to Curtch, or not to Curtch?

 last night I was watching a little YouTube video* from the Highland Village in Iona Cape Breton. I won't go into how seriously wrong the costuming is, but one of the characters wearing the iconic curtch got me thinking...

Most people who study Scottish dress at all know about the curtch, and the portrait of an early eighteenth-century henwife at Castle Grant by Waitt, dated 1706.

Let's dismantle her clothing, shall we? Her bodice and sleeves are very much in keeping with seventeenth century clothing than anything that may have been worn by early nineteenth century colonial people in Cape Breton. Also, her curtch is multi layered and probably several types of caps, coifs and the final curtch. Her neckwear is also in keeping with earlier seventeenth-century styles.

When I started building the wardrobe for Mrs. McQueen, who was likely a highland woman who immigrated to North America in the last quarter of the eighteenth century with her soldier husband, I knew that this portrait would be too far out of date to be even remotely considered when reproducing the clothing items I needed. I have also been referencing another inventory of lost items claimed by another woman attached to a highland regiment to see if there were any other items that these women would have had access to while following their husbands all up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

No Curtches listed.

Yes, I know about the Highland Wedding painting by David Allen c.1780, and have used this as reference too.

We can see a lady in the back wearing a curtch headdress, but again, it's a series of caps, coifs and the curtch. There is a certain way of arranging and pinning the curtch in place as well, it's not simply a triangle of linen tied at the base of the neck like a 1960s bandana. The other women in this painting are wearing caps, ribbons, and one has her shawl or airsaid up over her head. Just one (maybe) woman out of possibly five wearing a curtch at this point, late in the eighteenth century.

There are other issues with nineteenth century descriptions of women's clothing from the eighteenth century. They tend to be far too simplistic in nature, add in the notion of a 'mob cap', and we have the potential for a hot mess of costuming to occur.

I am going to play about with a version of a curtch that I might be happy to wear, that more closely resembles the art of the period than what modern people are calling a curtch. I think it will be layers of the thinnest linen that I can possibly find. Not a single big triangle of heavy linen tied at the base of my neck over a messy bun or pony tail.

and maybe later, I'll go in depth over why the 'french' and 'english' bodice should die a horrible dumpster-fire death finally...

*if you really want to watch this video..it's here

Grant, I.F. (1989), Highland Folk Ways, Routledge: London

http://www.revwar75.com/library/hagist/britwomen.htm?fbclid=IwAR3YKwPy9r_zS13d6dK0BVMdx-9F889D_V012vva_Lyl39hAOHw4Y2mxjoE

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.

Spring 2020: a Tale of Two Jackets

 As I sit here on a crisp late August morning, I have pulled on one of the jackets I made this Spring, the brown cassimere for Pierre. It was to be his work jacket, to be worn over British small clothes while we worked at Fort Ticonderoga on their opening weekend. Needless to say that event didn't happen.

The jacket was finished though, and will be used as part of my dissertation collection.

The first weekend of Covid-19 lock-down, back in March, I went over to my favourite wool shop on the island of Montreal. The gentlemen who own this shop on the upper end of Saint-Hubert street carry the finest wool suitings and coatings from all over the world. I expect to come out of that store several hundreds poorer every time I walk in. I find the perfect cloth every time. This visit was no exception. This time, I bought the end of a bolt of brown cassimere. Part of it went towards the simple cut of a work jacket, the rest I will save for a short Fall '50s swing coat for myself.

I based the cut and construction on the blue wool jacket in Henry Cooke's collection. He was generous enough to share enough photographs to the 18th Century Menswear group I belong to on facebook that I was able to create my own version for Pierre. As there are no extant pieces in the Fort Ticonderoga collection that solidifies what the written record speaks of, I was kind of on my own with my decisions. I picked the cassimere because of the hand of the cloth, and it was available for me to walk home with that day. The cloth is also nicely fulled, so seam finishing could be carried out in the same manner as the jacket in Cooke's collection.

I cut the jacket as closely as I possibly could so that the remaining fabric piece would give me more options for a second garment. As you can see, that meant some piecing of the front facing. This jacket was constructed using various historical stitches and was entirely hand stitched and finished.

I chose a late period square welt pocket technique taught to me by facebook user Batley Royston of K&P textiles. Simply put, you cut the long edge, with a short downward clip on either end, this forms the welt. Once the pocket bag is inserted and finished, the short ends of the rectangle are buttonhole stitched through all layers. I did a whipped felling stitch along the top edge, the same stitch used to apply the facings to the front edges of the jacket body.

A simple back vent finished along the top edge with two rows of a spaced backstitch. The buttons used are simple flat pewter buttons created for me by Dale Wyn Roberts in Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo yet of Pierre wearing the finished jacket. Now that the weather has turned, I might get him into his wool clothes for a few photos. I also finished the final tweaks on his highlander suit this Spring, so that photo needs updating as well.

The second jacket I created this Spring was a regimental jacket in the style worn by Butler's Rangers and other men who worked closely with Indigenous populations in New England during the Revolution. I was sent a kit with all the supplies for completing the jacket by Tommy Tringale of Billerica. This process was an exercise in patience, as I was supposed to bring a fitting muslin with me to opening weekend at Ti, but with the border closing, we had to create new and flexible plans for completing the work.

I began by sending the fitting muslin through the mail, and doing a virtual fitting over a facebook call. Tommy then sent the muslin back to me with the kit of supplies. I got to work.

I had a few images of other gent's coats to reference so that the one I constructed was as close to uniform as I could possibly make it. There was also a bit of a checklist of points that I needed to cover during the construction process. The cutting was the tightest I have ever cut. When you create several garments from a piece of cloth, you can get creative and save fabric over the length of the piece you are cutting from. When you are creating one garment, you might need a bit more cloth...or do some creative piecing to achieve the same end result. I constructed this jacket by hand using historical construction methods with the exception of the edges of the pocket bags.

The bits of the kit, and my pattern pieces.

 

the edges of the pocket bag were the only machine work

Photos of the pocket inserted into the top edge of the half lining.

My label carefully hidden inside the welt of the pocket.

The lining was felled in place.

Many buttonholes were worked along the facing edges.

The finished jacket fronts.

I built the sleeves at this point, and then let the sit for a bit, as I was wondering a bit, what would/should the cuffs look like. I originally built them as full working cuffs, but the construction notes called for a non functioning cuff. I chatted with Dr. Matthew Keagle at Ticonderoga for his thoughts before I ended up rebuilding the cuffs to be non functional and a single layer of white wool over the green sleeve.

The sleeve with the functioning cuff...

The finished sleeve with the non functioning cuff.

The collar gave me a bit of a headache, or it may have been the fact that I had a pre-existing migraine that caused me to also have to rebuild the collar. Having no cloth left from cutting meant that I had to carefully unpick everything and apply generous amounts of steam to get version 2 into a better usable shape to reapply. I am very happy with how it turned out in the end. And far happier with the roll achieved.

Here is the full jacket, hanging on my smaller dress dolly. Hopefully I will get photos of Tommy in his new jacket and in full kit for my records, and to also fully trust him when he says it fits.

At this point, I switched gears and went through a similar fitting process for a pair of linen gaitered trousers for AR Watts in the DC beltway area. Some photos for you of those...

the front fall

Because this linen frays easily, I started with a simple machine buttonhole to hold things together before working a properly stitched buttonhole over top.

These were made using a combination of machine and hand stitching so that they would hold up in the wash. Machine on long seams, and for seam finishing, and hand everywhere else, because yes, it matters. I ran out of heavy linen buttonhole twist before the end and had to improvise, because shipping thread to Canada is cost heavy and something I'd rather not do unless there's other stuff coming with it. I pulled out a weaving thread, it slowed me down a bit, but the end result is perfectly fine. You do what ya gotta do sometimes.

Now, I am making regency inspired modern clothes for a friend, working on other actual regency clothes for a local client, and working on my dissertation project, Mrs. McQueen's wardrobe. I have also started a second stocking for Jay Howlett at Colonial Williamsburg.

And writing, lots of writing, and editing, because that needs doing too.

fighting feelings of perceived laziness

Why put off til tomorrow that you can do today, right now even, five minutes ago...even better. When Kelly gets stressed out, she doesn't procrastinate, she goes into overdrive, but it has to be productive.

it's the being productive part that I grapple with.

I am normally a productive person anyway. Most people would think me more along the lines of an energizer bunny than a slow turtle. I get shit done. When I am stressed though, I tend to take on big overwhelming projects. This current bout of stress is a bit different than others though. There is not enough productivity in my day to feel as if I have been productive enough.

In the last month I have been cleaning house. Room by room, cleaning house. Pierre's goal was to move (eventually) with 10% less stuff. I have been going through the house and tackling the 10% in every room. Yes, every room. Don't worry, most of it has gone to the trash or recycling, stuff that is not usable by anyone any more, like 40 year old pocket novels that were losing pages when I was in high school.
I have been working on my white board list too, it's just that right now, knitting doesn't feel like I am being productive enough...despite the fact that a pair of stockings takes a good three months of knitting, and I am already thinking about buying more yarn.

And those wondering, the dissertation is stalled. Not completely forgotten/abandoned, just stalled. It needs a rest, then I can turn it over and get it started again.

until then I knit...and clean.

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

2020, The Year Living History Went Online

A lot can happen in a month. Just over a month ago, I was planning my summer construction projects, all geared around events we were planning on attending. Then, rather abruptly, we were told to self-isolate, then our border closed with our neighbouring country...something I had not seen in my lifetime.
It has been a rough month, I will admit. Been trying to keep up with projects, but my deadlines have shifted a bit, and some things have moved further up the to-do list than others. I am finding that I want to spend more time in the den with my husband and our boys, than down in the shoe sewing...

It is what it is.

The thing I have been enjoying though, is that the living history community started posting photos from past events on social media. We get to remember what we love doing, remembering the people we love being around sharing our nerd together. Other sites have started moving living history programming online. Fort Ticonderoga is hosting a lecture series you can check out here...https://www.fortticonderoga.org/center-for-digital-history/. I just noticed that History Camp in Boston will also be hosting lectures, their facebook page is here, https://www.facebook.com/HistoryCampOfficial/?utm_source=History%20events%20in%20New%20England&utm_campaign=088504d5ee-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_18_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4221dc88a-088504d5ee-1210447797&mc_cid=088504d5ee&mc_eid=c116a2a136. Neal Hurst, Tailor is also hosting zoom chats and putting them up on the YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCatJbAEjsOky12VsAAwjCLg. Minute Man NHP is also doing a fabulous job of leading up to the 245th commemoration of Battle Road this sunday, https://www.facebook.com/MinuteManNPS. We will be moving that commemoration online as well, so look for photos of lanterns belighting your friend's front stoops sunday night and into monday.

How will I incorporate this wonderful virtual living history experience into my dissertation, I am not sure yet. Needs to happen though. This is a once in a lifetime experience, just as important as my physical body attending the real-life events.

the Sestercentennial begins: Boston Massacre 250th

Yesterday marked the 250th anniversary commemoration of the Boston Massacre. The actual anniversary was thursday, but many of the commemoration ceremonies were this weekend. Photos and videos are being shared on social media, and I have to admit to a fair bit of jealousy and feeling left out, but when I watched the video of the event last night, I was glad to have stepped back from this event. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong, more that I would have felt 'far too much emotion' (tm). It was beautiful.

Seeing the event shared through social media has me thinking of my own living history practice, and what I need to be working on for this season's eventing. The first event we will be participating in will be the No Quarter event at Ticonderoga in May. Pierre will be a British soldier, working as a servant. I have pulled his white small clothes already, having made them the year before we moved up here as part of a naval midshipman's uniform. To round out his clothing for the event, he will need a brown work jacket, black half gaiters, and a black silk neck stock. The Fort is sending me a forage cap kit. All of this work will go into the dissertation, as one of my character sketches is of a British soldier. I will not be building a regimental for him, as he will not ever need one as more of a support soldier than a musket carrying one.

Paul Sandby RA, 1731-1809, British, London Cries: A Fishmonger, ca.1759. Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. watercolour and graphite on laid paper.

For the 'Brown Work Jacket', we have very little evidence as to what they looked like, so I went to one of the best sources for working class people of the period, Paul Sandby. This image of a fishmonger shows some really great detail of a work jacket, right down to what the cuff should look like. Henry Cooke has an extant blue wool jacket (though of French provenance) in a very similar cut, and will provide excellent construction details. Now I just have to hunt for a good serviceable brown wool and get that cut so I can bring it with me to stitch while I am away next month.As for the half gaiters and neck stock, those will both come out of stash, thankfully.

Then it will be working on items for my own kit. I have stays that are almost ready for a fitting, then binding off. After that, a cotton short gown, based on the one in the Colonial Williamsburg collection and featured in Costume Close-up, page 43. That short gown is not strictly required for May, but will be needed for July when it's +40C so I don't drop of heat exhaustion like last year.

After that, it will be back to men's wear, as I will have two complete suits to build, and parts of two others to finish, plus a regimental to make over the summer months.

It's going to be a busy year ahead, and I can't believe that I am writing about revolutionary war living history RIGHT when it is happening! This is unintentional nerding out in the extreme, as when I began, I hadn't realized how close we were, and throughout my first year, I wasn't sure I would even make it this far. I'm doing this!

revisiting short stays

I have been getting new clients this year, which has been lovely, but will have to take a bit of a break from sewing for other people for a while in order to get caught up on my PhD work. When the whiteboard fills up, I get anxious, because I have given people my word that I would sew for them, and want to keep that word.

So, the last few weeks I have been working on stays, predominantly for a new client, but also for myself. They are a compare and contrast in both cut and fashion, but also class levels. The ones for the client are a regency era historical cut, but covered in fine lace, and so are very delicate. The ones for me are revolutionary period, working class and serviceable. A tale in two class levels for sure!

Making new stays for a new body means trial and error, fixing and tweaking until I am happy with the cut. I hope to have them bound off this week for what will hopefully be the final fitting next week. Then I can drape a bodice for them and get the gown under construction. I also have a shift to make, and a Banyan for their spouse. They are excited to have someone make new clothes for them, and it is infectious, their excitement. If I could afford to hire someone right now, we would be seriously hard at it. But I am just one woman, and so things will get made in due time.

Some in-progress shots of the stays. I will be binding them off again today, after taking them entirely apart to tweak the side pieces. I also stabilized the edge of the lace along the centre back a bit more with some gold thread couched down over the scallop edge. The lace is made up of short pieces of gold thread over the netting, and very fragile. By couching a continuous length of more gold thread on top, those shorter lengths will be held more firmly in place. These stays will never be seen by anyone other than the client and their spouse, and so we can have a bit more fun with their femininity, and make a garment they will feel good wearing. I have to admit, they are really lovely to look at, but they took about all the patience I could find, lots of tiny hand stitches with a tiny needle and silk thread. Most people would have just said, "it can't be done", but I love a challenge.

My own stays, in comparison, are rough and tumble. I am tweaking my own stays pattern again with this set, having taken a large fish out of the seam between the front and side front pieces.

Like my very first set of stays made over 25 years ago now, these will also be green linen with brown stitching. Unlike that first set though, these ones are made from layers of linen and linen canvas, and synthetic whalebone, not the cotton canvas and steel boning from that first set. I also understand the stays making process a whole lot more, and so can fix fit issues I had with the last set (taking out that fish). These ones are going to be mostly machine made, as I have found my backstitch really closely resembles machine, I have a nice machine 'backstitch' and I would like to have these finished before the beginning of the season in May...with all that work on my white board, remember? And a research trip to Nova Scotia in April.

All the bone channels are now in, and last night while watching TV, I started on the great many eyelets I have to do. These will be both front and back lacing, so I can dress (and more importantly undress) myself. The eyelets down the back sections are finished now, the front eyelets will get worked tonight. Then, before too long, I will sew the pieces together, have a quick fitting, and be able to bind these off while I am away. The binding will be done by hand, and I am not sure yet what I want to bind them with, but linen tape is the frontrunner at the moment.

Once I get back from Nova Scotia, I have to get gaiters and a black silk neck stock made up for Pierre before opening weekend. We decided against the expense of the forage cap workshop at the moment, due in large part to me having to fund that trip. He will likely wear his monmouth cap for the weekend. If I can, I'd like to get a brown wool jacket made for him for that weekend as well, as that would have been his dress of the day as a servant over a regimental jacket. While he is smol, his shoulders are still too wide for the servants jacket that the Fort has in stock, and it would be good for him to have his own, so he can feel comfortable getting it all kinds of heritage'd.

After opening weekend, PhD stuff happens in earnest! I have a wardrobe inventory to reproduce, tweaks to make on Pierre's retired highland soldier's clothes, and my Shelburne Loyalists suits to make.

little sketch in the Ross-Thompson House museum

I also have a Regimental for Tommy, stays for Lynn on the whiteboard and any other reproductions I want to make based on my research trip. I have also been researching what the Waldeckers might have been wearing after the war, and wondering about cultural differences there.

I have a busy year ahead of me, stay tuned to watch what's new in the shoe...

Been a while...

My computer died shortly after that last post, and it being in the shop threw my whole game off. Who knew I would be so closely tied to my tech?

Anyhoo...

I spent christmas break knitting tuques for folks, got quite a few of those sent out. I was able to use some lovely hand-dyed Nova Scotia yarn from my sister in law to make up two of them. A grey monmouth for Andrew Kirk down in the southern States, and a lovely blue monmouth for Matt Zembo just north of Albany. I currently have a red French cap on the needles for Joseph Hayden out on the western frontier that I am trying out a new-to-me style of hemming that is more historically accurate than the purl row. I got yet another French cap made up for mon beau frere who fixed my computer, and knit up this modern take on the dutch sailors cap for my friend Lacey in New Brunswick.

So I am currently on tuque 5, I have one more of those on the list, for Jayar, then it's back to stockings.
January was the big push to finish up clothes for Pierre and I to wear to a Federal period event in New York at the Elmendorph Inn in Red Hook.

This was a new-to-us period, really, at this high level of accuracy. So it took a serious amount of work to get everything finished. I also made some clothing pieces for the same event for Tim MacDonald, who came to play fiddle and other fun instruments for the event. And, last minute-like, when my friend Laura was here for an extended weekend visit, we banged out yet another suit for a young gent back home in Nova Scotia. They were able to have a fitting with it this past weekend, and it's shaping up to be a lovely start for this new person to the world of living history. Due to the lack of computer, my instagram got many of the images of these builds. You can check out the photos here... https://www.instagram.com/kellyarlenegrant/?hl=en

The event at Red Hook was a famous success, and, of course, it went into my dissertation! On that note, I sent off the introduction and first chapter to my primary supervisor yesterday, so I will be back in the studio shortly. I have projects I need to get tidied up before I leave for more fieldwork in April.

Right now, I am doing a bit more Federal/Regency/1812 stuff for a couple here in Montreal who portray upper class folks. We have joked that we might turn out to the odd event as their servants, if our schedules allow. I am also rebuilding some of my summer wardrobe based on an inventory of a woman attached to the 84th RHE, done in Halifax, also for the dissertation. I cut new stays the other day, of layers of linen and linen buckram. My old stays are still serviceable, but I have wanted to tweak the shape, and make a better set. Things have been busy in the shoe!