Canteen

Quick little project: labeling a canteen cover for an acquaintance. As far as I can tell, this isn't quite a historic treatment, but I tried to emulate period laundry markings by using a bright red floss. The lettering is Spencerian, worked in back-stitch.

Customized canteen cover.

Semi-Open Undersleeves, 1855-1860

Sheer white cotton lawn; slim bishop shape, slightly gathered into a band, with a deep ruffle at the wrist. All hand sewn (on location at English Camp), with the seams felled to keep the lawn from fraying. I'm pleased to report a 15 stitch/in running stitch on the ruffle hem.

Lawn undersleeves, open at wrist.

Inspired by this set of original sleeves:

Undersleeves, American, c.1860
The Met/Boooklyn Museum Collection

I'm still working on (read: reading up) a good term for this style of sleeve, which is open at the wrist, but not continuously so from the top. I toyed with "banded" because several examples that I've found have distinct arm-band with a flounce or ruffle below. But there should be a way to distinguish undersleeves that are fully open (like these or these) from those that are close/gathered at some point and open further down (exhibit one, two, three and a fourth for fun).

Quantifying Original Undersleeves

A question on the Sewing Academy forum prompted this little research project. Mrs. Watkins was trying to decide whether her new sleeves should be elbow-length or longer. I decided that  this was an excellent excuse for too!much!math!, because I like using statistical analysis to understand trends of 19th century dress. Also, it makes me look really closely and systematically at a large sample of original garments, which is always fun and edifying.

The spreadsheet is here.  The amount of information available on each item varies; the percentages of each sleeve and decoration type reflect this.

These embroidered, lace-edge cuffs
fold over the plain, buttoning ones.
c. 1850, The Met/Brooklyn Museum Collection

Like so.
c.1860, The Met/Brooklyn Museum Collection

Basic Summary: Of the 93 sets of sleeves, 80.6% had fabric as their base material; these were mostly very fine cottons, with 12/75 (16%) of the fabric sleeves identified as linen. Net was the base material of 16.1% of sleeves, and lace for 3.2%.

Embroidery was the most common adornment (49.5%), with cut work embroidery (including broderie anglaise) accounting for a further 15.1% of the sleeves; all told, 64.6% of the sleeves had some sort of embroidery. Just over 1/3 (34.4%) had lace or net present, aside from the main fabric of the piece. Self-fabric elements, such as tucks or puffs, appears in 19.4% of the sleeves, and 9.7% had ribbon. Six (6.4%) had no decorative features, while four lacked information.

Most (59.1%) of the sleeves were closed at the wrist; 12.9% were open at the wrist; 24.7% were open at the wrist, but set close further up (often with a band near the forearm and a flounce below). The remainder lacked information.

The most common top finish was a narrow hem (43%), though this may include narrow casings that have lost their drawstring or elastic; a third (33.3%) finished with a wider band at the top, often with this band fitted smooth and the full sleeve gathered into it; 15.1% had drawstrings or elastic present; one sleeve had a band with buttoned to itself along the upper edge.

Measurements were not available for most of the sleeves (see below). For those that were, the average length was 17.4", with a minimum length of 9", a maximum of 22", and a mode of 19".

I found a number of sleeves gathered into a smooth band at the top.
c.1850 The Met/Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection

Parameters: I included extent undersleeves from museum online collections, with dates listed in the 1850s and/or 1860s, as well as those labelled “Mid 19th century”, and “3rd Quarter 19th century.” This potentially includes pieces from the 1840s to c.1875, but generally concentrates on 1850s and 1860s.  I did not include sleeves only labelled as “19th century” or “second half of 19th century,” even when they resembled pieces dated in the target time period (and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston has some lovely examples, if you want eye-candy).  One sleeve each from Nancy Bradfield's Costume in Detail, and Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 1 and Patterns of Fashion 2 were included. I may add to this in the future.

I used decimals for spreadsheet ease, though measurements were listed in fractions of inches; I also rounded to the nearest 1/8", with proportions rounded to nearest ¼"; where needed measurements were not given, but could be inferred from the proportions in the picture, those proportions/inferences are given in bold text.  Since measurements are usually given as the object's maximum length and width, while I needed length, cuff and upper arm sizes, I used italics to denote measurements that are tentative (usually a width measurement applied to the widest part of a open undersleeve where the upper arm and wrist measurements are similar).  All measurements and proportions are of the sleeve lying flat: so a cuff measurement of 3.5” would be approximately 7” circumference around the wrist. When no measurements were given, I took the smallest of the three (usually the cuff) as "x" and give inferred proportions off of that; for sleeves opening suddenly with a flounce, "x" is the smallest wrist/forearm measurement above the flounce. Analysis of these proportional 'measures' has not yet been done.

Further Adventures in Kirtle Laces

I've only broken three this year: linen yarn, braided linen yarn, and plied linen cord.  The lucet cord appears stronger, but the friction of making it causes the thread to weaken and break (resulting in joins, which weaken the overall cord). So, I tried another square lucet cord, this time of fine wool.  The only complaint so far is that it's a little bit stretchy; here's hoping it holds up better than the linen.

Cord

Ladder-laced on the kirtle.

Hair Tapes

The band loom returns, with another round of less-than-photogenic white linen. I'm sort of proud of this from an endurance perspective: each tape is over 2 yards long.

Improvised Lucet

When you need a new kirtle lace, but left all your lucets at work...

Book Review: Living History

Living History: Effective Costumed Interpretation and Enactment at Museums and Historic Sites by David B. Allison.

This is an interesting little overview of past and current interpretation methods.  It's not a long book:  98 pages divided into seven chapters, plus introduction, bibliography and a little poetry.  The tone is conversational; the content intermixes personal anecdotes, descriptions of previous interpretive techniques, research study results, and interviews with the staff of living history sites.  All in all, it's an approachable look at how living history interpretation has developed and changed through the 20th century, and what current best practices look like.

I mostly value this book for its retrospective of living history as museum practice: what seems to work with modern audiences and what does not. While reading, I found the shift between research and story a little jarring at times, but that's possibly because I was expected a denser, or more theoretical work (my fault). I did end up enjoying the peeks at how other sites operate their interpretive programs, though there were other partss I'm not sure I care for it. For instance, the section summarizing living history in popular media, ie South Park and The Simpsons, was longer than I found interesting or useful.

There wasn't a lot of 'how to' included, but there was a certain amount of 'this works well, that less so.'  I very much appreciated seeing someone else agree with me that 'feigning ignorance of the present' and/or 'mocking the visitors for their modern clothing and accouterments' is not a productive way to start conversations.  Personally, I find that approach annoying, and a distraction from the actual topic of conversation: Allison puts it more pedagogical terms, that making the audience feel stupid puts them in a defensive mindset which is not conducive to learning.

This isn't a book that will teach you how to interpret effectively, but it's a quick read that's likely to help you refine your methods and/or your site's approach to the interpretation.

Stars: 3.5

Accuracy: Encourages it.

Overall Impression: An interesting perspective on the development and direction of living history interpretation, but neither the most in-depth theoretical assessment nor a how-to guide. Approachable language makes it a good choice for a layperson interested in the hows and whys of living history and museum "enacting".  If it convinces even one person to stop using 'ignorance of the present' as their interpretive hook, it will be a job well done.

Original Cotton Dress, 1852

Cotton Dress, American, 1852
From The Met (Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection).

An eye-candy reminder that cotton print dresses don't have to break "the rules" in order to be pretty. Yes, it's the usual gathered-to-fit bodice with bishop sleeves and a gauged skirt.  But this cotton dress still has a wealth of detail without piles of trim: the very full bodice front is neatly shirred at the waist; the equally generous bishop sleeves are gathered neatly into the piped armscyes and button-closure cuffs; those cuffs are finished with delicate self-fabric ruffles.  The dropped shoulders, full sleeves, and tidy waist all conform to the fashionable silhouette of the 1850s, despite the modest fabric. And either that material has a ton of body, or the mannequin arms have been padded very well...

Waistcoat, 16th Century

Blog backlog continues, because the universe conspires to ensure last-minute event sewing, but doesn't always allow time for photographing the results.

My Tudor kit, such as it is, is largely comprised of light-weight linen (being primarily used in August). Thus, my first June event fell on a cool, damp weekend, which saw me sewing a single wool garment by campfire-light, as the rain closed in.*

Waistcoat. It's actually a burgundy color.

The waistcoat pattern was drafted from The Tudor Tailor. I opted to include the wings, and the used the straight collar/cuffs. The material is a dark red wool from Pendleton, with a full lining in linen.  I used black size 2 hooks for the fastenings, inspired by the Amsterdam examples.

*I proceeded to wear the said garment next day (pinned close for lack of hooks), while helping start a new fire in the said rain.  A month and a half later, I finally managed to sew on the 12 hooks.

Tudor Pins

Another fun material culture article, this time on how pins were made in the 16th century.

SA Cloth Girl Doll

Meet Nelly's new little sister: Harriet. She is made from Liz Clark's 13" cloth girl doll pattern.

Harriet in new dress and pinafore.
Not visible: chemise, drawers, petticoat.

I don't have a lot to review here, as the pattern instructions and format closely resembles its predecessor, the cloth lady doll (15").  If you liked that, you'll like this.* The differences are in the doll size and garment types: the girl doll is two inches shorter, and her wardrobe includes children's style variations, as well as few different outerwear pieces, such as a sunbonnet and pinafore.  The girl doll pattern also has instructions for making dress and bonnet forms to display additional garments. 

The garments in common between the two dolls are nicely differentiated: the girl doll has a slightly different style of chemise, while other garments (drawers, stays) are cut in children's styles. The main reason for adding Harriet to my kit is to show the differences between womens' and girls' wardrobes.

The other notable difference is that the girl doll pattern is a pdf rather than a paper pattern.  While this felt a little weird to me, I appreciate the ability cut out pattern pieces without having to trace them.

What You Get With This Pattern: 

• 1 pdf, containing 20 pages of instructions and 8 pages of doll/clothing pattern pieces
• Patterns include the doll, a dress form, a bonnet form and the following garments: chemise, drawers, stays, petticoats, dress variations (yoked, gathered or pleated bodices cut high or low; 5 sleeves), jacket, basque, pinafore, and bonnet. 

Rating: 5 stars
Difficulty: Varies from easy to intermediate
Accuracy: High. Some background is included about cloth dolls; the clothing rings very true for girls' dresses of the 1850s/1860s.
General Impression: A nice doll, from a pattern than is easy to use and encourages customization.  In quality and user-friendliness, this pattern is the equal of its predecessor.

*I really love using Liz's patterns, finding them straightforward and intuitive to use. Occasionally, someone disagrees with me on this; check out the free compendium articles if you want to get a feel for the writing style.

Fancy Dress Article

Mrs. Watkins has a fun article about fancy dress parties. Makes me wish I were in Minnesota this autumn...

Undersleeves (Bishop with Frill)

Not my project, but last weekend's sewing did include this pair of undersleeves:

Long undersleeves of lawn.

A friend had cut them out already, and I sewed them while she made some final adjustments to dress and collar. The material was a smooth lawn with moderate body (from Mill End, if I recall correctly); the shape is a moderately full bishop sleeve, with a ruffle set in the cuff, and the upper edge hemmed (not gathered into another band). The cuffs close with hooks and eyes.

I'm really please with how the
ruffles' rolled hems turned out.