Soldier Training Camp

Yay for an amazing weekend, spent with amazing people and in a beautiful location. I'm so blessed to have such a great group to reenact with! Warning: a little picture heavy!

Saturday: Still extremely wet and flooded from the severe storms on Friday.

Oh, so many puddles. They played in the puddles all day, came home soaked
and filthy and very well pleased with themselves. 

A very big thank you to the curators of the village for letting our group stay
in the meeting house. It was quite a godsend! The storms flooded the camp area through Saturday.

Apparently camels and horses can get married. Or so he informed me.

Taking a break from puddle playing to have tea. 

Dollies need tea, too.

My little flower-child is drawn to flowers like a bee. She usually destroys them but
this time she was gentle. She is two, now, you know, so maybe she is finally growing
out of her stage of mass flower destruction. 

Corn cooked in the husk - he said it was great!

Judah tested the keys on the piano in the meeting house. It was unfortunately in very bad
shape. 

Puddles, puddles, and more puddles. 

Anne took a turn at trying to play a tune. 

One of the rolled dolls we made Rosie for her birthday. We made these from the instructions
in the American Girls Book  by Miss Leslie. (1831). 

Union soldiers at drill. 

I have not heard my guitar played so beautifully since I was a little
girl and my dad played for all of us kids. A huge thank you to Pvt. E
for his music!

Sweet little Rosie. 

The paths were muddy but the bridge was relatively dry. 

It's great fun to swing on a rope. 

Downtime activities, just like the soldiers of the 60's. 

David only consented to photos if I took a picture of him eating. So, here he is eating a roll!
;)

Sunday: Much drier, breezy and beautiful. So we broke out our best dresses in honor of the day!

She stayed out of puddles for about five minutes! Haha ;)

I made this dress for her birthday but it was too cold for her
to wear it on the actual day. She loves her pink dress!

Anne made a necklace of pink glass beads and I made a
little crown with paper flowers and wire for our birthday
princess.

Anne's dress! I love how these turned out. I got the dotted swiss
on a fabulous sale for just under $2/yard from FFC. It was bright bubblegum
pink so I used dye remover to tone it down. The color came out just right. 

Those curls!

Playing tic-tac-toe with our chaplain. 

Surgeon outside the commandeered hospital. 

Drill

Slightly unhappy toad, very happy Benjamin. 

They think it great fun to wrestle with their older brother. Judah is
so good with them. 

Malachi made a ring out of a dandelion stem and bestowed it upon Rose.

Boys making the rounds. 

Sunday lunch: I made these meat pies and brought them up Sunday morning.
I roasted a big pork loin and shredded it, and slow cooked it with onion, bacon fat and
one lemon overnight.

For dessert I brought up lemon cake, made from an original 1846 recipe. This
cake was very simple but certainly rich! 3/4 lbs of butter, 1 lb of flour, 1 of sugar, 7 eggs and
the juice and peel of lemon.
These cakes were in celebration of Rose's and Benjamin's birthdays, which are only 10 days apart.

Camp

Excuse my horrible hair - I had been playing baseball and my
hair went crazy.

Wild onions/garlic (can never remember how to tell which is which)

Cabin that later hosted the music and dance

Her favorite place!

Playing checkers with the chaplain at the general store.

Anne curiously watches the musicians.

My sweet baby! (who is not really a baby anymore! She is still breastfeeding though, so,
I can count her as a baby til she decides to wean. She is now officially my longest nurser!) 

Punch.

Her very first dance! She was absolutely thrilled!

And, Malachi!

So looking forward to the next event at the end of the month! We've really had a great start to the season. 

Making Petticoats ~ HSF #4 ~ Circles, Squares & Rectangles

Petticoats are really the backbone of mid 19th century womens dress. That being considered, my own wardrobe has really lacked in that area lately. Well, not just lately! I have never had a nice set of petticoats and have scraped by with make do attempts for a long time. I used just one petticoat for quite a few years when I started out and when I was in college I made my first and only set of two petticoats. . .unfortunately, out of the cheapest muslin Jo-Anns offered and so they didn't last longer than a few years.

I love my little daddy long-leg buddy!

I currently have one nice petticoat of Egyptian cotton, that I made when Judah was a baby (I think? It's been so long. . .) and a cotton plaid petticoat meant for use as a work petticoat. They are both many inches too large in the waist now, but I got by with pinning them, always thinking that someday I'd take off the waistbands, gather the petticoats properly and whip them to new, fitted waistbands. But the petticoats are both under 130" in circumference so are on the skimpy side and they are several inches too short.

So, time for new petticoats!

I always check the linens section at my local thrift shop for cotton sheets. I find nice quality cotton sheets fairly often and have used them the past few years to make almost all of the childrens underclothes as well as some shirts. A few weeks ago I lucked into 2 flat cotton sheets, 1 full size and 1 queen size. Everything was 50% off that day, too, so spent less than $8 on both sheets!

The smaller sheet is better quality with a higher thread count and much more body. I decided to use it as my bottom petticoat since the finished circumference is right around 130". The larger sheet is thinner and softer but it sits well over the bottom petticoat. To make them, I tore off the ends of the sheets to even them out and then tore them in half across the width. This gave me two rectangles from each sheet, which I sewed together at the sides. I made a hemmed slit at the center back for the petticoat opening.

I had enough length to make a nice 4" deep hem. I hemmed both petticoats while at baseball games. It's nice to have portable sewing projects! ;)

Then the top edge was balanced by cutting it in a gentle slope from center front to center back. The center front is 2" shorter than the center back.

Then a running stitch was ran along the top edge.

And then the gathers pulled up to fit. . .

And then stitched to the waistband. This was hell. My waistbands are peppered with dots of blood. My fingers hate me right now. This took forever. Even my sharpest, tiniest needles had to fight to get through the cotton. But at last it was accomplished and I was perfectly content with my somewhat sloppy gathers.

The back of the waistband was pressed under and slip stitched to cover the seam allowance.

And a button and buttonhole completed the petticoats!

Lastly, a very good final starching and pressing to make the petticoats ready to wear.

I really, really love the shape these new petticoats give me! It's amazing how much better the silhouette is. My skirts are softer and fuller and I like the rustling crispy sound of the cotton. :) The length is 1.5" shorter than my dress skirts so I have less of a visible hoop line. Petticoats for the win!

I am thrilled to finally have a nice new set of pettis. I can remake my old ones for Anne when she gets a little bigger, or maybe make what is known in reenactor circles as "modesty" petticoat (this isn't a period term, but just something to call a small, short petticoat worn under the hoop). Or use the old petticoat to make a corded petticoat. Or multiple sets of drawers/shirt for the babies. So many uses for old petticoats!

What the item is:

 Mid 19th Century Petticoats

The Challenge, and how this item fulfills it:

Circles, Squares and Rectangles. All the pieces in the petticoat are rectangular.

Fabric/Materials:

Cotton

Pattern:

None, but based on period construction methods. 

Year:

Meant for living history for the early to mid 1860's 

Notions:

Thread and buttons

How historically accurate is it?

Quite so, being constructed using period materials and techniques.

Hours to complete:

About 4-5 per petticoat

First worn:

I'll be using these at a living history this weekend

Total cost:

Less than $10 for all materials, since the fabric was recycled from thrifted sheets. :)