At Day at Spring Mountain Ranch

At Spring Mountain Ranch
Photo by Lisa Coffey

This morning I put on my 1860's layers and headed out to Spring Mountain Ranch, which is here in Vegas, and right next to Red Rock Canyon. Today is Nevada Day (Nevada was admitted to the Union October 31st, 1864 - "Battle Born") and this weekend is the Civil War reenactment put on by the Southern Nevada Living History Association.

A view from Spring Mountain Ranch

Today was kind of a prelude to the weekend, which was awesome for me because I have never been to a reenactment before. Kind of an introduction for me. Today, lots of school kids and homeschoolers came out and there were presentations with cavalry horses, cannons, artillery and we civilians. It was such a blast. I especially love all the little girls who have endless questions about our outfits. I totally relate!

Stables across the pasture - ahem -  I mean, battlefield.
There was a cow mooing away!

I chose to wear my yellow cotton 1860's dress. Under it I had all the bits: stockings, knit garters, boots (Robert Land), original pantalettes and chemise, corset, three petticoats, a 108" hoop (Originals by Kay) and organdy undersleeves (remade from these originals). I also wore a pocket, which I reached through a convenient slit in my skirt (perfect for iphone!). One thing I was missing was a corset cover, which I just didn't get around to making yet. Next on my list!

To accessorize, I wore an antique brooch, belt buckle pin and watch chain. I found a nice little pocket watch for it on Amazon. The baste in collar is a beautiful white work piece I found for only $5 at an antique store! What luck!! The belt is brown silk over buckram lined with cotton. There are great directions for making a belt in Elizabeth Stewart Clark's Dressmaker's Guide. I also switched out my modern wedding rings for a plain "gold" one I found on Amazon. It looked great for being so cheap! I had taupe leather gloves, too, but they're in my pocket for the picture. 

Accessories! Undersleeves, hankie, belt, buckle pin, brooch, ring,
watch and chain, straw hat and hat pin.

All the jewelry is antique except for the watch. I think it
 is more common to wear the buckle vertically, though I
have seen a few CDV's with it worn horizontally.

Antique store steal! A whitework collar, basted in.

Robert Land side-lacing boots.

The batiste handkerchief I made has a wavy hem, much like the ones mentioned in Juanita Leisch's book, Who Wore What?: Women's Wear, 1861 - 1865. Apparently a fancy shaped hem gave ladies the opportunity to show off their fabulous narrow hemming skills.

I chose to wear a sun hat (it's bright here!), which I bought from Abraham's Lady. I took off the black cloth ribbon that came with it and replaced it with a brown silk satin one from MJ Trimming.

Shady face! The hat works just as
good as sun glasses!

And a sneaky modern cheater tip...

I always wear Shellac for my manicure. It's a gel that goes on like a nail polish, but it cures under a light. It lasts for like two weeks, which is great, but it's very time consuming to remove, just to dress up.  So I discovered this great polish: Essie's "Matte About You." It's a matte nail polish, so I put a coat over the gel and the shine is gone. At a casual glance, it looks like you have natural, costume friendly nails. Then just a quick wipe of non-acetone takes it off and I'm back to the 21st century!

Essie's "Matte About You" nail polish

The Versatile Blogger

In a recent post, I wrote a brief thank you to all the ladies who gave me the Versatile Blogger award. Now, I finally have a chance to sit down and write up a proper post. Yay!

First off, thank you again to Teacups Among the Fabric, Thread-Headed Snippet and Sew 18th Century. Thank you, thank you!

Next, seven things about myself. Let's see... I'll stick to sewing related.

1. I have loved costumes since I can remember. Costumes and horses. Now I ride every day and, well, you all know about the costumes. I could probably die happy ;)

2. I started mentally costuming long before I ever knew sewing was an option. As a kid, I would probably drive my mother crazy, going "today I'm wearing this and this and this..." And it went on. All imaginary of course. For example, "Today I'm wearing a 1910's white walking skirt etc etc... the jacket goes like this... the hat... the gloves..." It would get quite detailed, actually. Costume nerd at eight years old.

3. My best friend and I used to "call" dresses for our "closets," when we watched movies. Titanic was a favorite. As in, "I call Rose's yellow and white dress." Then a battle would ensue... "No! I called that last time!" At least I had a partner in crime. We used to play dress up, too.

4. Sometimes - often - I go on a fabric binge and shopping for modern clothes takes a back seat. This is very handy, because my husband doesn't seem to realize that fabric adds up just as much as clothes, and I get a pat on the head for not shopping too much. Teehehe.

5. It all started around Gone with the Wind. I was in preschool and I had the flu. Couch for two weeks, watching it over and over again. As I got older, panniers outshined the hoop skirt, and I have gone years not giving the 1860s a second thought. Recently, while working on outfits for a civil war event, I have a new appreciation for the era. I think I'm falling in love again.

6. My very favorite 18th century extant gown is this one from the Dewitt. When I was in high school I actually attempted to paint zillions of silver dots to recreate the fabric. I was all gung ho about it until about two yards in, when I gave up and tucked the fabric away. I still have it, though it's poly silk and so it will probably never get used. Oh well.

7. My very first vintage purchase was a pair of black velvet 1940's boudoir slippers, with peep toes and self fabric bows. I am still in love with them.

And third, fifteen other blogs, who I would like to nominate. I think they're supposed to have under 200 followers but I couldn't find the amounts on every blog so I will just nominate some of my favorites. Of course, leaving out the three ladies who nominated me, each of whose blogs I follow and love.

1. 18th Century Stays - not frequently updated, but great resource for extant stays.
2. All the Pretty Dresses - tons and tons of extant dresses.
3. An Historical Lady - gorgeous photos and her house is sooo lovely!
4. Before the Automobile - just beautiful!
5. Enlightened Age - interesting tid bits of history
6. Festive Attyre - her curtain along has been a blast
7. Kleidung um 1800 - lovely c. 1800 costumes
8. Madame Modiste - ooo Victorian...
9. Passion for the Past - By a man! Lots of pictures.
10. Romantic History - lots of beautiful mid Victorian
11. Saltpetre and Pins - lots of 18th century reenacting
12. Stay-ing Alive - lots of 18th century sewing
13. Stuck in the 18th Century - even more 18th century!
14. The Quintessential Clothes Pen - she goes to the most gorgeous events!
15. The Virtual Victorian - I just enjoy it!

And honorable mention goes to American Duchess, who has like a bazillion followers, but I just love her blog. Like, a total favorite!

Cheers, all!

Catching Up and Thank You's

Oh gosh, I had a big bout of costuming burn out last month and so now I am catching up. A whole month without picking up a needle and thread - I don't know the last time that has happened!

On the bright side, I caught up with everything else in my house, like the giant laundry pile... and other things I usually, conveniently, tuck aside and put off.

But on the downside, ahhhhh! I have so much catching up to do for the end of the month: 18th century, 1860's and Halloween. Stitch stitch stitch.

I haven't had a chance to get near blogger recently, but I just had to pop on and thank two lovely ladies who bestowed awards on my humble blog.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the ladies from Teacups Among the Fabric and Thread Headed Snippet for thinking me worthy of The Versatile Blogger award.

Once you have been given this award you must:


- Thank and link back to the person who nominated you.
- Paste the award to your blog.
- Tell 7 things about yourself.
- Nominate 15 other blogs.

Since I don't have time to do justice to this at the moment, I just wanted to say thank you and I will promptly post in the near future!

Thank you again and hope everyone is having a great October! Yay autumn!

Costumes and Ponies

Meet the pony. Well, he's not a pony, but even with his lengthy string of noble sounding names, he still gets called "pony". Often in a voice totally unfitting to a huge animal, but hey, I talk to my doberman in a mini voice too. They're all my babies!

Anyway, I'm introducing you because he is the reason for my costume brainstorming today.

For Halloween, my barn has a costume contest. Obviously, this involves the horse as well. 

I spent this morning browsing horse and rider costumes, which truthfully are all very clumsy looking: horse as dragon, you knight. Horse as __(large, boxy thing)__, you __(uncomfortable costume)__, etc etc. 

I briefly toyed with the idea of making him medieval-looking tack but then I would have to make a dress. I also thought, "aha! A redingote! Marie Antoinette rode astride!" But I think that one would be lost on most of the crowd, not to mention both those ideas left me making more costumes, which I really don't have time for. 

But then it came to me -- a circus girl! A cute, vintage style circus rider to be exact.

See more totally cute vintage circus
gals at The Decophile

I love it. I was just watching Water for Elephants and now I have visions of me with a cute sparkly headband, marcelled bob and ballet slippers. I will have to work on fancying up the horse, too, but at least he wont have to wear anything too bad, maybe an ostrich plume or two...

I know it's far away, but now I'm excited :)

Anyone else dress up their pets?

Reese Witherspoon in Water for Elephants.

Weekend Vintage Finds

This last weekend I got in a little time at the antique stores. I usually hunt for china, but this time I found a bunch of cute hankies and napkins. Such cute embroidery!

As far as I can tell, the hankies are early to mid 20th century. I think the tea cup napkins are more recent, but who knows.

I also found a thimble that fits perfect and some cute pattern weights, shaped like a sewing machine and iron. In love!

Progress on a Shortgown, Petticoats, Stays and a Queen Stitch Pinball

Happy Saturday all! This was a pretty productive week. I've made progress on a number of projects. I often start a bunch at once so I can rotate between them as I get tired and/or bored :)

I finished up a bedgown, or shortgown, got two petticoats ready to be pleated and finished up, got a good start on a queen stitch pinball and I started binding my stays.

A little about the petticoats first. One is white linen, to be worn as an underpetticoat, so it will be a little on the short side. The blue one is wool from William Booth Draper. Both are hand stitched with linen thread. 

The construction, so far, has gone very well. Very simple. I measured from my waist down to get a length for the coats (front and back - they are often different), then added inches for seam allowances. The fabric was fiddly to tear, so I pulled a thread out and cut along the open space to get the rectangles. The selvedges became the side seams, which were done up in running stitches with an occasional backstitch thrown in for good measure. Space was left open at the top for pocket slits. Then I hemmed the bottom with a 1/2" hem, also stitched the same way. Next both coats will have the top (waist edge) folded down and pleated to a band of tape. Wool for the wool and linen for the linen. Easy peasy.

As an experiment, I decided to do these in assembly line fashion, instead of one at a time. It seems to be faster, since each step I am doing twice in a row, instead of completely one petticoat and starting all over again.

The leather is still unfinished at the tabs.

The stays, above, are completely hand sewn, as well, and done up as true to the 18th century way as I have learned. In the last week, I made the eyelets up the back (linen 16/2 from William Booth), tacked leather strips down the seams and started binding the bottom with leather as well. I got the leather from Burnley and Trowbridge.

So tough! The leather is killing me. I - of course - use a thimble, but it is still no easy task. It's taken hours and I have gone through a few needles already, but I'm a little bit thrilled to be nearing the end and being one step closer to having my own hand sewn stays. Yay :)

So on to the pinball...

Queen stitch looks like little diamonds to me.

I started stitching this up thinking it would go oh-so-quickly. Queen stitch turns out to be very tedious, especially when it's almost white on white! But I think it's looking cute so far :) I loosely based the design on an extant pinball from the Winterthur Collection. I smooshed it up in my hoop for the photo. 

I have used DMC cotton floss, separated into single strands, on a backing of white linen.

 And lastly, the bedgown, or shortgown. The only thing I truly finished this week.

Sorry, I need a pressing.

I used the Waverly curtains for this one. It's such a pretty chintz! I am not 100% sure of the weave for this kind of project, but I liked the fabric too much to be a nazi :)

I scaled up a pattern from Costume Close Up, and then added inches here and there so it would fit me. Looking back, I would have added a smidge extra to the sleeves. The length is just past the hip, so it could have used a bit more there as well, to look like the shortgowns I have seen in paintings and prints, however I need it for a mantua making workshop, where I'm sure I will be taking it on and off frequently for fitting, and I didn't want yards of loose of fabric tangling around me.

The short gown is lined and sewn with white linen. The seams/hems follow the instructions in the book, as best I could understand. They are a mix of combination stitch (running with occasional back), whip stitch, slip stitch and point a rabbatre sou la mains. The assembly entails stitching the fashion fabric layers and one lining together, then folding the second lining over it and stitching that down to enclose the seam. There is a nice illustration of this in Costume Close Up.

Piecing! I love piecing :)

Inside, just for a peak at the different finished seams.

Hem: le point a rabbatre sou la mains (the

 exterior looks almost like a running stitch)

Left verticle: combo stitch on the inside

Right verticle: whip stitch

Below pic: the seam along the underside of the cuff 

  shows a slip stitch, which doesn't really show at all.

*Update! Katie Jacobs has pictures of the original pinball on her blog. Click here for a really good close up and here for lots of pictures via flickr. I so wish I had seen the flickr pics before started! Such good close ups!

Ladies in Blue

Mary and Elizabeth Royal
John Singleton Copley, 1758

And here I was, all nervous about blue silk for a dress not being appropriate.

Well, not blue as a general term, more like a deep royal blue, which is what I received in the mail when I thought I purchased a medium, "Wedgwood" blue. 

Ginger, at Scene in the Past was kind enough to remind me of Mrs. Winthrop, by John Singleton Copley, and her blue gown. I browsed his paintings and wow, LOTS of blue.

In many, many of his portraits, ladies sport blue silk gowns. The blues range from medium and mellow to quite intense (i.e. Lucretia Hubbard Townsend or Mrs. Moses Gill).

I was previously under the misconception that darker colored gowns were mostly worn by more mature women. Perhaps this remains the case for shades of brown, but I guess not with blues. The paintings below show a wide age range. Note the top-most painting, which shows a young girl in deep blue.

I guess I'm safe :)

Enjoy the lovely gowns!

Mrs. Daniel Sargent (Mary Turner Sargent)
John Singleton Copley, 1763

Mrs. Nathaniel Allen (Sarah Sargnet)
John Singleton Copley, 1763