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Roller Print Obsession
Day dress of roller-printed cotton, 1810-1815. Susan Greene Collection, GCVM 90.25 Lately, I have developed an obsession with this roller-print day dress from the Greene Collection At Genessee Country...
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Hat Face
The Fortune Teller, 1789. Lewis Walpole Librray. 789.1.2.1 I like hats; I think it’s been made clear here before that I have a bit of a bonnet problem. As it stands, I have something in the...
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A Whale-Safe Bonnet
Complete with my interpretation of “Hat Face” As promised, my interpretation of the ribbed bonnet in the 1789 engraving. There are a few problems with this beyond the model. (Which is not to say that I...
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The East Indies Trade
Saris drying after a vodka bath Like any good Rhode Island trader, I am pleased to announce the acquisition of some India silks. To be fair, I have not burn tested these, so while they were sold as...
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Frivolous Friday: Puppy in a Poke (bonnet)
Plate 11, Twenty-four Subjects Illustrating the Costume of Paris Like most humans, I have whimsical tastes and occasional outbreaks of covetousness. Today, while looking for images of milliners, I...
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Frivolous Friday: Footwear
Shoes, 1810-1820. Gift of Miss M. Lee. T.385&A-1960, Victoria & Albert Museum. Like my grandmother, I love shoes. Also like my grandmother, I have “problem feet.” Finding a pleasing ladies’...
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Coat Tales
Coat pattern version 3 As the Salem Maritime Festival approaches, my anxiety increases. Whatever will those ‘gentlemen’ wear? Coats and waistcoats, and thank goodness I finished the Young Mr’s shirt...
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Fashionable Friday: Floral Embroidery Galore
Elizabeth Bull Price’s Wedding Dress. Bostonian Society, 1910.50.35 On Tuesday evening, sensibility won over sense as my friend and I boarded the T for Boston to make a long day longer. The trip was...
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The Milliners’ Shop
One of the Milliners Stands in the Doorway On Saturday last, Sew 18th Century and I set up a milliners’ shop for the Salem Maritime Festival. This was a fun event made even better by the opportunity to...
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Disappearing Act
As you can see in this Sandby-like image, we went, briefly, to Sturbridge for Redcoats & Rebels, so that Mr S could wear the Andes Candies Coat and the Ugly Dog Coat in the Military Fashion Show...
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Hand-woven Linens by Subscription
In the few short years I have been doing costumed interpretation and living history, I have made three shifts and four shirts and am making up a fifth shirt, with a possible sixth needing to be made,...
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The Coats of August
Coat, Nantucket Historical Association, 1985.0068.001 I could have a coat problem so very easily. Look at that coat! I was looking for something else when I came across this coat. Pity my friend who...
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Malaise or Ennui?
Hard to say which, but I am ill at ease and dissatisfied with my costuming. You might even call it bratty. But I don’t wanna be like Bridget Connor! It started the week of the Stamp Act protest, when...
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Replication and Responsibility
Detail, the John Miner Coat, Stonington Historical Society, 2009.120.001 If I examine and exactly replicate a coat for personal use, what do I owe the museum that owns that coat– anything? I think I...
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Frivolous Friday: The Romps
The Romps, by William Redmore Biggs. (c) Leeds Museums and Galleries What Cheer Day is around the corner, and while we won’t have the delight of the babies this time, when browsing the BBC’s Your...
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Woolen Woes
On Saturday, I got a very nice piece of wool from Mr C’s Strategic Fabric Reserve, just the color and weight I’d been looking for to make a Very Specific Spencer. The VSS is not a replica, but rather...
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Mad for Plaid and Patches
Yesterday, I went to visit another collection, this time at the University of Rhode Island. I don’t have thoughts about replicating coats- they didn’t ask me any hard questions about making coats, they...
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Miss Juniper Fox
Miss Juniper Fox. [London] : Pub. by MDarly 39 Strand, Mar. 2, 1777.Lewis Walpole Library , 777.03.02.01. If you’re not wearing an inverted rooster held down by two foxes on your head, you’re not...
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The Very Specific Spencer, Finished!
Ta da! Yes, finished! And just in time, too! The braid arrived in the mail three days before the Spencer was wanted, and fortunately I had finished the garment by then, and the baking could take care...
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