I've been bad!

Sorry for not posting in so long!  EVERYTHING has been happening.  AP tests, Senior week, field day, Graduation stuff, reenactments, and so much more!  I'll be back to posting regularly after Thursday (hopefully).  That's when I'll have some time to breathe!

New fabric... ahhhhh

New fabric shipment!  I received the two wools from Fabric.com and picked up some things at Jo-Ann's.  Oddly enough, though, this shipment of wool came in the mail before a previously placed order of wool arrived (which hasn't arrived yet).  I must call Fabric.com on that issue.  Anyway, on to the goodies!

 The pile!

 First up, 2 yards of black silk to make a Swiss Waist

 2 yards of 100% linen to line my pink silk Georgian stays

 The plaid wool.... this is the most soft, wonderful, gorgeous wool I have ever seen.  I absolutely adore it.  It's purpley!!!!!  When my mom saw this fabric, she exclaimed, "Purple!  That's not period correct!"  (As a clarification, my mother does not know much about historic clothing.  Proof: every time I show her anything that I've made that's period correct, she exclaims, "Miss Scarlett!")  Purple, in fact, is quite period correct.  Just refer to my Pinterest!

This is the teal wool.  I'm not exactly thrilled about it.  It's of a heavier weight than the red and the plaid wools, which makes me hesitate on making it into a dress.  The weave is also kind of funky.  I'll have to ask for help on that one.  If the weave is not period, I'll just send it back.  If it's too heavy but the weave is period, then I'll sell it to someone looking for fabric for a paletot or cape.  Sarah?

 Here is my lovely, now organized fabric stash!  Puny as it is, I love it.

It's organized by fiber.  Here's the wools...

 The cottons...

 The silks...

 And the lonely linen.  Sigh.  Maybe one day I will find a sale and buy you some friends.  Till then, you must stay a loner, because you are $15.99 a yard.

Finally, one of my favorite purchases!  Little baby Ginghers!  I got these because I need scissors to use at reenactments and I found that these are passable.  I love love love the stork.  It's so cute.

Au revoir, dear friends!

A Bedtime Story

Some photos from the Civil War Days at the Cincinnati Museum center this weekend:

We get orders from our employer, Mrs. Gagnon

Mrs. Gagnon takes a photo of us just in case we run off with merchandise (we are Irish, you know).

We covet the merchandise we cannot buy because, again, we are poor Irish immigrants.

We covet again... I am creepy.

We fool around and fall down in the shop, not doing any work whatsoever.

We (I) steal some of the merchandise.

I act like I know nothing about it and shield myself with my rich and seductive friend.

And we escape via steamboat.  The end!

The Updated and Ever-Growing List

April

Red dress

Wrapper

Sarah's dress

May

Sarah's dress

Sheer

Regency stays

June

Regency dress

Regency Chemise

Regency bodiced petti

Regency bonnet

July

Regency spencer

Bathing costume

Mom's dirndl

August

Paletot and muff

Georgian stays

Georgian Chemise

Regency seaside dress

September

Winter hood

Georgian Paniers

Georgian Petti

Second Regency bonnet

October

Marie Antoinette gown

Other bodices for ball gown skirt

Regency beach slippers

November

Ball gown

Regency reticule/chemisette and half robe

1900's bathing costume

December

Regency evening gown

Asymmetrical bodice

January

Regency redingcote/pelisse and muff

Caraco Espagnol

February

Regency day dress #2 and day cap

CW bonnet

March

Regency whatever you choose!

Regency Costume Challenge!

This might be a little large to undertake, but here goes... I'm entering the Regency Costume Challenge!

First off, I hope to sew this 1814 Seaside Morning Dress for the 1813 Clothing Competition (cross your fingers so that they'll let me do it!  It's a year off.)

I'm also going to enter the Wardrobe Challenge, which challenges participants to sew one Regency garment every month or every other month.  Cross your fingers, again, and hope that they will count the projects I will be doing in June as part of my work for the rest of the time.  Here are the projects I have lined up right now...

Stays, of course...

A white summer dress...

 A chemise...

And a bodiced petticoat...

A spencer...

And a bonnet...

And that's just by the middle of July!

Also, I'm making another bonnet and beach slippers to go with the seaside dress.  I'm especially excited for the seaside dress because that will be another thing I can wear to the beach this winter, along with this:

And this:

And this:

So many projects, so little time!  I must get started!

Busy Week!

On Thursday, I practiced my Senior Project presentation on Civil War clothing in front of an amalgamation of AP English students (I am one of them) and Human Growth and Development students (I am not one of them).  I think it went very well except I went over time by like three minutes at least (obviously because I could talk about CW clothing forever and ever).  I think the students were pleasantly surprised with my presentation, not realizing how interesting this rarely-touched part of history is.  It was fun!  Now I just have to cut out some parts of my presentation so I can focus more on the clothing.  I mean, I did make two dresses for this project, they kind of warrant more than 3 overtime minutes of hyper speed speech.

Then, on Saturday, the Ladies Living History Society and the Western Female Seminary Living History Society all took a lovely trip down to the Cincinnati Museum Center for their Civil War Days.  It was great because 1. It is air conditioned 2. Lots of people were able to make it and 3. The museum provided lunch for all of the volunteers.  We also got to play a hilarious game of Questions and Answers with some Union gentlemen, which was very fun!  I was able to wear my red dress, but unfortunately, that may be the last time I wear that dress until fall because it is, in fact, wool.  It's so pretty, though!!!  Sigh.

So... about not buying any more fabric... I might possibly have bought two more dress lengths...  Don't yell at me!!  They were only $3.40 per yard and they're 100% wool and 60" inches wide... I couldn't help it.  Anyway, I got 6 yards each of these fabrics:

For this Caraco Espagnol from Peterson's, 1862:

One word--tassels!

For an asymmetrical bodice. My pseudo-inspiration image:

I say pseudo because it is just proof for myself that there were asymmetrical bodice dresses made out of plaid fabric.  I am probably going to do trim differently than this lovely lady.

Anyway, that is all!  Have a lovely day, everyone!

Red Dress: Complete!

Here are the pictures of the raspberry wool dress that I made!  I love it and I hope you like it, too!