fuelling the great shortgown debate?

 Back when rocks were soft and the famous bodice reigned supreme, your blogger was a newly fashioned historic costumer and re-enactor. I can't even think of myself as a living historian back then, I was as generic as they come. But in an era when women were turning out in a shift, petticoat, and their sneakers, I was a bit of an anomaly. I had graduated Costume Studies and theoretically knew how to dress people properly for history things.

I was asked to turn out at events to possibly persuade the ladies to dress a bit better. My first living history event I had a shift, stays, two petticoats, bum rolls, and a cap...oh, and a jacket my friend Sarah whizzed up on machine the two days before the event. Apart from the jacket, everything was made as part of our Costume Studies program.

But a lot of it was wrong...

The shift was from Cut My Cote, but the Italian camica, not a shift appropriate for the Revolutionary period of America. It had puffy sleeves I loved though...oh, and it was made entirely by machine from cotton batiste. My stays were cut from fabric from the scrap bin, boned with steels, because that is the only boning we knew about. The scrap bin idea came from my partner that year rage quitting the program right before our fashion show, and I was broke, and I wanted so desperately to join my class and not be left out. That started my making do with nothing approach to historic costuming. The petticoats also came from classmates stashes. The bum rolls my mum made in the middle of the night the day before the fashion show from factory cotton and poly batt.

The jacket was a lovely mustard wool from my grandmother's stash, lined in off white wool that we now line military coats with. The pattern came from Janet Arnold. That first event, I wore a straw tricorn-yes-tricorn hat made from a Sally Ann find, and my sunglasses because of the perpetual migraines I had at that age. I thought I looked fabulous.

We started getting orders almost immediately. The ladies weren't interested in stays back then, or as everyone called them, corsets, mostly because of all the old wives tales. And there have been some doosies over the years. What I could encourage them to wear though were bedgowns/shortgowns/jackets. And Sarah and I made them by the dozen, out of printed cotton we bought at Fabricville, from linen if we could find it, I don't think there were any wool ones back then, because women also didn't want to be hot...everything was always too hot.

I had a good early run with the 18thC, but then took a big huge break because of divorce and ex husband living in one of the major living history towns in the province, and I needed space from him, and time to work on my career, which at the time was the 19thC and the Halifax Citadel.

But where am I going with this?

I want to tell you that I learned a bit about appropriate clothing in living history contexts. I want to tell you about how important that context is for creating a valuable and historically accurate living history impression. When I finally got back to the 18thC, I knew a bit more about context, but was still wearing a jacket and that trusty green wool petticoat. Because, after all, my primary focus was on dressing other people.

This jacket was made from the scrap from a suit made for the curator of the museum I was working for. It was a warm garment, and this event was late september and cool. I was closer to accurate, but you'll notice my shoes are my modern mary janes with vibram soles. But was I appropriate for the event? Closer, for sure, and warm enough.

Going to Louisbourg the following year, I knew I wanted a gown. This jacket-petticoat situation was ok, it was cut from historical patterns, but not accurate enough for me. This may have been the last event I wore this jacket to...so a life span of two events.

The following year, I was gone from the museum and had a bit more time on my hands...so got to gown making.

a bit better...Mum is wearing a proper jacket now, instead of a green quilters cotton print bedgown. I look back on these photos though and still see things to fix...apart from the encampment things that also need fixing. Like the coloured silk apron worn underneath my gown, the matching necker all tucked in. I think I am wearing that old camica in this photo...because yes, I still own it, and it's got sleeves! And yes, I wore this my first time to Ticonderoga too, to a Rev period event. Because I thought that an older dress was better than no dress at all, and we had real life shit to deal with alongside starting my PhD. I don't think there are any photos of me at that event though...that's cool.

So I start to really tuck into my PhD work. Now is the time I really get to focus on Revolutionary period stuff. Work out for myself what I should be wearing and get those things made. After all, there was a lot of time sitting in hospitals dealing with Mum's chemo, and most of the things I was working on made the day go by a bit faster with her napping. I got an english back gown or two made, and some new clothes for Pierre, and knit a lot of stockings as I worked out the pattern so that I was happy with it.

Getting better, but not there yet. I look at this photo of P and I at the Battle Road event and want to fix things. He wore his checked shirt instead of the white one I was making, because it wasn't finished yet. and I am wearing my new apron I was so proud of weaving, even though a checked apron is a working garment and this is my best dress. The snap sack is also more seven years war period than rev period...would it have even lasted that many years in period? I also get him to button his coats now, something that was a bit of a sell.

All this to say I am a work in progress...like constantly. And also maybe to help you see that there are times and appropriate places to wear things. That maybe with me picking apart my own kit, you can train your eye to see better, to learn that just because it's "18th century" doesn't always mean it's appropriate to wear.

Currently, I am recreating Mrs.McQueen's inventory from the 84th. I have posted the contents of her inventory taken at her possible death before in this blog. I am recreating bedgowns/shortgowns/jackets from all the available sources. Will I actually wear any of them to events? I'm not sure. I know the one I made based on the one in the Colonial Williamsburg collection I likely will pass on, to someone who does a dutch impression fr upstate New York. I think the cotton print patterns I used aren't really something that Mrs.McQueen would have worn, even in her 'on the foot all over the east coast of North America' state. I will keep the wool one I made, as that is great worn as a cardigan over my gown (I also wear it with my jeans and T-shirts on the everyday), and the long wool one will be similar, another layer worn to keep warm. I have two others I want to make, one with a print from B&T, lined in linen, and another just a single layer of white linen, both from Fitting and Proper. As Mrs. McQueen, I will wear the hell out of the linen one and get it good and heritaged. The B&T textile might also get some good heritage and be worn when it's beyond hot. But these short/bedgowns/jackets are all for a poor or working woman, on foot behind the army. So worn in Garrison, or when I am under canvas with the 84th back home.

They will not be worn to any of the more upper middling events in New England. I have new gown cloth to make up for those events.

I have a list of impressions I am building out for this PhD, and learning from each project what is appropriate and what is not, given the site requirements and the event. 

I have Highland Man finished, his uniform bits are also almost finished...I need to deal with buttons for his brown cassimere jacket, finish his gaiters, and get the fixings for a forage/Garrison cap, I'd also like to make him another knit cap, or I might order one from Sally Pointer.

Mrs. McQueen is still a work in progress, but I am getting closer.

My former Waldecker (Dutch-Germanic) soldier is also a work in progress, as is his wife. I mean, how else should my friends who live along the Waldecker line, speak passable Dutch, and himself sports a fantabulous moustache dress? No, He cannot shave his moustache, it makes him money as George V. This impression was one of potential compromise. There are a few moustaches depicted on 'Hessian' soldiers in period sketches. And J is getting a bit older and doesn't want to be playing soldier all that much any more.

Loyalist man is more upper middling, and I finally have the cloth in hand, just need to clean up the other projects before I get to that. I honestly also want to paint his portrait so he can walk along the street in Shelburne or Saint John with it slung over his shoulder as per the portrait of John Murray in the New Brunswick museum...though I am no Copley! Murray felt the need to bring his portrait with him to start over again in New Brunswick. Why? I do not know. People bring the oddest things with them when they are refugees. I will also be tweaking the suit I made for P above to better reflect what I now know. And yes, more shirts are in the works so that he has white linen ones as well as a few checked.

And my Loyalist Lady will be a better gown outfit for myself, including a quilted cote and cotton print gown.

There are other things I need to get made up, an overcoat for P that I now have both fabric and Henry Cooke pattern for, in house. Shoes are also on the list, currently a new pair for P, and then when I get a bit more money saved, a working set for me. So you see, work in progress...

constantly.