Sew along at home

Let's face it, we are currently in the mother of all off-seasons. I don't know about you, but I'm taking this opportunity to completely overhaul my kit. I started this plan before covid, as part of my dissertation work. In actuality, I tend to do this from time to time to make sure I'm still on the right track, and this feels like as good a time as any to take stock.

This season's wardrobe overhaul was to address some issues I had been having with some of my kit pieces, but also to make some better work clothes for summer months. I was working from an inventory record of one Mrs. McQueen attached to the 84th Royal Highland Emigrants, one of our forebears in Nova Scotia. My own family came to live in Nova Scotia as part of this very regiment, so Mrs. McQueen may have even known my ancestor. Her inventory seemed like a good place to start.

The National Records of Scotland contains this important record under fond GD174/585/6

Account of all Thing is belong to Mrs McQueen (original spelling)
2 Blaket
4 Paticats
4 Shifts
3 Short Gown
1pr Stockings
1 Apron
2 pr Shoes
1 Coat
1 Viscoats
2 Shirts

Quite a few of these items I already have in my closet, and am really very happy with the pieces, so I focused on the items I did not have.

The first piece was one of the Short Gown. This first short gown I based off the one in Colonial Williamsburg's collection, accession #1985-242 found in Linda Baumgarten's book, Costume Close-Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern 1750-1790. I put the word out into the community looking to purchase old stock of cotton prints that would be suitable and this proved a successful venture as two ladies offered up appropriate pieces from their stashes. I was over the moon. The construction notes on this short gown are OK, but took a bit of working through the process to fully understand what Baumgarten was explaining, and I even had to go back, unpick and redo a seam or two because I had made a mistake. It is only thread after all, and I wanted the garment made correctly in the historical fashion, so unpicking and re-stitching was the only way.

my dream fabric that I have coveted forever is now mine and made into a garment for me! 

I will make two more 'short gown.' One in wool that will be a cross between this Williamsburg short gown, and the ubiquitous 'bed gown' with a shawl collar. The other may be a regular gown shape/construction, only short. I am wanting to compare and contrast the three different styles I am noticing in art and written record, mostly because we, as a community, are constantly discussing this item and what it may have looked like in the period. A conversation in wardrobe about the conversation we are having in the community.

The second item I wanted to tackle this year is an item that is strangely missing from the inventory - stays.
There are pages written in my dissertation concerning this omission. What happened to them, when we know that women wore this garment. Imagine if you will, how many women in your modern life wear a bra, or not. Same holds true for the historical period...maybe even more so, since they provide so much support for every other item worn by women.

My new stays are self drafted, working from a pattern I have been developing for nearly 30 years, tweaking and re-working with each new set to make a more improved garment for my own body. I am spectacularly happy with this iteration.

They are based off a set in the Museum of the City of New York collection, accession #65.307 featured in the new Patterns of Fashion 5: The content, cut, construction and context of bodies, stays, hoops and rumps c. 1595-1795. They are on page 105 and date to 1770-80. These ones were made from layers of linen canvas and buckram, with a linen twill as the fashion layer, and a linen cotton blend as the lining. I machined the bone channels with my machine's backstitch and regular sewing thread. I boned them with 1/4" nylon zip straps, bound them in 1/2" wide linen tape from William Booth, draper, and covered the seams with 1/4" cotton tailor's tape. On this iteration, I took a 2" wide fish out of the side-front diagonal seam to flatten out a tummy bulge I had going on. This set also had an inserted gusset at the small of my back which was interesting to set in, but has made a world of difference to the comfort of these stays.

Now, here's where I get to the 'sewing along at home' aspect of this post. I have talked about what I am doing, but these things are not completely out of your hands to try at home. If you have a library card, both of these books can be available to you. Talk to your library about ordering a copy to have in their collection, or do an inter-library loan of these items if you can. If all else fails, order copies for your own personal library, as these books will be long term references if you continue in living history.

But what if you can't draft? This is a question I am asked a great deal. On simple articles of dress, all you need to do is scale up the pattern plotted out in the book. On a difficult item, such as stays, start with a commercial pattern. Simplicity has produced some decent versions of eighteenth-century underwear from time to time, which if used in conjunction with the reference books, you can start to develop your own stays pattern to fit your body. You WILL NEED to do several mock-ups of this garment to achieve the desired fit. Trust me. I have yet to be happy with the first go of any new set of stays I have made, For Anyone! Sometimes it takes multiple mock-ups, and sometimes you just wear a garment you aren't totally happy with until you can figure out how to tweak it to get a better shape.

Simplicity has a new version of their underwear pattern out now, developed by the ladies at American Duchess in cahoots with the Outlander fan-base. Here is the link to the new underwear pattern, with Abby Cox on the cover, https://www.simplicity.com/simplicity-storefront-catalog/patterns/costumes/simplicity-pattern-8579-misses-18th-century-costume/
I would be interested in seeing how people find it. I might even buy it and give it a mock-up myself to see how it works. You can easily alter it to be back-and-front lacing by slashing up the centre front and adding another line of eyelets to the front. The shift pattern is also an improvement over their older version, but for revolutionary period, you will be wanting to elongate the sleeves a bit to be below the elbow and cuff them. The shift sleeves as pictured, are for later in the period, once the gown sleeves get narrower and longer.

Currently on the board is a new petticoat. I happened to start this project at the same time Burnley and Trowbridge started their petticoat sew-along. They are doing a series of sew-alongs during the lockdown and are YouTubing the process so you can learn how to make these items correctly at home. The link to their channel is here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySy8zO2XCnsSM1STJc0r6A
I would encourage you to subscribe and follow these really well done video lessons. I even learned a few new things this morning!

Sew there you have it, re-examine your own kit and see what needs to be improved. Now is the time, since we are all stuck at home and events this season are looking more and more unlikely to happen. Let's all step out next season even more improved than we ever have before. And don't forget to share, use the hashtags, let us know how you're holding up and if you need help.

an empty kitchen at the Elmendorph Inn, Red Hook NY