Back to the 1860s! Finally, a new dress...

I have finally gotten back to sewing for myself, and have a new silk 1860s gown to show for my efforts!  Last weekend the Mariner's Museum here in Virginia had their 150th anniversary event of the Battle of Hampton Roads (the fight between the Moniter and the Merrimac).  Obviously, I had very little to do with the naval history side of things, but myself and a few other ladies had a display of various sewing and needlework and fashions which we talked about and gave demonstrations of.  It was a long weekend and very exhausting, but quite fun.  It's always so refreshing to be able to do Civil War events every now and then...

There was a gentleman at the event who was taking tintypes, so the three of us had our image taken together.  I was a little amused that between us we represented three different generations, and had somewhat unintentionally dressed ourselves accordingly.  And I'm always happy to take on the burden of portraying the young, fashionable side of society.  ;)

It's also interesting to me to see how tintypes and period photography really give no real hints toward color at all.  One would never imagine, for instance, that the dress I'm wearing in the tintype is really such a rich, intense blue.

The dress is made of silk taffeta, which languished in my stash for a long time on the grounds that I already had too many blue costumes... but considering I don't wear them all at once, that reason fell apart under the weight of a non-existant budget.  The bodice lining and hem facing are brown polished cotton, and the trim is velvet ribbon.  Hopefully next time this dress appears in public there will be a great deal MORE ribbon on it.  The undersleeves are quite basic, made of white cotton organdy, and are basted into the armscye of the dress.

I also finally got pictures of the sontag I crocheted over a year ago.  This weekend was very chilly, and I was able to put it to good use.  The sontag was really easy to make, and I adapted an 1866 Peterson's pattern which was re-printed in 'Basic Accessories in Knit & Crochet' by Lynne Bury.  The original sontag would have been much too large for what I wanted, and since many patterns from that time say helpful things like 'do a lace pattern of your choice for 3-5 inches' I figured that it was entirely normal to use knitting/crochet patterns as general guidelines rather than the rule.

When I make clothes from the Civil War (or any time period for that matter) I typically fill my computer desktop with a collage of images that I'm drawing the design from, and which I will refer to when making trim decisions or finalizing the pattern.  Naturally I also refer to books, and for this time period I absolutely love 'The Way They Were: Dressed in 1860-1865' and its sequel by Donna Abraham. 

These images are what I had up when making this particular dress, mostly for trim placement and scale of sleeves and bodice points.

I also really love this image of a woman wearing a sontag.  Unlike most sontags you see many reenactors wearing, it's not very large at all and in fact doesn't even wrap around to her back.  The edge at least is clearly crocheted, and the contrasting color is something I considered and used when making my own.

Greenfield Village Remembrance Day

I recently got back from a trip back to Michigan for my favorite Civil War event, Remembrance Day at Greenfield Village. It was really refreshing to see my family and good friends and spend some quality time away from the 18th century.

Due to utter sewing burn-out, I didn't make anything new for the event and the only preparation I did was to swap out the buttons on my wool asymmetrical dress.  I would have liked to have a new ballgown and a sheer dress and a complete male civilian outfit  (I have indulged in many fond daydreams of dressing as a boy and running around wonderfully free), but I suppose I didn't want any of it enough to actually pull out fabric and start sewing.

I did do something new this year though, and took some drawing supplies along with me to sketch at the event.

This little wooden box was a gift from a friend a few years ago, and it was the perfect size to kit out as a period-ish drawing set.  Inside I have a thin sketchbook/notebook, loose pieces of paper, graphite and charcoal pencils, a rubber eraser, and a pocketknife for sharpening the pencils.  On the outside the box is about 6"x 8" and is about 1.25" deep... the inner dimensions loose nearly .5" off those measurements.  I can just about fit in all the essentials, while it's still small enough to easily carry around or sit in my lap.

The sketches are naturally rather small, and were done rather quickly in about 5-10 minutes each.

Passersby seemed rather intrigued by the sight of whomever I was drawing sitting so still-ly in our camp, and a fair number came up to investigate.  There would be a few moments of awkward conversation as they tried to talk to my subject, who would reply without moving more than their mouth, (my friends make very good artist models... at least for short periods of time.  I have yet to test them with longer sittings.) before they noticed me sitting close by and saw what I was doing.  You could see the moment everything suddenly made sense to them, and I often heard, "Oh, you're drawing" in tones of happy surprise.

Unfortunately, I was not brave enough to venture out to draw people who were not part of my camp, but I suppose I'll have to address that deficiency next time.  Doing impersonal gestures is one thing, but as I am particularly fond of doing portraits, shyness is a luxury I can't really afford to indulge in.

The War of 1812? Say what?

Last weekend my housemate, Nicole, and I spent a couple hours at Military Through the Ages, an annual timeline event at Jamestown.  Since it was a timeline event, we had the option of dressing in any era we felt like, and ended up wearing 1812 impressions for comfort reasons and simply because we wanted to. 

For me, the 1812 period is kind of a default... after all, I originally started this whole costuming thing because of the Richard Sharpe series and various Jane Austen films.  Granted, I know a lot more about English history of the time than American and could tell you more about Napoleon and Wellington and the Peninsular Campaign than I could about the War of 1812, but the general time period, fashions, and aesthetic are resoundingly familiar.  Perhaps because of this, I was floored by how many people came up to us at the event and asked us what time period we were from.

Seriously?  SERIOUSLY?!

I realize the the War of 1812 is vastly underrepresented in reenacting circles (though things are picking up as the bi-centennial approaches) and that it's almost never talked about in history classes... but one assumes that the general public has at least seen some of the Jane Austen films and could make a connection to that.  In fact, 1812 was barely represented at the event, having only one very small group (one, I may add, with NO ladies) which was wedged tightly between much larger Rev War and Civil War units.  Even the incredibly niche 1920 IRA group had a larger presence!

On the bright side, all of the good reenactors there (and there were some very impressive groups, including a wonderful 14th century camp that was enough to make me want to go temporarily medieval) knew exactly when we were from.  It's really the general public that I was appalled by.  Including the woman who called me a "damn yankee" when I said my 1812 group is mostly Michigan based as that's where I'm from.  She wasn't joking.

Location might have something to do with it too.  1812 doesn't seem to be nearly as significant in reenacting circles in the south as it is further north... though I haven't yet figured out why.

1860s Wool Day Dress

 

This dress is currently for sale on Etsy!

A Civil War era day dress of lightweight 'tropical' wool of a slate-like blue-grey color. To trim it I used a narrow, gold colored velvet ribbon, which decorates the bottom edge of the pointed bodice and the sleeves.  The assymetrical bodice has domed brass buttons, and a narrow standing band neckline has a white cotton collar basted in.  The plaid silk neck bow is totally seperate, and is held on by a brooch.  The skirt is triple box pleated and the hem is faced with printed cotton.

Like many of my costumes, I did all visible work by hand and used machine stitching only on interior seams.

I wore this dress to Rememberance Day in Gettysburg two years in a row, and made a small but important change to the dress before wearing it the second time.  As you see in the pictures below, the first time I wore this dress I had used black antique buttons on the bodice (which were all I had on hand at the time).  The buttons were nice in and of themselves but really did nothing for the gown, and I swapped them out for the plain brass buttons which I think look a great deal better.

The assymetrical, military inspired bodice was quite popular during the Civil War, and is seen in quite a few images from that period.  My main inspiration for this dress was the CDV below and I copied the ribbon trim on the sleeves as exactly as I could, though my gown only has one row of ribbon around the waist instead of two.

1860s Windowpane Check Silk Day Dress