At Her Leisure

Why is it so hard to get worked up about taking pictures of things? I now have a 1901 split skirt and bicycling sweater, a 1919 cape sweater, an 1890's corset, and a few silk 1930's and 40's undergarments that are finished that I'm struggling to get worked up to taking pictures of. Goal for the weekend: Put on and take pictures of the 1901 bicycling outfit.

I went to a Hallowe’en themed wedding last Saturday and wore my 1910 evening dress. We ended up back and forth between inside and outside a lot so I ended up carrying the train a lot. I’m glad it got another wearing because I do like it quite a bit. I also got to use a fan that I bought at an estate sale a couple of months ago. I had waffled on buying it, but some of the flowers painted on it were an excellent match for this dress so that worked out quite well.



Monday the band parents did a trunk or treat for the kids after practice. It was in the 40’s out so I wanted something warm. I finally wore my 1870’s gray velvet mantle. marianme took pictures of it in Tombstone, but it was really too warm to wear it that day so this was really its first wearing. I also finally wore the 1890’s knit petticoat I started making back when I lived in Virginia and finished in Houston. It took eight years to wear it! I wore my 1890 barrister’s wig knit hood too. That I’ve only had for a couple of years. With all the new stuff I also wore my yellow striped linen 1881 dress again. I do like that dress. Unfortunately I completely failed to get a picture of the whole look.







Tuesday it was 7:00 by the time I got home from dropping the girls at a friend’s house, which was too late to want to start donning a costume so I didn’t end up dressing on Hallowe’en itself.

Things have been busy lately. Among the Jane Austen Festival, the beginning of school, and Costume College, life has been busy. I haven't done any actual sewing in weeks except for tacking on a neck and sleeve ruffle for someone before the gala at CoCo. I have done a fair bit of knitting, though. I finished a plain 18th century stocking on the way to Louisville and started a tatted bit of lace for a collar for an 1880's dress on the way back from Louisville. I started the mating stocking while driving around Louisville. In LA I finished the first pass at the tatting and started the second pass of five. I've done a bit more of it now, but I'm still working through the second pass. (I only worked on it the first couple of days I was back from LA.) Today I finished the first of a pair of late 19th century openwork stockings. I'm going to wash it and block it before I cast on the second stocking because I think the odds are about 50/50 that it will end up shrinking too much. I really hope it doesn't.

I've been struggling to get back to my cross-stitching piece. Usually when something is 98% done, I can't wait to finish it off, but I'm fighting myself on this one. The piece has been a motivational struggle all along, which is why I'm on month 20 of working on it. I finished the actual cross-stitching part the weekend before going to Louisville, but it took until this Thursday for me to start the outlining. Part of it has been a lack of time, but you know the going is tough on a project when knitting a stocking sounds more interesting.

As so often happens after a big costume event, I've got a small pile of alterations and the like that I want to do. Most of it is trivial - I need to shorten the suspenders on my 1930's girdle and shorten some bones in my 1910's corset. I also need to check whether the center back bones on my early 18th century stays broke. They looked a little funny when I was putting the stays on last Sunday, but I forgot to look at them when I took them off. Not something found at CoCo, but I need to shorten the 1850's chemisette I made this summer. I did a poor job of judging where the waistline is on the pattern piece (yes, I know it should be marked on the pattern, but it's not) so I made it too long in front.

I don’t really have any grand over-arching remarks, but I’m pleased with the things I made this year. It was a small year for events – only four: living history days at the Tucson Presidio, the George Washington Ball in Williamsburg, Costume College, and a Victorian Christmas ball in Mesa – but maybe that helped me to make a few things that I actually wear in real life. I hope 2019 will have more events.

January:
Mid-18th century stays


( The rest of the year is behind the cut )

Putting this together has made me realize that I’m actually rather in arrears on posting finished projects so I’ll have to put some effort into that over the next few weeks.

I finished my tatted garters yesterday.



They're from a pattern in Butterick's Tatting and Netting published in 1895. The tatting is done in gold silk beading cord. I substituted modern elastic for the silk elastic called for by the pattern. They're fastened with hooks and eyes and have taffeta ribbon bows. One of the ribbons I got at Costume College turned out to be a very good match for the beading cord.

I made the tatting about 1" longer than the circumference of my leg just below the knee to allow for stretch when putting them on, and I'm glad I did because weaving the elastic through the tatting took up a little length.

I made an 1880's bustle over the weekend. It's View D of the Laughing Moon pattern. I goofed and felled the side seams the wrong way so all my hoops are about 1/2" shorter than designed and the line on the side isn't so smooth, but it feels much sturdier than the old petticoat with steels. I salvaged the steels from that for this so there's no going back!

I finally took pictures! I've got the lace-trimmed petticoat and the 1870's Le Baiser dress.

Boring thing first: the petticoat
The upper part of the petticoat is from a pattern in Fashions of the Gilded Age The bottom is a flounce three yards in circumference. I found a museum piece* with nine ~1/4" tucks and an eyelet edging and used that as my inspiration for the flounce. Mine has hand-knit lace instead of eyelet.



For reasons that I have completely forgotten, I put ties on the waist of this petticoat instead of a button and buttonhole. I got it from somewhere, but I really do not remember where. It's a little annoying to do up but not terrible.

Anyway, I figure it's appropriate for not only the natural form period when the pattern was published but also the years after the turn of the twentieth century. I think it will be appropriate as far into the 20th century as hems brushed the floor.

It makes me happy because I have a petticoat with hand-knit lace. Not only hand-knit lace, but hand-knit lace from a period pattern. That definitely makes me feel good about my costuming self.

*I tried to link to the webpage in the Met instead of Pinterest, but the Met site kept giving me errors so you get a Pinterest link.

The Le Baiser dress is finished...I think. I need to put it on and make sure, but I think it's finished. I need to put it on to get pictures too. Then I need to find an event to wear it to.

The last bits finished were the collar and cuffs, which is as it should be, right?



Now I'm working on finishing a late 19th century petticoat - the one with the knitted lace. I'm making up the flounce, and I've finished the tucks and am about halfway through whipping on the lace. Then I'll just need to sew the flounce to the main body of the petticoat, and I'll be finished with my 1890's underwear. Then I'll be down to just my mitts in progress. That won't last long, but I haven't quite decided what my next project will be.



About a week and a half ago I went to an "Antebellum Tea." I met up with some local costuming acquaintances there who were kind enough to invite me, knowing that it was close to my house and that I've done a range of periods of costume. Richard was kind enough to take a picture of me with all my winter woolies.



Knowing that this was put on by some reenactors, I was a little concerned about going since I didn't know much about the crowd. For instance, would they look down upon me for not having truly period-correct glasses? Would they remark on the fact that my skirt's a trifle short because I really wanted to wear my button boots with their 1.5" heel rather than the shoes I hemmed it for, which only have about a 1/2" heel? It turns out that they're not overly particular, and I suffered no ill comments and perceived no deprecating stares. People were very complimentary of my sontag, and I think overall I was well-dressed for the event. And I got to wear my lovely wool 1860's dress. I love that fabric.

I've finished 73 repeats of my petticoat lace. When I blocked a big chunk last month, it came out to 1.5yd for 40 repeats so 80 repeats should give me 3yd. I'll finish knitting 80 and block it before I bind off just to make sure I've got the whole 3yd. I've definitely gotten faster than one repeat per hour and now know the pattern so well that I can read a book while knitting except that I have to look for the k2t and psso bits.

It sounds like I'll be swatching those new mitts quite soon!

I have the ribbon for my hood so I should be able to finish it tonight. And my dress is close to done except for the collar and cuffs. I have half the trim sewn on and half of it pinned on. The collar and cuffs will take awhile since they have to have rolled hems, and I don't do those quickly. Then I baste the skirt to the bodice and put on a few hooks and thread eyes and tack up the skirt draping, and it will be done. It will take awhile, but it feels like it's nearly finished.

I pressed the pieces for my sweater. It's amazing how different the fabric is after pressing. While I was pressing, it occurred to me that all three 1930's knitted items I've made have called for lightly pressing the pieces under a damp cloth. I guess it was a popular finish at the time. Now the shoulder seams are sewn, I've picked up the stitches around the neck, and I'm about 1/4 of the way through the neck ribbing.

Sunday night I blocked another thirty repeats of my lace, and I measured it yesterday. The forty blocked repeats work out to 1.5yd. Since I'm going for three yards, I'll only need to do about 80 repeats instead of 100, which will save about 20 hours of knitting. I've done 51 so I only have about 30 more!