Straw Bonnet With Purple Moire Ribbon

Still doing mid-Victorian--I just haven't had any completed projects to post recently. So here's a bonnet I trimmed for work. I believe both form and ribbon came from Timely Tresses.

Modelled by a helpful basket.

Wash Water

Citation organization time: 1850-1865 references to the importance of soft water (rainwater or chemically neutralized) for washing clothes.

The Jolly Washerwoman
Lily Martin Spencer, 1851

All the water used for washing must be soft, otherwise the clothes cannot be made clean.
-The Home Book of Household Economy (1859)

The Home Book of Household Economy goes on recommend treating hard or 'brackish' water with lye or soda before attempting to wash clothes; rain water is also recommended. (This message also appeared, verbatim, in Miss Leslie's Lady's House-Book, which was in its 11th edition by 1850.)

 "No washing can be properly done without an abundant supply of soft water; rain water suits the best for the purpose if collected in clean butts or tanks."--The Common Things of Everyday Life (1857)

The Economical Housekeeper (1860) favors spring or river water over rain water for laundry, citing a need to filter the rain water.

"A Chemist in the Laundry", a Scientific American article reprinted in The Home magazine, blames yellowed linen on excessive soda in the wash water and/or on not changing the water often enough. It also claims that blueing does not restore the color(lessness) of garments so much as cover the yellow hues. This "bad color" is "the great thing to guard against" as it "partakes of a permanent evil."

An Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy (1855) advises on the proper construction of a wash house/ laundry/ drying space, including the use of cisterns for storing rainwater off the roof (or holding pumped water). Interestingly, it has water taps!


Household Work (1855, 4th edition) has a lot of interesting tidbits, even if the question-and-answer format reads awkwardly to the modern eye. If one has not a 'sufficiency' of rain or river water, spring water is to be softened with soda, wood ash (lye) or pearl ash. The softened water should not be used on flannel or colored fabrics.

Catherine Beecher's A Treatise On Domestic Economy (1849 revised edition) lists "plenty of soft water" as the first item required for washing clothes. Soda and "ley" are, again, advised for hard water.

Wimple Wednesday: Late 14th Century Pleated Wimple

Moving later in the 14th century, we have a constructed wimple. It's pleated into a band, and slightly curved for a closer fit around the neck. Making it was more work (and much more linen!), but it is a bit quicker to don--even if I feel like a frilled lizard when wearing it. Same kerchief and fillet; I tried dressing the hair in side coils again,  but still am not quite satisfied with the result.

Getting fancy with a pleated wimple. 

The wimple is a 11" x 60" rectangle of narrow hemmed linen; it is knife-pleated along one side and enclosed in a 19" band of linen which has a finished width of 5/8". The center of the pleated portion was 'scooped out' approximately 2", to help the wimple fit more closely around the neck.  Like the previous garments, it is fully handsewn with linen thread, and is based on a design in The Medieval Tailor's Assistant.

HFF 3.8: Abstinence

The Challenge: Abstinence. Lenten foods, temperance alternatives, and dishes reflecting scarcity.

The Recipe: I managed to get this done in the two days of the challenge window which weren't part of Lent, which probably says something. Anyway, I chose to make a meat hash, from Francatelli's A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes. [I think it was his remarks about poor people not having leftover meat, but occassionally receiving it as gifts from wealthier neighbors, that made it feel appropriate to this challenge.]

The Date/Year and Region: 1852, London

How Did You Make It: I made this half scale--chopped one onion, boiled it in 1 cup of water for ten minutes with a dash of salt and pepper, then added three slices of left-over ham, and stewed it for another ten minutes. In a separate pan, I heated some previously-boiled tiny potatoes. When everything was warm, I poured the onions and meat over the potatoes.

Time to Complete: Twenty minutes to cook, less than ten to prepare.

Total Cost: One onion (70 cents); the meat and potatoes were left over from Easter dinner.

How Successful Was It?: Tastier than expected.  The meat stayed moist, and the onion added some extra flavor without overwhelming it. The potatoes warmed without overcooking. Despite being left-overs, their was enough new interest and delicate flavor to make a satisfying meal. 

Making this hash went quickly and easily, and I'll definitely use the receipt again. The only sticking points are that there isn't a lot so show; for a demonstration it would work best paired with something complicated and labor-intensive. This would be a very good candidate for period camping or similar situations.

How Accurate Is It?: Fairly--the left over ingredients are from modern dishes, but I think it's a good interpretation of Francatelli's instructions.

Ham and onion hash over boiled potatoes, 1852.

Costume Society of America 45th Annual Meeting

It was very fun! I enjoyed the research presentations immensely, met some interesting folks, and managed to not fangirl blatantly at anyone. [Seriously, I was in the same room as Dr. Elizabeth Wayland Barber and didn't start gushing or anything.] Also, the authors of just about every paper I've read in the last two years were there presenting, and it was glorious.

I also survived my own presentation (the early Seattle dress research), and now need to sleep, because I was up really late wrangling powerpoint slides.

Wimple Wednesday: Early 14th Century Wimple and Kerchief

Wimple and kerchief, as worn in the first half of the 14th century.

Look familiar? Yes, it's all the same pieces as week one, but updated to the early fourteenth century through a hairstyle commonly associated with Princess Leia.

For fun, here's the step by step:

The foundation: linen fillet and hair arranged in side-coils.
I experimented with having the fillet above or below the hair,
and an tentatively preferring it below.

Wimple over the hair. I couldn't pin it to the fillet at the sides,
so I tried pinning it to the hair over each coil (with some success);
the final method was to pin the wimple to itself around back.

Arranging the kerchief is still the fiddly-est bit.
I think it looks a bit nicer in person.

I think I'd like to play with the hair and fillet placement a bit more, particularly raising the coils level with the top of the head.  The linen I'm using isn't particularly stiff, but it drapes with a lot more body than the illustrations seem to show.  Linen tends to soften with washing and use, so that may change.

The only new component this week was my acorn veil pins (from Billy and Charlie's).  The technique (once again) is from Sarah Thursfield's The Medieval Tailor's Assistant.

Google Ngram Viewer

A fun research tool I've been enjoying lately: Google's Ngram Viewer, aka, your easy way to quantifiably nerd out about history and language. Did you ever want to quantify the frequency of a term in historic publications over time, in order to analyze the changing use of specific words and phrases? Precisely!

Use of the words "ok" and "okay" in works published between 1700 and 2000 (which have been scanned into Google Books):


Obviously we still need to consider context while enjoying the math. (There's even a convenient 'search on Google Books' links below the graph!) Take the word "bloomer". We're not going to see it before Amelia Bloomer starts writing about reform dress in the early 1850s, right?



It turns out that, before the term came to be associated with short dresses worn over trousers, "Bloomer" referred to flowering plants, as well as being a surname.

Seriously: click the link, enter your preferred year range (the sample size does get larger for later years), and search your favorite words/phrases.

Muslin Bib-front Empire Dress, c.1800

The other project finished late last week: a bib-front dress that's been languishing half-done for a year and more.

Maybe the beige curtains weren't the best
backdrop for a white dress.

The inspiration piece is the c.1800 bib-front dress from Regency Women's Dress (page 42); I also referred to the other bib-front morning dress c.1800-1805 (page 46) for additional construction information, and the untrained, rectangular skirt.  Additional fastener information, as well as the self-fabric bands around the bib, are from a c.1798-1805 dress in Patterns of Fashion 1 (page 48).

The fabric is incredibly light and has a soft hand,
but still enough body to drape gracefully.
I am quite pleased with this hem: 20-22 stitches to the inch.

The material is a very light sheer white muslin with a woven stripe that I got from Nancy's Sewing Basket just before they closed. The bodice is lined in plain white cotton.  Except for the two seams in the skirt panels (which are machine-sewn, but hand-felled), every stitch in this dress was done by hand: hems, gathers, seams, and all. Thank you to Elise, for working on the lining while I was frantically trying to join all the muslin bodice pieces.

The dress in action, with a red ribbon sash
and my red shawl.

Wimple Wednesday: 13th Century Wrapped Kerchief

Still in the thirteenth century, but going a bit simpler. Instead of the two cloths (kerchief and wimple) with the supporting fillet, today's kerchief is simply one long rectangle of linen (21" x 60"). It's draped over the head, then wrapped around the throat and tucked in at the side: no extra pieces, or pins needed.

Wrapped kerchief, 13th century

[Method from The Medieval Tailor's Assistant by Sarah Thursfield.]

HFF 3.7 Faux Foods

The Challenge: Faux Foods

The Recipe: I spent a lot of time procrastinating this one, trying to decide between mock clotted cream or perhaps Welsh rarebit, but finally opted to make Mock tomata sauce from the New Family Receipt Book. I served the sauce over a pork cutlet.

The Date/Year and Region: 1810, London [cutlet: 1861, also London]

How Did You Make It: I made a tiny batch, using a single apple.  After roasting the apple, I removed the skin and core, and ground up the apple flesh as best I could in a mortar and pestle. Having no chili vinegar available, I added 1 Tbsp of red wine vinegar, and a generous dash of chili powder. [I should have added the tumeric at this point, but after purchasing all of the other ingredients and getting started, I could not ind the tumeric I thought I had on hand. Since this seems to be mostly for coloring the sauce, I decided to skip it rather that stop to buy some.]  This produced ~ 4 oz of apple mush/liquid; I added 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (which was probably to much), 1 section of a clove of garlic, and about 1/4 of a shallot [by proportion, it should have been 1/8 oz of shallot and 1/32 oz garlic; I couldn't practically measure such small amounts, and so estimated].  The ingredients were then heated to a boil on the stove, after which the garlic and shallots (and larger apple bits) were removed.

I served the sauce with a pork cutlet, roughly prepared according to Beeton's instructions (1861): remove the bone, add pepper, broil until cooked (by not dry), then salt and serve with tomato sauce.

Time to Complete: I roasted the apple for about 40 minutes (probably longer than was needed), and spent another 20 preparing the sauce (meanwhile broiling the meat). Most of the prep time went into trying to pulp and mash the apple--I think that using the proper tools would expedite this to a certain extent, but that this is a recipe that would be more efficient on a larger scale.

Total Cost: At such a small scale, the amount of meat, shallot, apple, etc. totaled about $4.

How Successful Was It?: Fairly. The vinegar and spice made a very credible tomato odor and flavor, and even without the tumeric, the color was closer than I expected. The texture was a bit coarse (I needed to pulp the apples better), and I think I used too much cayenne (or possibly too much chili), as the sauce was about 3 stars hotter than I would like. In the right circumstances, I might try this one again (specifically to interpret food substitutions/preservation).  The cutlet broiled longer than called for (15 minutes instead of 9 minutes, as it was not fully cooked in that time); moreover, I used a modern stove' 'broil' setting instead of a gridiron on a fire.

How Accurate Is It?: Ish? The lack of tumeric and the apple choice likely affected the flavor, which the texture definitely suffered for want of a hair sieve. 

Except for the burning of too much cayenne,
it was fairly tasty. Surprisingly tomato-like, too.

Empire/Regency Silk Gown, c. 1805

Re-re-made just in time for the ball on Saturday (literally: I was stitching down the lining during the afternoon festivities). The bodice is patterned off the 1805-1808 Evening Dress in Regency Women's Dress (p. 58).

Front of dress.  Please excuse the fit: apparently
my dressform doesn't like adjusting anymore.

Still enjoying those stripes.

I really wish there had been more pictures or sketches of the original dress's interior construction: this dress has a center-front closure in the lining, but side opening on the bodice exterior. Figuring out how to attach the various layers around the sleeves and shoulders, such that the dress could be taken on and off easily without the lining peaking around the shoulder and sleeves, was an undertaking. I ended up making a tiny model to fit the pieces together, and the end result seems to work, but it's still a little onerous to get on and off.

Tiny mockup!

Matching Patterns on Curved Seams

...is very important, when you need to be wearing the garment in 9 hours.

Really pleased with these.

Wimple Wednesday: 13th Century Kerchief and Plain Wimple

Experiment time: let's play with some medieval and early modern women's head-coverings.

[Context: I got frustrated with a person online (quelle horreur!) making opprobrious comments about the use of head-coverings by women in the modern world.  These comments may have been directed at practitioners of a certain non-local-majority religion. As such, I decided it was time to remind people that 'western' costume, until very recently, included head-coverings for men and women outdoors; indoor and outdoor hair-coverings for women have been part of that same tradition for over a thousand years, though they declined in popularity by the mid-19th century.]

I'm starting c.1200 CE, because that gives me an excuse to play with all the fun forms in Thursfield's The Medieval Tailor's Assistant, and to start week 1 with an actual wimple. The overall theme is 'unstructured/semi-structered hair coverings', but we don't have any days that make a good alliteration with 'veil' or 'kerchief' or 'coif', so wimples it is.*

Still not good with selfies.
The soft linen is quite comfy, though.

The wimple (the bit under the chin and over the ears) is a 12" by 36" rectangle of fine linen; the kerchief (bit draped over the head) is a square yard of the same. I'm tempted to experiment with a slightly shallower rectangle here instead of the full square--it's a good length along the front but perhaps too long down the back.

Both wimple and kerchief are pinned to the fillet, a double-layer bias-cut band of linen which is tied around the head. It's made of the same lightweight linen (3.5 oz handkerchief weight from Fabric-store.com), with two pairs of 1/4" wide linen tapes to fasten it at the back.  The wimple and kerchief are attached to the filet with three pins; I used the brass clothing pins from Burnley and Trowbridge.

*Not all offerings will feature throat-covering wimples. They all will cover some/all of the hair. I'm sticking to less structured items like headrails, kerchiefs and caps, both because it takes a ton of time to make hats, bonnets, and elaborately padded headdresses, but also because these things frequently cover the hair in addition to a outer bonnet or hat, and also in situations where outer headgear is dispensed with.

Original: Embroidered Muslin Dress, c.1800

Who's frantically sewing for a Jane Austen themed event next Saturday? Here's some era-appropriate eye candy to keep spirits high.

Woman's Dress, Indian (export), c.1800.
White cotton muslin with white silk embroidery.

As always, follow the link to the LACMA website for additonal images and information.  I really enjoy their staging, and how much information they include