The Vintage Nerd Sews

 Last weekend, I was able to get together with a very talented friend and take some photos of my completed ensemble. The photos are...perfection.  Setting a spooky mood, courtesy of the lack of snow Look at that beautiful hand-stitched back! Mid-twirl I didn't really have a thought-out plan as I put this ensemble together, which will shock no one who knows me in person. The sage colored petticoat is from last winter, and the brown wool of the gown was a clearance purchase with no specific project in mind. The red cloak was always something I wanted, and the blue mitts are from strap wool in my stash. The handkerchief was a surprise Etsy find that beautifully ties the colors together. It was freezing out, but I was really quite comfortable in all my wool! I look forward to more opportunities to wear this before spring arrives.

  Shortly after I finished my cloak, I realized that I'd need mitts to ensure full protection from the elements. The first attempt, in scraps of a blue windowpane check wool, was something of a measure once, cut twice situation. I won't say I do it all the time, as I have grown and learned to take my time as a seamstress over the years, but I will say that I still do it often enough to keep myself both frustrated and humble. For the second attempt at cutting out my mitts, I was much more careful of my dimensions, and successfully cut out mitts in a solid blue melton wool. For linings, I used scraps from my failed short gown, a cream cotton with blue palempore print.  I enlarged the pattern found in  Costume Close Up , and because the instructions there are comparable to the instructions on a Week 8 Bakeoff technical, I used the instructions from the American Duchess  Guide to 18th Century Costuming  to actually put things together. Once again, I love the i...

  It's been over a year since I really got this project underway. Due to my project funk from struggles with the JP Ryan English gown pattern, I didn't get any sort of gown, long or short, finished for summer. I've decided to move forward with working on the winter needs for my ensemble. The chocolate wool gown, was my starting point. However, that's not enough to keep a body warm in the winter out here! According to my research, red cloaks were ubiquitous in the mid to late 18th century, and worn even into the early 19th century, although they had generally fallen somewhat out of fashion toward the end of the time we see them referenced. They were most common in the country, and could be plain or dressed up with trims. They were first worn by the "landed gentry" in England but their easy importability to the colonies made them popular and common in the US by the late 18th century. Looking through the list of extant examples (many with images) on  Larsdatter...

While I love to sew, I have no desire to ever pursue sewing as a full-time job again. However, I am fascinated with the job of seamstress or tailor throughout time. One of the constants are the tools of the trade: needles, thread, scissors, pins. These were particularly important in the 18th century, as all sewing was done with these tools--no machines to be found. I've not put my sewing machine up on the shelf permanently, but I have begun transferring some of its work to more old-fashioned methods as I assemble my 18th century wardrobe. For Christmas, I received a few of these tools, as seen in the photo below. All of these came from Samson Historical.  L-R: Shears, bone thread winders, bone bodkin, and bone awl When it comes to their uses, the bodkin is perhaps the most unusual for modern sewists. It's not so much a sewing tool as it is a tool for getting dressed. When lacing up stays or the interior of a gown, by threading the lacing through a bone bodkin, the job can be do...

 My first attempt at a gown was stressful and disheartening. Even with help from experts, I wasn't able to get things right. I trashed the muslin and took a longer-than-planned break from working on the 18th century project. When fall semester started, the break was extended, as I'm not only working full time and going to school full time, as of the beginning of the school year, I'm also teaching a sewing elective at the K-12 school where I work. I love it, and my class is fantastic, but teaching is new to me, and definitely added a lot of stress in conjunction with everything else. With the completion of my grad school semester, I began to get my creative energy back.  For my birthday, I had treated myself to the new pattern from Scroop and Virgil's Fine Goods, the Angelica Gown. Then, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I found a sizeable amount of lightweight chocolate-colored wool at Needle & Thread. Using the glorious free time I had over Christmas break (worki...

Finishing the basics of my 18th century ensemble last summer was thrilling. I decided to go ahead and do photos of the bare-bones ensemble without a gown (see issues in previous post), and I'm so glad I did. My wonderful husband acted as photographer, and we used a local historical farmstead and nature park as the backdrop. Standing between the garden and the summer kitchen A better view of the oven in the summer kitchen Standing in the shade of the ice house Resting against the stone wall framing the property Filling a canteen in the river Since taking these photos, I have made several alterations to the ensemble, including shortening the length of my petticoat and apron to be a more suitable length for that of a working woman, as well as adding sleeve bands to my shift. I have also purchased and made several more useful pieces, including shoes and stockings, and am putting finishing touches on a gown.

The second part of my posts on accessories covers those I made myself! There aren't quite as many of these, but they are no less important to the ensemble. Cap Cap, modeled here by my lovely mannequin I think that the cap was the part of the ensemble that gave me the most flashbacks to my junior high costuming misadventures. I will forever be scarred by Butterick's costume version of a mob cap--a big, fat floppy circle of cotton with elastic running through it, more akin to a shower cap than the elegant caps you see in portraits of the era. You know, this one. I would have avoided a cap if I could, but they were an important part of a woman's attire, one purpose of which was to help keep the hair clean and protected from the dirt and dust of the day. The various historical costuming accounts on Instagram were a huge help in allowing me to visualize what a proper 18th century cap should and would look like, and after much deliberation, I decided to use the "Bess" c...