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.

no rest for the wicked

I've been super busy recently, having just moved into a (brilliant) new place.  Of course most of the rooms  need to be re-painted and that endeavor is already underway.

The sewing room is still all in pieces, my drafting table won't arrive until tomorrow, and most of my supplies are still languishing in boxes.  I can't wait 'til everything's all together and I can start working on things again!

I thought I'd leave you with this drawing which I started right before moving... it might turn into a painting.  We'll see.

A break (of sorts).

I got a decent start on the 1790s gown, but due to issues with my hands/wrists I laid aside all personal sewing projects about a week before the ball and since then have been solely restricting my sewing to work.  Hopefully my hands just need a good rest, and I can get back to my own sewing projects soon.  Lord knows there's a lot on my list!

In the meantime I've been busy finding a new place to live and all the hoop-la that surrounds leasing and moving etc.  In a few weeks I'll be happily ensconced in a lovely little Victorian house with two other girls, and will have a lot of fun re-painting and decorating.  There's a detached garage which I'll eventually turn into an art studio, and I'm really looking forward to setting it all up and working there.

Fortunately, my poor hands aren't half as bothered by drawing as they are by sewing, and I recently finished a charcoal portrait of my friend, Nicole.

Oh, 1797, you kill me with awesome

Next month I will be attending a Jane Austen ball and I must have a new gown for the occasion as it's held in a tavern from the 1790s, and I don't have anything from that period.

After looking at a LOT of fashion plates, I realized that most of the looks I particularly love were from the year 1797.  There's still a lot of crazy layering and some strange experimentation, but things have more or less settled into a stable "look".

I find I'm especially drawn to the style which features an overdress with a cross-over bodice and an asymmetrical skirt.  There were quite a few examples of this style that I ran across, and I've posted my favorites here.  Most of the extant examples of over-dresses from this period that I've seen are made of some sort of colored or pattern fabric with a white (often embroidered) gown or petticoat underneath.  However I was really interested by the 'Afternoon Dress' fashion plate from 1797 which shows a white overdress with a vivid blue petticoat peeking through the asymmetrical opening of the skirt.  Clearly not following the norm.

Evening Dress- Gallery of Fashion, Nov 1795

Afternoon Dresses- Gallery of Fashion, June 1797 

Concert Room Evening Dresses- Gallery of Fashion, April 1797 

The gown on the left of this plate is my absolute favorite of all the ones which I looked at.  I adore the drape of the skirts, the trim, the rich but subtle embroidery of the petticoat underneath... I even like the crazy helmet headdress!

Evening Dress- Gallery of Fashion, June 1797

I sort of mashed up all the elements that I really, really like and combined them in my quick little sketch below.  A gorgeous antique embroidered sari which I bought off ebay will become the petticoat and will also be used for the sleeves.  The over-all color scheme is creamy yellow and white with purple or midnight accents.  And of course there will be an epic headdress with large ostrich plumes dyed at the tips to match the trim on the gown...

My Portrait Miniature Experiment

A few days ago I sat down and finished the portrait miniature which I had started a couple months ago.  For being my first attempt I'm somewhat satisfied with it, and I feel like I learned a lot from this experiment.

Watercolor on rolled polymer clay, about 2" x 2.5"

I was mainly focused on trying to learn the technique and get used to the materials and scale of things.  With that in mind, I simply copied from an original in one of my library books:  English Portrait Miniatures.  Sadly, I had to return the book before finishing my miniature OR having the presence of mind to write down pertinent info concerning the artist and subject. 

There are definitely things I want to do differently for the next attempt, most of which relate to tools and materials.  For this first try, I simply used whatever I had on hand, but the student-grade watercolors made my job a lot more difficult.  The white especially... it seemed to 'puddle' on the surface far more than any other color and didn't blend half as well either.  Even if I don't buy any other new paint, I will certainly be investing in a good quality white before my next miniature.

Also on the top of my list are better brushes.  A lot of very small brushes don't have the good flow required for the paint to cling to such a nonabsorbent surface.  I noticed that the same tiny brush which left a good line on paper barely deposited any paint onto polymer clay.  I'm hoping that real squirrel hair brushes (which were used in the 18th cen for such a purpose) will improve things.

My final, and perhaps largest, concern is how to protect the surface.  Even when completely dry, one drop of water would lift the paint right up and and utterly ruin the miniature.  The clay slab is a bit too thick to put under glass with a frame (although that will probably be a possibility for the fake ivory I intend to try at some point soon), so I am trying to find a good spray varnish, intended for watercolor, which will seal the surface.  After all, it would be really pointless to have a miniature that you couldn't even risk taking outside!

A Regency Gaming Night

This past weekend was spent very pleasantly in Fredricksburg at Jenny-Rose's Regency era gaming night.  Although tables were set up for several different games I ended up only playing Speculation, and game which relies heavily on bidding and gambling for any true entertainment... something all of us who played it seemed far too lazy to engage in!

The company was delightful, the rooms prettily decorated, and good times were had by all!

Before the gaming commenced, we all milled around the back-yard taking pictures of each other.  I didn't get any of myself with my camera, but plenty of others did, and I have happily stolen the ones that I like best.

Courtesy of Gloria... I think...

I wore my old(ish) 1820 silk evening gown, though with new jewelry and a plume in my hair.

Courtesy of Nicole

Courtesy of Maggie

A selection of my pictures of the evening's company-

After the card playing had died down for the evening we just sat around chatting and snacking and drinking Good Things.  At one point, I pulled out my trusty drawing box, and did a quick sketch of Taylor as she sat across the table from me, lit by candlelight only.

Sketches from UTR

If doing something twice constitutes the beginning of a habit, then I have effectively formed the habit of doing little sketches of friends and acquaintances at reenactments.

I had enormous amounts of fun with this at Under the Redcoat, and even though I'm shockingly late posting about it, I wanted to share my drawings from the event.  Like last time, they are all fairly small (so as to fit in my drawing box) and are roughly 5x7" each. 

Nicole

Other-Sarah making ice cream

Sarah

I like this little sketch, but utterly failed to capture her likeness.  This was highly irritating.  See below.

Sarah (again) and Jenny

As you can see, for a brief while I switched from charcoal to graphite pencil... I was incredibly frustrated by my lack of ability to capture Sarah's likeness when initially using charcoal.  The second drawing was even worse (really bad in fact, and I can assure you it will never be posted anywhere online!) so I gave the graphite a try.  On this third go, this time in graphite, it wasn't totally awful so I let it be.

I feel like an invisible challenge has been laid down though.  Sarah is such an animated and vivacious person that capturing her in a flat, still format felt somehow a little unnatural and far more difficult than I had anticipated.  I will have to try again when I next see her.  And maybe again and again...

Abby

Right before I was about to leave for the day, I saw Abby walking across Market Square, rushed up to speak with her, and she kindly agreed to sit for me.   As we sat there (she very still and I sketching quickly) a lot of people apparently came up to see what was going on.   This included the official CW photographer who even videoed us.  I was blithely unaware of most of our audience however... I hadn't even realized how much I block out my surroundings when I'm drawing!  If there'd been an attack, I'd probably have died first.

Conclusion- I'll definitely be doing this drawing schtick again at my next reenactment.  I love being able to engage peoples' interest in a slightly different way than normal, and I'd really like to start building up an impression around the idea of a traveling portraitist.  Lots of very vague ideas at the moment, but it could certainly become something.