ALFHAM Western Regional Conference

This year it was in Forest Grove, Oregon, and was a lot of fun.

We visited the 1854 Alvin T. Smith house.

And I got much too excited about their
ORIGINAL WALLPAPER.

We also explored the old train depot (home to the Friends of Historic Forest Grove), as well as taking tours further afield. The sessions were great: I got to hear Linda from the High Desert Museum talk about engaging audiences, and Eileen from Talbott & Co. discuss research on the brig Euphemia and the sorts of goods it carried between San Francisco and Hawaii. I also demonstrated straw-plaiting, with no fatalities (though it precluded seeing Peggy's Victorian fly-fishing program).

Opera Coiffure, 1856 (first attempt)

Opera Coiffure, suitable for a young married lady, Godey's, 1856.

Meantime we open our own novelties, commencing with a simple but extremely tasteful headdress, suited to a young married lady, for opera, or an evening reception.
Fig. 1.—Front view, showing the division of the hair into two rouleaux which are marked by two small jewelled or ornamented hair-pins, placed over the ear; these are softly shaded by the outline of the plumes at the back of the head.
Fig. 2.—The back hair twisted into a smooth coil, on each side of which pure white ostrich plumes are arranged turning in towards it at the end. Plumes are sometimes worn by young ladies, but are more suitable for those who have a right to be addressed as "Madam," though not sufficiently staid for chaperones.
--Godey's, November 1856

My first (very bad) attempt at the hairstyle. It was a Murphy's Law sort of day, but posting these pictures will hopefully guilt me into re-doing them properly as I've been putting off for a month. The main issues I need to address are:

1. Making new rats that fit under half the side-hair. The ones I usually use could not be positioned securely and out of sight. Parting the hair on a diagonal rather than vertically will likely help.
2. Anchoring the smooth coil at the back effectively. After the second failure, I threw it into a braid to make it stay put.
3. Using the right feathers. All my ostrich feathers went into hiding last Opera Night, so I ended up using mirabeau. They really didn't work.

Front rolls. They need to be done over rats (not these small twists).

Braided rather than smooth coil. And the mirabeau (above)
don't really give the same effect as ostrich.

Opera Dress Research, 1817

The most useful fashion plate and description is from Ackerman's Repository, for none other than an opera dress (March 1817):

Opera Dress, March 1, 1817, in Ackerman's Repository
Accessed through LACMA

Description: Plate 16.--Opera Dress
A blue crape dress over a white satin slip; the dress trimmed round the skirt with a deep blond lace, which is headed with a light and novel trimming, composed of white floss silk and small pearl beads; this trimming is surmounted with a beautiful deep embroidery of lilies surrounded by leaves. The body and sleeves of this dress, as out readers will perceive by our print, are extremely novel. Head-dress, tocque a la Berri; it is a crown of a novel form, tastefully ornamented round the top with lilies to crorespond with the trimmings of the skirt, and a plume of white feathers, which droop over the face. Earrings, necklace, and bracelets, sapphire mixed with pearl. The hair dressed in loose light ringlets on the forehead, and disposed in full curls in the back of the neck. White kid gloves, and white satin slippers.

The above opera dress mas much in common with other formal attire from that year: the dress trim is concentrated near the hem of the skirt, and with similar motifs repeated on the sleeves (here a bit less so, though the white and blue color scheme is repeated there). Other examples of evening dress from 1817 also show very short bodices, heavy trim around the skirt, and often two layer construction (gown of net or crepe or some other sheer fabric over a silk slip, usually a satin). In April, the magazine mentions that gauze is replacing tulle in full dress, there is an example in the June issue (fashion plate).

[The April issue of Ackerman's observes that short bias-cut 'gipsy' cloaks, lined with blue or pink sarcanet, are worn to the opera.]

A few extent dresses that may be useful, though some are slightly later. The first is a sheer dress for wearing over a colored slip (early 1820s). There's an example in Costume in Detail where the sheer dress and slip are joined at key seams, but I was intrigued at this one being an entirely independent garment.

Sheer dress, c.1820-25.
The Met.

And a few more from LACMA:

Sheer dress c.1815. LACMA

Another, c.1820. LACMA

There are also a few intrinsic dresses, including this one c.1818, which is closer to my target date; I'm including it here for reference, because I'mm interested in several of the design elements. There are two rows of trim at the bottom, the sheer material is pleasingly full on the sleeves, and I like how it's also been disposed over the bodice. The descriptions for 1817 prescribe a plainer effect there, unfortunately.

Evening dress, c.1818. Met.

And another later dress (c.1825) which shows the two-layer look very well:

Dress c.1825. LACMA

[The other specifically "opera" dress I've found is from 1813, and it's mostly covered by a wrap.]

HFF 3.21: Beverages

The Challenge: Beverage. Make something to drink.

The Recipe: Negus (for children's parties?!) from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management

The Date/Year and Region: London, 1861 (many recipes were previously published in the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine and/or copied from earlier sources)

How Did You Make It: Half-scale. I rubbed a lemon of 1/4 lb granulated sugar (and, when that didn't work, scraped off the peel and buried it in the sugar).  Meanwhile, brought water to boil, and grated ~1/4 of a large nutmeg into 1 cup of sherry. Juiced the lemon into the sherry, added the sugar (imbued with some of the lemon's yellow color and odor), and poured 1 pint of boiling water into the mixture. Stirred and served.

Time to Complete: 5-10 minutes (scraping sugar while the electric kettle boiled)

Total Cost: $1 for a lemon, other ingedients on hand

How Successful Was It?: Very successful. Tasty, even though sherry usually doesn't work for me. Mostly the negus tastes like lemon and sugar, though there's something extra going on to distinguish it from lemonade (aside from being warm). The nutmeg and sherry aren't really coming through to me, just giving it some extra depth. That said, I'm probably missing some of the flavor complexity due to rebellious sinuses. I would like to try it with port (the preferential liquor, though sherry or sweet white wines are listed as variations) just to see how that changes the taste.

How Accurate Is It?: I'd like to try it with lump sugar to ensure all the lemon flavor comes through (the sugar was to have absorbed all the lemon' color, which it did not do), but otherwise I'm pretty well satisfied with it. Used an electric kettle to boil the water, but the result is the same as if it was boiled on a stove, hearth, or fire.

Negus: easy to make, and tasty.

Book Review: How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England

How To Behave Badly In Elizabethan England by Ruth Goodman

Ms. Goodman is at it again! We're back to the 16th century, this time learning about social mores by violating them.

As usual, the writing is conversational and informative. Unlike the temporal ("a day in the life") organization of How To Be A Victorian or How to be a Tudor, How to Behave Badly is divided thematically. The six chapters cover difference way to misbehave, including offensive language, gestures, violence, poor hygiene, etc. With introduction and conclusion, the book clocks in at 293 pages.

I like how edifying the book was--I learned more than I expected to about the origins and class implications of 'swashbuckling', as well as how to bow sarcastically. I also liked how the author dissected the composition of verbal insults, and that she addressed the gender divide in both physical altercations and offensive language.  There was also attention paid to changes in good/bad behavior over the time of the book (nominally Elizabeth I's reign of 1558-1603, but including sources from c.1460-c.1700).

This book is a fun read, and manages to be thorough without becoming a reference book. As previously mentioned, the voice is generally conversational, such that it feels like conversing with an enthusiastic and well-informed friend. There are, however, times it reads a bit like a negated etiquette manual--because the author summarizes the correct behavior described in etiquette manuals in order to discuss how to subvert that behavior. The sources available for this time and topic do color the presentation and contents: in addition to etiquette instructions showing what should be done (and occasionally deploring what is done but shouldn't be), a decent amount of the bad behavior comes from the extreme cases that caused legal disputes: trial summaries from the insults that warranted slander proceedings and the fights that caused injury or property damage. There's also a certain amount of recourse to contemporary literary characters who typify boorish or foolish behavior.


Stars: 5

Accuracy: High. Sources are cited in-line, and a primary-source-heavy bibliography is included.

Overall Impression: An amusing read, and full of good background information for people who interpret the 16th century. It draws heavily from contemporary advice literature and legal records, but I think it delivers on the promise to show bad behavior.

Chemisette Statistics (Mid-19th Century Original Garments)

More math!  This time I'm looking at trends in chemisettes in the mid 19th century, using original antique garments from the digital collections of the Metropolitan Museum (Met), Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA), Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA), Victoria and Albert Museum (VAM), and the UK National Trust Collections (examples primarily from the Killerton and Snowshill museum collections). Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 1 provided additional information on five of the examples from Snowshill Manor (marked with an *). Two privately-held garments featured in Nancy Bradfield's Costume in Detail 1730-1930 were also included. The online collections of Old Sturbridge Village, the Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village, the Museum at FIT,  the Kent State Fashion Museum, and Colonial Williamsburg were also consulted, but without locating the needed information.

I only included objects with images*, which were dated c.1825-1875, including "mid-19th century" and "second/third quarter 19th century". I didn't include garment fragments, or items with longer timescales ("19th century", "1800-1850"). Two examples from the VAM were included through a combination of their written description and the available thumbnail image.

The full spreadsheet is here. I spent many hours compiling this, so please use it only for non-commercial, educational purposes, and cite appropriately.

Results Summary (67 chemisettes)

Base fabric: 73% sheer fabric, 18% opaque fabric, 9% net.

Fiber content: 78% cotton, 12% linen, 10% other (1 silk, rest net of unspecified fiber).

Decoration: 64% included some form of embroidery, 37% lace, 10% tucks, 10% frills, 8% no decoration, and 16% some other decoration (including drawn/pulled threadwork, ribbon, insertion other than embroidery or lace, puffs, or woven figures).

Collar: 37% had no collar, 34% had a folded-over or laying-down collar (including large 'cape' styles), 19% had a frill, and 12% had a small standing collar.

Height: 73% were high-bodied (jewel neck), 15% were low-necked (boat neck), and 12% were open from waist to neck in a V-shape. The V-shape category was initially categorized with the high neck styles, and some may have been missed. The low-neck and V-shape strongly correlate with the "no collar" and "no fastener" categories.

Fastener: The largest category, 54% of the chemisettes, did not have any visible fastener: this may include hook-and-eye closures, but also unclear photographs, unfinished chemisettes, and chemisettes without fasteners that were not obvious enough for the 'none'. Buttons (24%) accounted for the most fasteners; this included chemisettes with only a single button at the neck, or a small number of buttons on the top portion of the opening. 13% of the chemisettes explicitly had no fasteners; another 7% had additional side-ties beside those at the waist (all but 1 of these were low-necked chemisettes with no front or back placket).

Opening Location: Front-opening chemisettes accounted for 70% of the total; a further 16% were back-opening; 10% had no opening (all had low necklines).

Caveats:
Many of these chemisettes were made of fine, semi-sheer cotton. Very few were definitely opaque, while others were truly transparent. I have largely erred on the side of calling the semi-sheer garments "sheer", though the call could have gone the other way.  The six net chemisettes did not have fiber content listed.

The one silk 'chemisette' was an anomaly in many ways, and may be more usefully considered as a waistcoat. It has been included none the less. Likewise, one opaque embroidered chemisette with tapered front and back points and no waist tape may be a pelerine. Some of the V-shaped sheer chemisettes may be fichus, while others have a waist tie suggesting they are, in fact, chemisettes to be worn under a gown.

There was some overlap between collar categories; generally, a frill was counted as a fold-over if it did not stand straight up or was attached to a folded-down collar; a standing collar was put on smooth and was larger than a edge binding; lace put on smoothly and not lying down counted as a standing collar if it was more than 1/2" or so, but as trim on 'no collar' if it was smaller; a frill was more full than what it was attached to, and generally standing or too small to lie down.

Oil For Baldness

Returning to A Cyclopedia of Practical Receipts (1856) for more hair oil receipts. This one is supposed to strengthen the hair to prevent it thinning; the ingredients, however, are the same as every styling oil I've tried, only scented differently. So, I decided to make some up for those friends whose taste doesn't run towards floral smells.

To 1 oz of olive oil ("salad oil", any sweet oil will do), add 12 drops of origanum (oregano/marjoram*) oil, 10 drops rosemary oil, 6 drops lavender oil, and 3 drops clove or cassia (cinnamon) oil. Shake to mix the oils, and color with alkanet root.**

I decided to try infusing fresh marjoram and dried whole cloves in the olive oil, mostly because I didn't want to buy two most oils for the few drops needed here (and because have a ton of fresh marjoram in my herb garden). I put a small handful of marjoram and 12 whole cloves in the oil, heated it slightly in a warm water bath on the stove, and let it soak for 2 days. The oil smelled slightly like marjoram, with just a hint of cloves, after that time. I then added the other oils and alkanet (reserving 1 bottle without any lavender), shook, and strained out the alkanet root.

*Origanum is the genus of both oregano and marjoram. When I started this project, it was unclear which of the plants was intended; I currently believe oregano is meant.

**Like many other Victorian cosmetic recipes, the base color is an unappealing yellow or yellow-green. The alkanet turns it reddish, but does not tint the hair or skin. It can stain handkerchiefs, though.

I substituted fresh marjoram and whole cloves
for the orignum and clove oils.

Finished oil.

The finished oil has a nice red-orange color, and smells mostly of rosemary and marjoram. The two bottles with lavender contain traces of that odor, but little of the clove comes through.

Waist Not, Want Not

One of these days, I'm going to run some stats on the antique dress measurements I have stored away.  Meanwhile, here's a nice listing of surviving antique dresses in relatable sizes.

Infant Bibs, 1856-1860

Inspiration images:

Infant Bib in Godey's November 1856

Quilted or Marseilles Infant Bib in Godey's March 1860

Reproduction pieces:

Next time I'll hand sew items this small.
The swing machine had opinions.

Both are made from pimatex cotton broadcloth. The quilted bib has cotton batting; both were sewn on my vintage singer. I omitted the button on the quilted bib, leaving the fastening method up to the parents' preference.

Originals: 1859 Silk Dresses

Two-fer this month, in honor of Fort Nisqually's Candlelight Tours, which are portraying 1859 this year. [Tickets are available here. They sell out every year]

Love the effectiveness of a pagoda sleeve with epaulette on that patterned silk.
Dress c.1859-1860, LACMA. 

Subsitute the pointed bodice for a basque, then add some trim.
These are fundamentally very similar dresses. 1859,