Wednesday, July 12, 2023

The Siege of Fort Niagara 2023



This is my other JP Ryan jacket in a green ikat. Discovered I had left my caps at home so I splurged and bought a nice new one.



I 3D printed this bobbin at my local library! Absolutely not period correct! 







New make plans - oil cloth capelette to beat the rain. 


Everyone's favorite game, will my car fit through the gate?

Driving up to the fort to unload...

Oggling the repro glass wear. I snagged a green mustard bottle, which aren't pictured because as soon as the bottles were out people were picking them up and holding onto them. 


Here's Dwayne, the rock. I got about 20 minutes away from the fort and realized that I had forgot the ridge pole to my tent. Thank goodness the hardware store was spitting distance from the highway, and I was able to buy and get cut another 2 x 4. I forgot a lot of things this weekend that would have really been nice to have in the rain. Oh, well!

 

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

july makes: a mantelette and a JP Ryan Jacket

The annual Siege of Fort Niagara was this past weekend and in anticipation of the event, I [panic] sewed two jackets and two chemises. House sitting provided an excellent opportunity to sew uninterrupted, and as a bonus, I had an adorable feline helper who absolutely loved linen.

COVID [and if I'm honest, a toxic work environment] had put a real damper on my being able to participate in anything outside work. I haven't sewn anything outside a simple half elastic waist 4 rectangle skirt. Everything I had learned hitherto about sewing 18th century garments went right out the window.  

The first shift I cut was from a thrifted cotton linen blend table cloth, something I probably should have dyed and turned into something else given its heavy weight. I threw down a chemise I knew fit and completely skipped cutting and piecing gores and sleeves - it's all one piece except for the arm gusett. Historically correct? No. 
Quick and dirty? Not visible to the general public? Absolutely.
It was just about the right length to leave the hemstitched border in place as a finished edge. In all fairness, this was not a priority to finish because of the weight and feel of the fabric, so I focused on other projects. If it turns out to be too long, I'll put in tucks above the hemstitching to make it the right length. 

The other shift was a more supple tencel rayon linen blend. Just the fiber content alone makes it inaccurate, but I figured it was at least plant based, so it wouldn't melt, no one was really going to see it that up close anyway, and I could hand stitch the important parts that might be seen. The fiber mix gives it a very interesting crinkle. With the heat and humidity, it was very comfortable. 

I finished stitching the neck on Saturday night to wear the next day with the JP Ryan jacket, which I had also finished on Saturday except for the sleeve cuffs. The fabric for the pink jacket came from A Thrifty Notion We had a little soiree Saturday night with the other ladies in camp and I got inspired to put a few extra touches on this. I don't have any ribbon on hand, but I was thinking a pale pink pleated silk ribbon as trim around the neck, arms and would make an excellent finishing touch. 


I sewed this up by machine stitching all the lining pieces and all the fashion pieces together, then pinning right sides together and sewing all the way around the neck and peplum and flipping it right side out. The only unfinished edge I ended up with was one of the front closures and the cuffs of the sleeves, which still need to be turned under and finished. I read an interesting blog post about how to sew the fashion and liner of this jacket together in one go AND the jacket gets sewn completely together at the same time, but I've lost track of it. Hand sewing is involved and it reminded me a little of a true Hong Kong finish, without having to sew the liner to the fashion fabric first.




This one doesn't look that different from the first but I promise it is. This is from the La Fleur de Lyse pattern, Canadienne de la Nouvelle- France. It too is supposed to have cuffs, and I'm sure one day I will get around to sewing those up. You can see initials in the center back - I had a really rottenly made chemise that I sacrificed for lining fabric. The sleeves are a yellow light weight linen from Joann Fabrics just pre-pandemic (Do they even sell 100% linen any more? alas...) I got this stitched up to the point of wearable and spent a very rainy Saturday sewing up the last of the unfinished seams in the front flaps. Was going to buy ribbon to tie up the front and the sleeves but at Niagara since all it did was downpour while I was there... the forecast was for it to stop raining overnight - it was like someone turned off a faucet at 6pm exactly, no rain over night and a 30% chance of rain at 8 AM. Try 100% at 5AM, because the sound of rain spattering on canvas woke me up. Ugh. The weather may not have cooperated but it was still a good time. 

Here I am with my spinning wheel! I didn't know my picture was being taken. 


 

Thursday, December 29, 2022

Stuff I did this year! 2022

 In reverse order. they're all things I probably could have made a separate blog post about (some of them I probably should have so I knew where the pattern/ instructions came from)


I just finished this hat! Started spinning the fiber around the first of the month. 

Started with the mittens, ran out of the purple cuff yarn, found something close enough to do something on the matching brim of a hat. 



I think I got this put back together? As you can see it took a lot of seam ripping and cutting to do it. Don't ask me what I was thinking when I put it together in the first place. 




Super behind with the times. I binge watched Parks and Recreation this fall and fell in love with one of Leslie Knope's hats, which was literally featured for five seconds in an episode about Jerry (Garry? Larry?)'s birthday.  But it was blush pink and a little fuzzy (and it looked really nice) and I taught myself a new skill (knitting a hat top down!) by studying a paused still and hunting through lace patterns to get the right one. 10/10, would totally make it again in pink angora. 


It's not done yet but it's obviously a lot closer to being there!
Row by Row 2015?



Must have finished this over the summer?

IDK when I finished this hat... was obviously staying in a hotel when I did... The mittens are a pain in the arse, so they're hibernating. Hat has a pompom now.



Tried my hand at making a ribbon cockade for Valentine's day. Would do it again but not make the petals as big for ribbon this skinny.


I pulled this together by looking at pictures of wrap dresses, measuring the doll, and adjusting a free bloomers pattern. It's reversable!

This was also a free pattern, and it was supposed to be put on the doll with the fastener in the front, but the kids all tried to put it on backwards. It's the first creeper I've ever tried to make, and the neck is a little funky. 


Friday, October 28, 2022

a manteau de lit

I'm not really participating in the #fallforcostume challenge... or whatever it is. It just happened that I have a manteau de lit, or bed jacket (several, actually). I'm not overly fond of it. There just happened to be this beautiful celery green wool fabric, and it just happened to be two yards and 60" wide. 


And it just HAPPENED to pass the burn test.
18th century bed jacket it is. Yes, I could have made the JP Ryan jacket or a short cloak from Nora Waugh's clothes. There's other wool in the stash for the cloak, and I'm hoping that either the purple or the green will be enough for the JP jacket. The last time I made this garment, it came out wrong. 

Using the instruction's over at this fabulous website, the name of which I *think* is Marquis? I did a little digging and I'm not clear on that. All their measurements are in centimeters, so I stuck with that when I drafted my own scale pattern with graph paper, and assumed that one square measured 5 cm. 









I really needed to see this go together before I made it, and it helped confirm that the measurements I took were correct. 

*I did not look at the instructions when putting together the shawl collar neck, and with the lining, it came out a little wonky. But it still fits. I did it backwards from how you're supposed to do it, that's all I can remember because again, not looking at the instructions!


It's easier to see on the right side of the garment what the seams are doing. I'll probably pick the stitches out and hand stitch that spot.