Thursday, February 23, 2017

Finished Civil War Cold Weather Things

I figured I better blog these before I have lost all interest in them. I finished both my mantle and winter bonnet last month and had optimistically hoped for at least a little bit of snow on a day I was available to take pictures. The snow never materialized, winter seems to have departed hastily and now we are enjoying summer-like temperatures (wut?) so these, taken during an outing a few weeks ago will have to suffice.

I am very happy with how both the bonnet and mantle came out. The colors are not ones I would have chosen if I had been able to get all new materials. But considering these were basically free projects that made use of some leftover scraps, I could not be more pleased. The mantle is very warm and it is moderately heavy. It was almost too warm on the day these pictures were taken. Although I was down by the water and there was a nice breeze it was still not quite cold enough!

The bonnet is quite light and since it is not made of wool it is not as toasty warm as the mantle. This works out well, though, at least for this year! I like this style quite a bit since it is close fitted and very snug. The shape is nice, too, and doesn't make the face appear so narrow as other styles of the period. I ended up edging it with cream silk ruching which softens the lines and helps tone down the olive green of the main fabric.

I wore leather gloves and a took a muff - both completely unnecessary. I will have opportunity to wear these again next month if it gets cold again. Otherwise they will wait to be worn until fall.

One nice thing about clothing from this period is that it does not need to match or even coordinate. I wasn't sure how this would all come together but I think is, in the end, pleasing.

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