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| Bonnet, 1880s, from LACMA. |
I selected this bonnet because I like how the crepe photographed, with its diagonal stripes coming through clearly. The bonnet's plain aesthetic is suited to the purported use as a mourning garment, which is further supported by the extensive (exclusive) use of black crepe as a material.
No new historic projects finished this month: there are a few in progress that I hope to complete in December, but otherwise most of my sewing time went into repairing modern clothing. Most recently, this involved patching my winter woolen tights, though I did get another round of mending my 16th century linen hose before putting them away for the season.
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| Less daunting than I feared to patch these tights, and they're wearing just fine. |
Backdating this one, as it was actually finished in early October. My rolled sewing kit got hit by a bad rainstorm back in '18 or thereabouts which deformed the cardboard components. It still functioned just fine, however, until this year when the fabric over most of the hard edges finally broke down.
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| Exhibit A: The sewing roll, a bit worse for wear. |
Be that as it may, I really like this sewing kit, and wanted to change it as little as possible. I started by removing the box and lid, from which I separated the pin-cushion. I took the opportunity to repair a small worn spot along the edge of the main piece where the box joins it, and ironed the whole piece while it was flat. I then cut and covered a new box and lid. I re-used the blue and red coral print for the pin cushion, but added more wool roving to the cushion itself. Then it was time to join the box back onto the body. I'd forgotten just how much I dislike sewing hard-sided 3D objects together...
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| Kit with new box. |
I'm happy with the new box, though I miss the old fabric a bit still. I just didn't have any of the purple feather for the new lid, nor the foulard for covering the box (though I liked how it looked with the diamonds when closed). I did manage to get the old foulard into the lid, piecing it twice to make it fit. I also realized upon finishing that the original ties are badly fading and starting to fray along the folds, so I may need to replace them in the near future as well.
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| And closed. The green print looks better with the interior, in my opinon. |
I like the stripes on this one: the contrast between the vertical stripes on the bodice and skirt, the horizontal stripe on the skirt, and diagonal of the bias-cut sleeves. The maker even made the effort to align the stripes on the cape and bodice at the center front.
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| Dress, cotton, c.1825. From LACMA. |
Found this while working on a different research project, and fell in with love with the stripe fabric. It's described as a denim, which I need to look into further, as I haven't seen a two-color striped denim like this before. Anyway, I love how the striped fabric and darker (piped?) edging makes the bias-bands pop. It's very effective as trim, but subtle enough not to overwhelm the whole garment.
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| Dress, European, c.1890, in LACMA. |
Mostly Faire gear this month: I've fixed holes in my linen hose every weekend, and probably should just made new pairs for next summer. Also somehow managed to pull out both gusset seams on last year's smock and got to repair those felled seams. Awkward.
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| Bad enough felling the crossing seams once... |
Knit garters, based on the Typical Tudor recipe for...knit garters. Appropriately worked in garter stitch, with two strands of undyed wool singles.
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| Garters as knit. |
I made mine long enough for cross-gartering, only to find that my knees really aren't the right shape for it. Fortunately, the garters work just as well tied single.
I tried to dye the garters blue (messed up my indigo vat this time, got a pale yellow that dried to absolutely nothing), then red/orange/pink/brown (madder vat, any color would be fine, except that I got a shade I call "world's palest oatmeal"), and finally yellow/green (pomegranate...but instead ended up with darkest brown-black instead). Functionally, this was the only color I was not going for at any point, but they still work fine and it's not like my garters are ever visible under a kirtle.
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| And dyed brown. |
