Wreath Making

We are on a rather strict budget so as the holidays approach I find myself not able to spend much on decorations. And honestly, when I look at the decorations within my price range I'm not impressed with the quality or overall look of most of them. Nice things can be had at second hand stores but I don't often get to the second hand stores to look. (We did find a lovely nativity set for $2 at a thrift store this past Monday, though! It has a candle behind the manger where baby Jesus lay and I can't wait til we light it!)

We had a few days of nice weather this week so a few days ago David and I were able to get out and go hunting for decorations from The Wild. We had a wonderful time although we were somewhat cold and we found a lot more than we thought we would. We found all of these things locally, mostly around the edge of the woods at a local park.

Here are the results, after being sorted and somewhat organized on our old kitchen table, which is now on our enclosed side porch:

What we found: (and alas, I know not the technical nor scientific names of most of these things, so bear with my labeling)

Big Red Berry Clusters, from a Thorny Vine

Tiny Red Berry Clusters, from a different Thorny Vine
Purple-Pink Berry Stems from a vine intermingled with the abovementioned Thorny Vines
White Berry Clusters, from a Tree with Red Stems
Red Berry Clusters from a Different Tree
Deep Red Cone-Shaped Things That Grow on Trees
Dried Grasses, Assorted
Dried Mustard Yellow Blossoms
Dried Things that look like grain in long stems
Assorted Dried Blossoms that are probably Weeds, but look Pretty
Dried Queen Anne's Lace Heads
Two kinds of Greenery, one long-needled pine and the other - unsure of correct name. . .
Big Pine Cones
Little Pine Cones

I decided to make wreathes since I have a little experience with attempted wreath making in past years. None of my previous attempts ever came out well, so I took a new view of the project and came at it from a sewing perspective. The frame and wiring of the greens is like the construction of a basic gown. The decorative things added after the basic wreath is made is like trimming a dress.

To make the basic form, I used some of the pine sticks left after I cut off the greenery and tied them together in a circular shape. I used basic twine for tying and cut the ends off. I used 3-5 sticks per wreath (so far I've made three). Then, it was just wiring on the greenery. I used florists wire that we got for free earlier this year to do my wrapping. I wrapped the wire around the form, adding greens to the sides and front as I went.

Here is one wreath with the basic form done:

After that, I laid out my pine cones on the wreath to decide where I wanted them and how many I wanted to use. I used the little cones since I'm saving the big ones to do a plain pine cone wreath later. For the long-needle pine wreath I glued the pine cones to wire and stuck the wire into the frame, but for the shorter needle greens I just hot glued the cones directly to the wreath.

Then, it was just a matter of laying out decorations and arranging them how I wanted, and gluing them down. Simple, easy and completely free!

Here is the finished wreath I made earlier today for our living room. It has small pine cones, purple berry stems and mustard yellow blossoms and white berries arranged on it, with strands of things that look like seed stems sticking out at the sides.

Here is another one I made this afternoon that is more "holiday" looking, with red berries:

(sorry the pictures are not of the best quality, and the colors are washed out. The lighting was not that good when I took these).

I can't wait to make more in different sizes and using different materials! The best thing of all is knowing I can make something pretty for our home that doesn't cost us anything but spending a little time in the creation.

Love,

Sarah

$10, 2-Hour Dressform

I have long wanted a dressform, but due to the high prices of new ones and the somewhat bad reviews I've heard of the cheaper new ones, I have long thought that a dressform was not in my near future. I put out wanted ads for old ones, looked at thrift shops and garage sales but antique ones were often as much as new ones and thrift stores tended to want to keep the ones they had, to display things on. I made a duct tape dressform once, with the help of my mother. That kind of flopped. Literally. The duct tape figure was really heavy and it was almost impossible to stuff and when at last I got her nearly done, the figure was not at all the same as mine and the measurements were off. She died a quick and painless death.

After brainstorming a bit I recently came up with the thought that I could make my own. Why not? It seemed simple enough. A stuffed figure the shape of a woman, a pole or rod for her to stand on, and a stand of some sort at the bottom to keep the whole thing secure.

So, here are the results of my brainstorming, $10, and 2 hours of work! Meet Miss Mattie, a.k.a "The Naked Lady".

What I used:

Pattern:

Since I didn't care if this dressform was an exact replica of me or not (I plan on using it mainly for display purposes), I used a basic dart fitted bodice pattern (From my 1950 dress pattern) as a base and went off that for my pattern. Below is a quick drawing I did to show how I altered the base pattern pieces. I changed the darted front bodice to princess-seam and added length at the bottom and a high neck at the top. I also made the shoulders a bit wider. I did the same for the back, except it did not have a dart so I did not have to princess seam it. If you don't have a dart fitted bodice pattern to alter I'm sure you could get one at any store that sells patterns. A princess seam sheath type dress pattern could also work very well and that was my plan B, if plan A didn't work. If you want the dressform to be a replica of you, I'd make a muslin first out of the altered pattern and fit it to you smoothly. Use the fitted muslin as your final pattern.

Fabric:

I used about 3 yards of natural muslin for my dressform. You can get this at Jo Anns for under $1/yard with a 40% off coupon. I suppose you could use anything that is sturdy and even weave though. You could even make the form out of two layers of fabric with the even weave fabric as the bottom layer and a decorative fabric for an outer layer. I'm not fancy, so I just went the plain way. :)

Stuffing:

I used about 45 oz. of poly fiberfill stuffing for mine. I got 3 bags of 20 oz. stuffing at Jo Anns for 50% off and used all of two bags and just a tiny bit of the third bag.

Pole:

For my stand, I used a heavy cardboard tube, the kind you can get home dec fabric rolled up on at fabric stores. This worked very well for me, and was free.

Stand:

My darling husband kindly dug out our Christmas tree stand from the storage unit his mom has. We used this the first year we were married and we haven't used it since. It worked perfectly for supporting the cardboard tube and is very sturdy. It's not the prettiest thing in the world so I will probably make a skirt type thing for the bottom of it to cover the green plastic and metal, eventually.

Construction:

To make the form, I cut out my pattern from the muslin and sewed the pieces together, leaving the bottom open. I added a short standing collar to the neck at the last minute since I thought it would look better. To finish off the neckline and arm openings I piped around the raw edges and sewed in a slightly oval-shaped circle to keep the figure of the form. The ovals were slightly bigger than the holes they were sewed into so needed to be eased. This created a nice rounded fullness at the neck and arm openings that seem more realistic to me than a flat surface.

The longest, most tedious part of the construction was stuffing the thing. I used very small amounts of stuffing at a time and carefully tried to smoothly stuff the muslin shell. It took me the better part of an hour to get her as I wished her to be. I stuffed from the bottom, inserting the pole once I got the neck area stuffed. When I got near the bottom, I turned under a 1/4" seam allowance all around the bottom opening, pinned up the hip edges to within 2" of the center area where the pole was, and stuffed the hips. Finally, I stuffed the crutch area and slip stitched the opening shut.

After that, it was a simple matter of inserting the pole into the Christmas tree stand. And there you are! My husband seemed rather impressed but solemnly stated that she needed clothing.

Things I Would Do Differently Next Time:

Next time I would cut the pattern pieces slightly smaller, or take up a bigger seam allowance since the finished figure has measurements that are a bit bigger than my own. Although she is definitely squishable enough for me to put my gowns on her, she definitely fills them out well.

To make a more pronounced derrierre, next time I would take out a dart at the waist of the back pattern piece to create more fullness below the waistline. Since this is a display-only dressform it's not critical right now, but its something to keep in mind for future forms that may need to be made to a certain type of figure.

I also cannot figure out how to make the form anything more than an A-cup. I honestly have no idea, so if any of you know how I could do this, I'd LOVE the information! :) In the meantime, she'll be undergarmented and padded out if needed!

It's nice to have a dressform at last, but also a little startling to catch a glimpse of a figure you are not accustomed to at odd times during the day!

Love,

Sarah

1820's Dress Details

As promised, here are the construction details/notes/pictures for my 1820's dress. I was pretty happy with how it turned out for my first try at recreating clothing from this decade. I *really* love the overall style, the flexibility of overlapping styles and the complete wearability of this style for every day. Now that my dress is done, I can't wait to go to New Salem and pretend I really live there as I walk around. Our trip there will probably have to wait until next spring :( but by then hopefully all five of us will have appropriate attire from this era!

Dress, Overall View:

I wanted to make my dress in a style that was representative of the gowns worn between 1825-1830. I chose the later in the decade date since that is the time a lot of settlers were coming into Illinois in the counties near us. Most towns near us were established in the early 1830's, but in order for there to be a town, there must be early settlers, right? :)

The overall style has the transitional sillhouette I fell in love with. The bodice is slightly shorter than the natural waist, but longer than the very high waistlines of the early 1800's. The sleeves are moving to the big sleeve styles of the 1830's but are still graceful and not too enormous for everyday wear. The skirts are plenty long enough and full enough to be modest and feminine yet not so full as the later skirts of the 1830's and 1840's and not as slim in the front earlier in the 1800's. My dress took 5 yards of fabric, which is a modest amount for a historical style dress.

In looking at original dresses when coming up with ideas for mine, I was shocked at how many options there were for different features like neckline shapes, sleeves and decoration! On my dress, I used the machine for hidden seams but any seam that could be seen from the outsdie I did by hand.

The Bodice:

The bodice of my dress was based on the pelisse-robe bodice in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion. I chose this style because the pieces looked basic and easy to work with and the bodice had a front opening - something important to me since I breastfeed my babies and need access! :) I used the lining pieces of the pelisse robe as my basic pattern, and altered my fitted Civil War bodice pattern to approximate the look. All I had to do was shorten the bodice by a few inches, and move some seams to be in the appropriate places and add some seams at the back bodice. I also trimmed the shoulder line so that instead of an 1860's dropped shoulder, I had an armscye that sat right at the point between my shoulder and arm.

To construct the bodice, I cut the pieces out of my fashion fabric and white cotton for lining. I cut the back bodice in four pieces; two side pieces and two center back pieces. I put the seam down the back as an accident. I forgot to put the pattern piece on the fold when cutting out my fabric so it was a necessity! The lining does not have the center back seam, however. I treated the fabric and lining as one and sewed them together at the back seams, the side seams and shoulder seams.

After studying pictures of some original gowns, I decided to pipe the slanted back seams and the shoulder seams. I didn't pipe the side seams since I couldn't actually see the side seams on most gowns I looked at and I figured piping at the side seams would add visible bulk to my sides. The neckline was cut in a shallow V shape and piped, and the bodice was piped at the center front opening. The seam allowance of the piping strips were folded under and slip stitched to the white cotton lining.

Finally, I added a waistband. I did not pipe the waistband since I couldn't find pictures of original gowns with piped waistbands and there were no descriptions of piped waistbands from this period in Janet Arnold's book. Since I wanted to make my bodice with a dog leg closure (front opening bodice but side opening skirt) I measured around my "waistline" (where the edge of the bodice hit) and added a few extra inches so the waistband could wrap around me to the side, where it would later fasten. I cut another waistband of white cotton and it was secured to the fashion waistband by topstitching on all sides. The bodice fastens with hook and eyes and is darted on each side in the front.

The Sleeves:

I originally planned to make sleeves from the pattern for the pelisse-robe. I measured and cut and - the sleeves were too short and the puff at the top was non-existent! I had some temptations of just cutting the sleeve to 3/4 length and calling it good but at last decided I really had to try to make the sleeve work. I ended up cutting an upper sleeve and gathering it to the original sleeve. That worked really well for the puff at the top of the sleeve but it also made my sleeves too long. Since I had already piped my cuffs and sleeve seam I didn't want to cut off the hem and redo all that so I tuck up a diagonal tuck in each each sleeve.

They are still a bit too long so I plan on securing the excess sleeve length with a few pieces of twill tape so the sleeve will hang at the right length. In the meantime, just pushing the sleeve up so the lower portion fits my arm tightly works very well. The sleeve has a lining of white cotton and is piped and finished like the bodice. The cuff closes with hook and eyes.

The Skirt:

The skirt was rather problematic at first. I found many pictures and fashion plates of 1820's gowns but they all seemed to have a common feature and that was a smooth, plain front skirt. Since I'm pregnant I had to compromise a little and figure out how to add extra fabric to go across my tummy. At last I settled on cutting the skirt front in 3 gores so I had maximum fullness at the hem and minimal fullness at the waist, but I did have enough extra at the waist to lightly gather the skirt to the front of the bodice. The back skirt is a rectangular panel of fabric, cut to length.

The pieces are seamed together and the opening for the bodice is at the seam between the side-front gore and the center front gore. The hem is quite deep but the skirt was still too long since I used the very scientific method of measuring by holding my tape at my waist, draping it down across my tummy and trying to peer at the number that hit around the right length without distorting the tape - which is hard to do! I had to put two tucks in the skirt to take up the extra length. It could use another tuck, even, but right now I don't think I'll do that since I like the look of just the two tucks.

The Collar:

I don't know if collars were universally worn in the 1820's or not, but my mind has been so indoctrinated in 1860's rules and regulations of proper attire that I felt the dress looked unfinished without one. I used the top collar from the double collar in Patterns of Fashion. The collar was mostly made on the machine, including the hem, so it is not period correct in that regard but I like the finished shape and the ruffle around the edges. Instead of attaching the collar to a chemisette, I just bound off the neckline with bias cut strips of white cotton and that is basted into the neck of my dress, just like my 1860's dresses. I don't know if this is P.C. or not, but it works for me and was a lot less work than having to make a whole chemisette to wear beneath my bodice.

For these pictures the gown was happily modeled by my brand-new home-made dressform, which I can't wait to share with you all in my next post!

Hope all are having a lovely Sunday!

Love,

Sarah

1820's Gown

Well, today was the first day I was able to wear my new 1820's dress. It has ended up taking me a lot longer than I originally anticipated to complete it. I thought surely a few days would be sufficient, but that stretched into a few weeks!

I am writing a post with the construction details, for those of you like-minded historical-fashion lovers who might be interested, and will get that posted as soon as a I finish up the dress form (hopefully tonight!) so I can take pictures of the gown on it.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures we took today. Forgive my rumpled skirts and tired expression. We took these after being gone to town for many hours. I did not know the skirt hem was so uneven, on account of Baby, but hopefully everything will be straight and proper after the birth. This one is carrying higher now, and at my prenatal appointment recently I was told the baby has very little room left. 9 weeks to go!

I look forward to a comfortable homey evening tonight with beef stroganoff for supper, little ones curled up on the floor with blankets, books and teddies, and sewing projects and a husband who wishes to watch a movie with me tonight. Master and Commander, anyone?

Love,

Sarah

1820's Gown and Other Random Items

What happens when passion, inspiration and practical application all meet - crash - head on?

A new dress, of course! :) (to the right: original gown from Vintage Textile that first inspired my gown)

I have been plotting an 1820's gown these past two weeks now. David bought some some cotton print a few months ago that he originally intended for a Civil War style gown and my original intention was to make a modified 1850's fan front dress with it to wear to pre-war events. (one gets tired of making regular gathered bodices, you know?) However, now that I have two very servicable and fairly new cotton gowns and a silk and a wool gown I really don't *need* another reenacting gown and so David consented to my making an 1820's gown out of said fabric. He is becoming very interested in developing his pre-war impression and is even enthusiastic about this new dress-in-the-works.

My love affair with the 1820's springs from my deep love for New Salem, IL. I recently reread my dear book, Lincoln's New Salem, and the more I read the more I realized how much more opportunity American's had for making something for themselves while they sojourned on this earth. Back then, it was possible for almost anyone to do anything. I think of Lincoln, who learned the practice of surveying over the period of a few months, and was so good at what he did that he was often requested to resolve disputes about boundaries between neighbors!

I have such a huge amount to say about this dress - all the reasonings and speculations and decisions on styles. I want this dress to be accurate to the mid-late 1820's period and something a pioneer lady might have worn when she first came to the very unsettled and wild country of what is now the Sangamon and Menard counties.

One initial problem was the fabric I am using. Although the print seems pretty passable I wondered about the use of a printed cotton that early in the pioneer period. I honestly think wool or linsey-woolsey would be a better, more practical choice but the only linsey-woolsey fabric I could find was $28/yard.

I told David. At first he asked me what linsey-woolsey was. He then looked at me queerly. "You'd rather spend $28 a yard on linsey-woolsey than get some really nice silk for a dress?"

Oh dear. Yes.

Maybe someday. Of course it is foolish to spend so much on fabric for a dress that doesn't even really have a purpose beyond clothing my body for normal, every-day wear. We don't do 1820's events and sadly we don't live close enough to New Salem to even volunteer there regularly. We really, really want to - but so far that is still in our future. And New Salem is mainly 1830's, anyway.

Anyway, to cut short what could be a very long post, I am using my cotton fabric for the gown and used the lining pieces from the pelisse-robe in Janet Arnolds Patterns of Fashion 1 for my bodice. I have the muslin fitted and the material is ready to be cut out. (I have planned on cutting it out every day the past three days but have been busy with other things! Alas!) The pictures in this post are random photos of extant dresses I found while browsing the internet that inspire, one way or another, my finished dress design.

Goal: To have this dress done before Nov. 2nd, when I hope to wear it to a potluck supper we are going to for our Civil War reenacting group.

I think the next few posts will be very 1820's indeed. Besides making the gown, I also need to make a bodiced petticoat to go over my short stays and shift. I want to sew it all by hand but think in order to meet my deadline I will have to machine sew the inner seams and just use hand finishing on the exposed seams. It is a painful decision but a practical one.

And for the guess-which-one-is-false post I posted a few posts below, I have updated that with what is really true and which one isn't.

Glorious autumn day to all! We are supposed to get snow today!

Love,

Sarah

Piecing and Quilting

Last night I finished piecing little David's quilt just (barely) in time for his 2nd birthday, which is tomorrow! I am so glad to have the piecing done at last and can't wait to finish the entire thing so it can be used. I sewed it all by hand and feel really fulfilled in seeing this take shape before my eyes. I seem to be slowly weaning myself from the machine. You just have so much more control over your seams and matching up points when you hand sew, plus you can take it with you anywhere.

I began this quilt top about two and a half years ago when I was 8 weeks pregnant with my little son. At the time I was fairly despondent as I had recently lost my first baby and was worried about loosing the new precious little life I carried within me. My mother had me pick out some fabric and bought it for me and told me to make a quilt for the baby. How wise she was! It was just what I needed to get my mind off the unpleasant possibility of miscarriage and looking forward to the joys of a new little one. Since I didn't know at the time if I was having a girl or a boy I chose colors that could be either-or.

The quilt is shown on our big bed but it is only a twin size. At least, I think it is a twin size. Does anyone know the standard dimensions for a twin size quilt? And should I use a printed fabric for the backing or white? And should it be tied or quilted? I am not sure what would be the best to do!

Of course, now that THIS quilt top is done, I am planning out another one for me and David using all my horded dress scraps. My goal is to use up all my scraps and to get the top pieced before the new baby arrives. Problem: I am using the Drunkard's Path block and I did the math yesterday and I have to cut out 1,302 pieces before I can even start the piecing. How long will THAT take me? I guess now that the boys are napping I better start!

Love,

Sarah

Dressed For the Photographer

Well, not quite yet! I still need to finish the skirt (which I have to have done by tomorrow!) but this is the dress I am planning to wear when we get our period photo taken. I initially thought I did not have to have it done until our final event this year which is still two weeks away but on Tuesday night I found out that we are going to a living history tomorrow and I wanted a nice gown to wear. So, I buckled down on Wednesday and dove into making this dress at last. I've had the wool since very early this year! The stripes are not as small as pinstripes but from a distance they do blend in nicely with the fabric to be a silvery-black shimmer. I do like this fabric a lot!

The bodice is done, except for the hooks. Black hooks are impossible to find locally anymore! And of course, as you can see, it needs a collar and some undersleeves. I'm using my lace trimmed collar and undersleeves for now and they are as I write this soaking hastily in a bowl of detergent. I wore my silk dress with these undersleeves and collar on Sunday and they were a big grungy on account of being worn the entire day!

I originally wanted to make this dress with a small jacket over top of it but after looking into this style more, I found that most often a dress was trimmed to look like there was a jacket being worn. Well, that made things a lot easier! I used my basic fitted bodice pattern and lengthened the front a bit to make a shallow point and I added a peplum/postillion to the back. This was a lot of fun since I have never made this style before. I spent a while trying to decide on an appropriate sleeve but at last went with a two-piece coat sleeve and trimmed it with green/blue silk. I used the same silk to trim the bodice, and plain blue for the bow at the neck. I really want a nice brooch so that is on my Christmas wish-list. :)
I have also been working on a little girls dress for a young lady in our reenacting group. I was quite stuck on what size to make so at last sized up the pattern I used for the boys and I am anxious for tomorrow as the moment of revelation. Will the dress fit?
I used a heavy pink striped seersucker for the dress. It is not the best choice since although seersucker was used for clothing during the 1860's, it is not documented to have been used for dresses. It is, however, a fabric I had plenty of and since I do not know if this dress will fit yet or not I thought it would be all right to go ahead and use it. If it does fit, I can make another dress from a more appropriate fabric. It is a very thick fabric and has very nice body to it. And a big thank-you to Mrs. G for the pretty pink silk ribbon trim at the sleeves!
I actually broke down and did buttonholes on this dress, instead of taking the easy way out and using hook and eyes. I hate making buttonholes. And now I am refreshed as to my reasons why! :)
It is COLD. Hope you all are keeping nice and warm!

Love,

Sarah

Vermillion County Civil War Days

Back from a lovely weekend! It is, on reflection, a bit of a let-down in some ways to come back to "real life" after an event. There is the unpacking, the inevitable things that need mending or fixing, the laundry, the cleaning of other supplies. On the other hand, it is incredibly precious to have the memories, the talking-over of the weekend with a Beloved Husband, the friendships that were formed or strengthened, the good feeling of satisfaction and comfort in knowing there are other like-minded folks out there who hold dear the same values and the same interests and the same way of life.

We were blessed with wonderful weather. The nights were not terribly cold and the days pleasantly warm. The boys only wore their wool gowns for a few hours Sunday morning before having to be changed into their summer dresses!
Saturday greeted us with awakening very early to head over to the event, since David was forced to remake our new rope bed Friday afternoon/evening due to some warping issues with the lumber we intially used. Rather than set up very late at night we decided to go to the event Saturday morning. It was a compromise; we didn't want to miss the first evening there but by staying home we were able to relax a little and watch the debate between Sen. McCain/That Rat Obama and awoke refreshed for the weekend.

Our camping location was right next to a beautiful geometrically laid out raised herb garden. The smells that wafted into our tent were absolutely delightful! There were all the common herbs as well as flowers and tomatos and David brought over a handful of what he said were hops, to show me. He said they give flavor to some sort of alcoholic beverage. They had a very strong scent indeed!

Little David enjoyed walking the intersecting pathways and it was pleasant to have him so interested in an area so close to our camp. Katie, the little granddaughter of our hospital steward, played with the babies and followed little David where'ere he went.
We brought a wood and canvas frame cot for the babies to sleep on this weekend. It was an experiment for us. I was not sure if they would do well with an open bed since they are accustomed to sleeping in their cribs, or on the ground in a puppy pile at events but they did very well with the cot and I was glad to have them up off of the ground. Judah slept at one end and David at the other, with their feet in the middle. David enjoyed the cot since it was so narrow and snug and took advantage of that for a nap Saturday afternoon.
Judah and I, while David napped, were invited to participate in the fashion show, held in a gorgeous wood gazebo. We had lemonade and cookies and waited in the cool shade with the other ladies until we were called up. Juhah flirted shamelessly with all the ladies and had his picture taken for the local newspaper. The next day we got a copy and his picture was on the front page, along with the inner location of the article! His picture was also the largest photo in the article. :) This time, the news reporter did NOT botch up what I told her and I was altogether very satisfied with how the article was written. Much better than last year at Princeton. In the afternoon I spent a great deal of time at the farmhouse that was a street over from our medical camp. There was a pretty arbor covered in shady vines that the boys played beneath and a large yard fenced in where they could run and play without me having to worry about them running off. It was nice to sit on the porch and talk to the passer-bys as I felt it was a more fitting location for me than the medical encampment. I was able to pretend I was the mistress of the home with my children and the army was moving through my town, the battle taking place a few fields away. It is nice when events have atual historical buildings so such a thing is an option to portray. Katie gave little David a green balloon, which he Dearly Loved.
The photographer was not at the event so we asked a reenacting gentleman to take a picture of us as a family. It is not nearly what we wanted or had in mind but at least it is all of us together! :) We think the photographer will be at our final event in three more weeks since it is close to his actual location and we plan on getting our photo done there. (and yes, I do need to make a longer collar for my blue dress, and no, I don't plan on wearing this one for the pic! Yikes!) :) It does work VERY well though for keeping signs of Baby Smudge from disfiguring my gown since the dark colors are so very practical.
On Sunday morning we awoke early. While David helped open the church building I took the boys for a walk before services started. My dad let me use this little wagon to pull the boys in. It is not period correct and we have to paint over the "radio flyer" words but it was hugely helpful to me and a better option than our double stroller. The boys enjoyed riding in it as well! Hopefully over the winter we can get a period correct wagon made for the boys. It is almost necessary to have, especially since I will have the new baby next season. Just prior to services, David had the privilege of ringing the bell to call the worshipers together. He rang it twelve times, once for each disciple. (although on reflection it could also have been once for each tribe of Israel?) The service was quiet, sober, yet full of joy and gladness. David and I both felt that this was the first time in a very long while that we have actually worshipped, as a body with other believers, in a church setting. Since leaving our old church (for many different reasons) earlier this year and off-and-on atttending a different nearby church we have not felt so settled nor so happy to be in a place. The preacher gave out the gospel fully and with no restraint. To hear again of the love our Lord has for us was humbling and convicting.

After the service the reenactors mingled in the churchyard. David spoke with the President and the President's "staff".

There was not much on the schedule for the afternoon but David and Maj. Ron, the surgeon, planned a small scenario for a pre-battle demonstration. David gathered up a few willing victims and worked on his wounds. Meanwhile, I examined the medical instruments, papers and medicines laid out.
At last the crowd had gathered and before them three men had puss cleaned from their wounds. (speaking of which, the "puss" used is really tapioca pudding. Judah saw his daddy using the puddy to make a wound and was unhappy because he could not eat it!) We headed up to the battle after that but I soon had to take the boys to a more shady location. We spent a while in the pleasant tranquility of the school yard and David explored the edge of the woods while Judah amused himself with the crunchy leaves that had fallen. A functional outhouse was in the schoolyard and was much preferable to the porta-potties since not many people thought to use them.
And thus - we packed up in the afternoon and in the glory of the setting sun came home again.

Love,

Sarah