Back from the dead

Hello!

So, um...I've been gone for a while...a few months actually...wow. I have a good reason, but I also have something really cool to show you all! A lot has been going on in my little world and I've feel like I haven't even had time to sit and think about blogging. (it's a full time job you know? and when you have a full time job, laundry, dirty house, fiance and parents to talk to, dinner to cook, errands to run and the gym to go to...blogging and sewing kind of takes a back burner to life).

Amazingly...shockingly...I've won a couple of awards in my absence for my comatose blog. Most specifically from the blog Sew 18th Century and she awarded me with the Leibster Blog award! YAY! Thank you Elizabeth! (and thank you for the lovely fb message...sorry I haven't written back...I can be quite terrible about those things)

Wee!

It's been a really interesting few months for me. It's been approx. 1 year since I moved away from Sweden, gave my talk about blogging and how important it is, got a full time job with the foundation and now live in an old farm house with a roommate while waiting for my fiance to get his visa and move here (US Immigration...hello? Hello? Is this thing on?). My life has completely changed.

With all these changes have brought about a new sense of responsibility. Most importantly with my job. I have a full time job with my museum, which means I am wearing 18th century clothes 5 days a week. I wear stays 5 days a week. Shoes with buckles, gowns, jackets, bedgowns, and a cap. I don't wear makeup anymore unless it's my day off, and I do have to admit, bathing habits get a bit...um...interesting when you wear shifts, stays, jackets and gowns everyday and your hair is covered...let's just say it doesn't always become your first priority. (kinda gross...i know...)

Since I wear these clothes every single day,  the pretty pretty dress up has lost it's appeal. This is not just a costume....these are my clothes...they don't sparkle and go "dah dah!!!" when I put them on. In fact, I spend part of my morning interrupting my roomie to lace me up in my stays because they're back lace only and lacing myself in would take up almost an hour. I can tell when she's annoyed with me when my stays are tighter than normal.

Speaking of, I wear my stays so much looser now than you would expect. I still have some support, but there are more days than not where my body has sunken into my stays to some degree instead of coming out of my stays (if you get my drift).

But you want to know the coolest coolest thing, like, ever?

My stays have completely molded to my body. As in, I can take off my stays and wrap them around and you can see the shape of my body in my stays. When they are on, it's like a second skin. It is the coolest thing.

And also insanely comfortable.

This is me after work one day...and before I got a ribbon for my cap

This shows better how they have molded to the curves of my back, bum, and hips

And a side shot to also show the shape of the front

These stays are those stays. Yes. The ones I boned with baleen. And I am so thankful I did. The baleen has lived up the expectations I had and my body is incredibly thankful for the daily comfort. Stays boned with oak or ash splint will also take on the same characteristics too. Metal boning does not do this. It does not mold. (I have an old pair of stays that show this very clearly.) They'll go right back to their original shape, unless they're bent. They're too flimsy..I can't even imagine making stays out of metal boning anymore...my waist and hips hurt just thinking about it.

You can also see how loose my stays are. This is how I wear them everyday. I'll take them into 1" space only if I'm wearing my silk gown...but for my day to day, they're nice and functional and loose. I'm also going to try and remember to get a photo of my stays standing up on their own, just to show you what exactly I mean when I say they've molded, but that'll probably take me 6 months. :P

Another reason I've backed off the blogging, is because of my job...I still haven't figured out the balance of my work and my blog and where things are acceptable and not. I'm still trying to figure that out, and hopefully I'll find a balance soon... I would like to start writing more...though I feel as though this blog might undergo a sort of transformation in the process....we'll see I guess?

Anyways, I've missed you all, I've been blog stalking you all and now I'm signing off...it's time for yoga!

<3 <3 <3

I'm so excited...

....to be able to share the news with you lovely lovely people!

Ready?

I'm engaged to the Swede!

AH! SO. Excited!

F just went back to Sweden after a 10 day visit to Virginia and it was heavenly. He proposed on Chincoteague Island (where the wild ponies are, etc....Misty of Chincoteague)  in a park. On a bench. With the sun low in the autumn sky.

And he asked me with this:

1935. Belais Brothers 18k white gold engagement ring.

When I saw it, I did this:

But with out the over dramatic music...mostly just that weird noise.

Then I asked if it was real.

He said yes.

Then I asked if he was going to ask me to marry him.

He then said yes again.

Then he asked me to marry him.

I then said yes.

Then I told him he had to put the ring on my finger.

And it fit, perfectly.

And now.... It's another visa process procedure...hopefully the last one we'll have to do for a while. :)

*Waves at USCIS*

<3 <3

What I did on my summer (not) vacation, 2011

So...

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but I've been...um..how do you say...absent (har har!). I wrote a blog about my absence, but now I am pleased to inform you loverly loverly people that

I'm baaaaacccckkkk!

Muah ha ha ha ha! Things are, eventually, going to slow down for me....hopefully(...?)

Anyways, my first post is going to be about what I've been doing on my summer (not) vacation. When I came to Colonial Williamsburg, I was originally hired to work in a historic area job, as a way to get my foot in the door. Then, a fantastic opportunity came my way. I was hired (temporarily) to be a specialty tailor for the Colonial Williamsburg/Preservation Virginia collaboration for Historic Jamestown. They are putting on special programs every month or week or so (something like that), where they have actor interpreters come and portray a character from Jamestown's history. The Costume Design Center of Colonial Williamsburg recieved special funding to create historically accurate costumes for the actors to wear.

My job was to pattern and make some of these costumes. Lots of hand-sewing and a lot of learning about 17th century menswear..

it wasn't exactly my strong point before hand. In fact, I had no friggin' idea what the world I was doing.

No. Idea.

Anyways, I've learned tons and tons about making doublets and trunk hose and fittings, and all sorts of insane things like peascod bellies, and ruffs, and lace making, and finger braiding, etc etc so on and so forth! The main project (6 weeks) was to make a full ensemble for the actor playing Sir Thomas Dale.

I spent a great deal of time picking the CW Historic Tailors' brains for information on how to measure and pattern for doublets and trunk hose. I was given fantastic Swiss books for me to oogle over. (oh those Swiss books....I miss them).

At the Costume Design Center, the women in accessories spent 6 weeks making silver lace for trim and a 100% hand sewn ruff (19 yards rolled hem and cartridge pleated, french knots, decorative back stitching...it took her a month to make it. No kidding.) This project was awesome. 

There was one major meltdown on my part, where the chest of the doublet didn't quite fit, but luckily it was an easy fix (and I may or may not have threatened the actor with a riding crop if his chest didn't fit...but that's a different story for a different day... :) )

The greatest news? We finished on time. ON TIME. Almost EARLY.

Does that ever happen?!

Anyways, I am extremely pleased with the final product, and I feel so fortunate to have been given this opportunity to learn so much about historical tailoring, 17th century dress, and menswear especially. If you are in the area, and you can attend one of these events, I heartily recommend it!

Alright enough gabbering...here are the goods:

Here is an innards shot

Close up shot of the buttons/fabric/and trim. The buttons were hand done with silk twist and silver thread

Slightly blurry shot of the finger braided button loops, and more trim.

Yes. This ruff was sewn by hand. Completely.

The finished product!

Here is the back view.

Designs, materials, labor are all Costume Design Center, and the shoes were from Sarah Juniper. The doublet was 95% hand sewn with only a few machine seams (arms, and the long seams of the trunk hose, etc). Everything else = my or someone else's hands.

My fingers are still recovering.

Well...it feels good to be back, and I'm looking forward to doing more blogging as I now have plenty to write about!

<3 <3

**Special Thank you to Brenda Rosseau (my boss) for letting me post these pictures online. They are all property of The Costume Design Center of Colonial Williamsburg**

Burnley and Trowbridge Gown Workshop Recap

 Last weekend I had the most amazing opportunity to be an 'assistant/model' for the Burnley and Trowbridge Gown workshop that was being taught by Journeywoman Milliner & Mantua-maker Brooke. Brooke has been home from abroad for about a month, and she took this one weekend to really exercise  her gown making muscles. She's one of my dear friends and it was great to see her again and to see her doing her thing (cause she is a genius at draping/cutting/fitting gown making in general).

 The participants were all diverse and awesome, sadly (or luckily?) one participant wasn't able to attend due to a calamity of events and so it left one participant (Norah) sans partner...until I arrived! Muah- ha ha ha ha! This was the first time I really got to use all that mantua making training I have received through osmosis. It was stellar. I got to really nit-pick at her gown and fitting to get it as perfect as possible. I am really pleased with the result, and I'm excited to see her final gown. She didn't have that much more to do so she should be done soon (hint hint hint...).

Since my main job was a model, I got to have a lot of fun making the workshop participants and Brooke laugh, cause I was totally a Vaudeville comedienne in a past life. Brooke also let me talk to the ladies about historical accuracy, construction quality, and stitches.


To sum it up: Neat is nice, but messy is pretty damn accurate. I stressed this because with the modern sewing mentality, neat stitches = good and sloppy stitches = bad. For the 18th century, that was not the case. There can be beautiful gowns that look so perfect, and then you open up and look inside and barf it's a hot mess inside. Or you can just be a narsty  gown (narsty is worse than nasty, btw :) ), like a remade gown from the Burrell Collection in Glasgow. It's just...ugh...a total hot mess of a gown. It's remade, pieced within an inch of it's life (not even pretty piecing, but narsty piecing).  They even used pumpkin orange thread on a deep raspberry colored silk...why? who the hell knows. Crazy ladies made that gown. Crazy ladies.


That conversation lead into an in-depth discussion on textiles and extant garments, and Angela busted out tons and tons of images from her most recent trip to England (specifically going through the billet books of the Foundling Museum) and it was ah-mazing seeing some examples of all the fabrics she was able to look at. It also started an interesting discussion of common fabrics that would have been found in common gowns. I'm not an expert in colors/dye processing/fabrics etc. So it's an interesting debate, especially when you get into the idea of greens and bright pinks in fabrics other than silk (cause acid green and bright pink were in available in silk). But what about the use of the color in linen or cotton? It's an interesting debate and I usually just keep my mouth shut and let the textile expert educate me.

Do you know of any bright pink gowns that are cotton or linen? Cause...if you do...wanna share? Yes? Please?

Ok, enough jabbering, here are some photos courtesy of Burnely and Trowbridge!

Brooke explaining sleeve construction. Notice how fabulous her gown fits...

Getting draped and using Brooke as a hand rest. It's hard work.

I have no idea what's going on here, but I crack up every time I see this picture.

Draping the back of Norah's gown

Sunday, Brooke explaining how to fit the bodice fronts to back

Fitting Norah

Still fitting Norah....

Explaining an easy way of fitting sleeves.

Nit picking on Norah's sleeves. I'm super happy with the fit of Norah's gown. I hope she is too!

If you would like to see more photos from the workshop you can go to Burnley and Trowbridge's Facebook page and look through the images there. :)


So that's the wrap up from me! Next time I should have images of my own garments for ya'll.

<3 <3

Absence

Howdy Strangers.

It's been a while since I've wrote. What can I say? I've had other things going on and, to be frank, I just have felt no desire whatsoever to blog. I'm going through a very angsty blog phase at the moment and I am having a really hard time even writing this. I have a recap of the Burnley and Trowbrige Gown workshop from last week too, that should be picture heavy. I'll write that, maybe, tomorrow...better be tomorrow as once Monday hits, I'll be distracted with excuses to not write on the blog.

Some of the reasons I've been absent have been explained on the blog already. I am almost always sewing. I sew, by hand, 8 hours a day on 17th century doublets (I just spent 3 days sewing button holes, for example.) Brooke is in town and since she loves me (and I love her) she's draped me a few things and is working with me on some clothing. Which I will be sharing with you when it is constructed. It's a surprise and I can promise you, you've never seen it & that it will be fabulous.

Another reason is that the past 2.5 weeks F has been visiting from Sweden. So I've, obviously, devoted all my time to him. He left last week and since then it has been working, workshoping, and working. Today has been my first day "off". I went and saw Harry Potter by myself, it was glorious.


Next time I blog, it will hopefully be happier....well it will be, because there are some hilarious pictures I'm going to post for your lol-ing pleasure.

I also hope that I'll be able to go back to blogging as normal and not go over a month without writing. I will finally have things I can blog about, and hopefully they will be drama free.

I really really hate drama.

I really really like cookies.

And inverted back pleats with stripes.


<3 <3

Next time on Stay-ing Alive: The Burnley and Trowbridge English Gown recap, with pictures! Yay! Pictures!


[Edit: Everything is resolved now. :) ]

Way to go BBC!

Have you seen this?  Your Paintings - Bookmark it now.

"Your Paintings" a "joint initiative between the BBC, the Public Catalogue Foundation (a registered charity) and participating collections and museums from across the UK." to put all of the UK national paintings online in one place.

It's easily searchable and their goal is to get 200,000 paintings online in one easily accessible place. They have 63,000 already (so tons and tons) to search through, so I think we have time to keep busy looking at new and different portraits until everything is online. So far I have been impressed with the more 'folk arty' portraits that are cruder than what I'm used to seeing in the UK galleries. A breath of fresh air for costume, if you will.

Life is rough, eh?

Oh, and they are having people 'tag' paintings. I forsee dress historians getting into nit picky fights about what is what...no?

What an age we live in. Gotta love it!

Gown and Petticoat in a Week: Or How I Almost Died.

So, as you know my cry for help came a couple days ago. Let's just say...things were getting rough. (Special Thank you to Cherry for volunteering to help me, I'm sorry I never emailed you back, it was just way too hectic!) Luckily, I survived. And tomorrow I'm back to Sapphire's gown.

This weekend (it ends today) was "Under the Redcoat" at Colonial Williamsburg. It's a mass re-enaction of when the British took over Williamsburg during the Revolutionary War. Lots of people come and dress up.

It's fun. Especially Saturday night, but that's a different story. This is about how my new stays changed my shape so much that nothing fits me anymore and the only thing that probably would fit me is more 1791 instead of 1781. Obviously, that's an issue.

So, not to be left out of the fun, I decided to make myself a gown.

In a week.

Do you know how long it takes to hem a 240" petticoat flounce on 2 sides?

A. Long. Freakin'. Time.

Long time.

Sarah, the apprentice Milliner/Mantua maker, did my draping and I did the jankiest sewing of all time. She also was sweet enough help me sew one evening while we watched House of Elliot and ate pizza.  My friend Katie who came down from DC to surprise indentured servitude and sewed the hem to the gown. I need to point that out to you, because if I don't. She'll hate me.


But it came together at 12:30 yesterday afternoon. I didn't have time to trim the gown properly as I would like, but I did put my necktucker and elbow ruffles in to make it fancier and prettier.

Overall I'm happy with it and the fit, there were some stupid mistakes and things I needed to fix, but I was pulling 17+ hour sewing days (I sew at work all day) and I have a cold, so it was just a miracle that I didn't actually keel over.

The fabric is a changable silk taffeta for the gown and a silk satin organza for the petticoat. Everything is hand sewn. And all fabrics (minus the hat) come from Burnley and Trowbridge.

I am their walking advertisement.

The gown is an English gown with a fitted back with center front closing. The skirts have been tied up in the back and I have a bum roll underneath to help hold out the fabric. The hat is not mine, I borrowed it from the Margaret Hunter Millinery Shop. I'm sorry I don't have more pictures. I was totally spaced, and as a CW employee and not a re-enactor (even though I was on my own time in my own clothes) I didn't walk around taking pictures, etc. There are rules about that sort of thing. If more photos of me and the girls pop up from our afternoon walk, I'll link them up.

Finally, if you want to check out more photos of the Silk Saturday Walk go to the Marget Hunter Millinery Facebook Page. Sarah has been awesome and has already posted photos! 

Alright...that's it for now...I'm going to go back to eating ice cream and watching movies in my pjs. Apologies for the choppy blog post. That's kind of how things are working for me at the moment....