of a central rectangle and two side triangles. The central rectangle is as long as we are tall, and wide enough for us to spoon. The side triangles will make the front elevation of the lean-to and provide side shelter. I roped all the edges, as a sail of the period would have been, adding rope eyelets at each corner. The corners were also reinforces with a secondary layer of canvas at a different grain direction to support those eyelets even more. Finally, on the long edge, where we will be placing the uprights of wood, I added two grommets to help in lashing the thing together. This weekend, we will head over to the woodlot next door and cut some appropriate saplings to make those uprights. These will need to be sealed with shellac in order to cross the border. Yes officer, they are 'finished' wood, and we will bring them home with us.

A corner flipped back, you can see the eyelet on the corner, the roped edges and the reinforcing. you can also see my flat seam, otherwise known as a flat-felled seam.

the corner eyelet

my hitched grommet

Pierre inspecting my work

I completely hand stitched this piece, using the flat seam to join the pieces, the round seam to attach the reinforcement pieces. I then whipped the rope along the hemmed edges, splicing the ends together and whipping over the rough ends of the rope. I then made the little thread grommets and worked the hitched eyelets over. This is work I hadn't done in almost a decade. I think Elder Harrison would be proud of my stitching. But my hands, arms, and shoulders ache now. I think I'll take the weekend off before returning to my sewing studio.

Bibliography

Smith, Hervey Garrett. The Arts of the Sailor: Knotting, Splicing, and Ropework with 101 Illustrations. New York: Dover Publications, 1990. paper.