My Birthday Dress for 27

A few weeks ago I had my Golden Birthday. I was twenty seven on the twenty-seventh! When I was a little girl my friends all had their golden birthdays and I was envious of that glorious event. 27 seemed an infinite time off. 27 was, well, old.

But now that I have reached that significant milestone, 27 is not so bad. I have my faithful and hard working husband and four adorable (and rambunctious) children. I am still me. Wifehood and motherhood have not altered my personality except to perhaps make me more appreciative of The Moment, as now I see with some sorrow how fast time goes by. I can still do what I like to do. I live in an old country home and I have chickens and a garden just like I always wanted. I have a sewing room and a kitchen to get creative in. Every day is a new adventure. Life is turning out pretty decently.

My birthday fell on Memorial Day. Though a holiday we had planned to spend outdoors the day greeted us with much rain and rain continued til the evening. (We then went for a walk in the woods, but sadly were accosted with swarms of vicious mosquitoes and returned home, peppered with red bites and rather miserable and exhausted.)

I spent the afternoon trying to drape a new dress bodice pattern. Last year I received some striped blue cotton seersucker for my birthday and I never did make it up. This year I find myself in want of a few new summer dresses so I was determined to find a suitable style for the seersucker. I browsed lots of pattern sites and dreamed of dress designs but nothing seemed to really jump out at me until I saw Gertie's post about her new Cambie Dress.

I was really drawn to the bodice style. I loved the fitted bodice and the sleeves were perfect! I looked up the pattern on the Sewaholic website and decided this was the perfect style for my seersucker fabric. Of course, being me, I decided to try to drape a pattern that was similar in style instead of actually purchasing the pattern. I was a little worried this style would not be suitable for my figure since I am more of an hourglass shape than the pear shape the Sewaholic patterns are designed for. If the style ended up not working for me I didn't want to have spent a lot of money on a pattern I could not use.

It was fairly straightforward to drape a basic bodice. It goes to the natural waist and is simply fitted with 2 darts in the front and 2 darts in the back. The interesting feature is the sleeve, which is cut in one with the back bodice and then gathers down to attach to the front bodice. Nifty.

I made a few mockups of my rough draped pattern and tweaked the fit til I was happy with it. Now that this dress is done, I can see a few changes I will make to the pattern before making more dresses. Namely I want more coverage on the arm so will add width to the cut-in-one sleeve. And I need to take in the darts a bit more under the bust as I am getting a bit of wrinkling (having a large difference between bust and underbust measurements is a real pain in the rear end to deal with. Grr.)

Instead of the slim A line skirt or full gathered skirt the original pattern calls for I decided to make my own skirt and ended up with a moderately full upper skirt attached to a fuller flounce at the bottom. I like this style a lot as it does not require much by way of yardage and is just a style I am naturally drawn to. I made it just above ankle length which is just about perfect for everyday use. I often wear shorter skirts, but I love the feminine feeling that wearing longer skirts gives!

I even succeeded in putting in an invisible zipper without having to rip it out and resew it three or four times! Yeah!

The bodice is lined with sturdy white cotton and is also interlined with the same cotton. I knew I would want more sturdiness to the bodice since it is such a fitted style and there is no boning to help it keep its shape. The interlining helps tremendously! The skirt is unlined. The neckline and the sleeve edges are piped with self fabric piping to prevent the lining from peeking to the outside.

All in all its really a perfect dress! I love the style! It's fun and twirly and feels neat and tidy to wear. I cannot nurse in it, which is its only downfall, but as Anne is not breastfeeding constantly anymore (mostly just in the morning, or before she goes to bed at night) I find I can wear garments like this more for daily wear if I feed her before dressing for the day and after undressing for the night. I think this style could be altered to be breastfeeding friendly by making the front in two pieces and having it overlap and button, or perhaps even zip up the front.

I have fabric to make several more though I may change up the skirt styles a bit for the others. In the meantime I am working on a Judy Garland Dorothy Dress for a friend and that is taking up my sewing interest at the moment. It is such fun to see come together!

Love,
Sarah

A Mourning Dress for Anne

Since Anne has long outgrown the below-feet-length white gown of her infancy I have had to pull out some of Malachi's old dresses for her to wear for this reenacting season. With a few adjustments, most of them will fit her fine although it is apparent that she is wider in the waist than Malachi was. I will need to move the hooks on the waistbands over so the edges just meet!

This coming weekend David and Anne and I will be attending a living history event. The boys are sleeping over at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I decided I really wanted Anne to have a mourning gown and at first I was going to sew a new one for her. Time and other projects and a lack of proper materials (it is impossible to find nice quality, light-weight cottons locally anymore!) made me look again at Malachi's old clothes and I pulled out a sheer cotton dress he had worn in his first year.

It was insanely long as Malachi wore it in his pre-crawling days. Anne is now pulling up and standing on her own so I had to take six tucks in the skirt to bring the length up to her ankle. It is still a tad long, but it is impossible to put in any more tucks since I tucked all the way up to the center back opening on the skirt. As long as she does not get much bigger in the waist this dress ought to fit her for quite a while!

The neckline was also too wide, so I took in a small tuck at each sleeve seam. I added some lace to the neckline and made black silk bows from the scraps left from my bonnet to tack at each shoulder. Ta da! A mourning gown.

Well, almost. Children's mourning clothes were often white, with black trim. This gown is not white. It is off-white, which compared to the white it ought to be, makes it appear dingy and old. I am going to try to whiten it with some RIT dye remover. I hope it works! It's not horribly awful as is, but it would look so much better being white.

Underneath she is wearing a shirt, a bodiced petticoat and drawers. I think for the event I will just let her go barefoot as she is used to that and she despises shoes (and even socks) in any shape or form. I am not a fan of shoes on babies anyway as I feel shoes are a handicap to little developing feet and cause them to learn how to walk in an artificial environment. This is one area where my modern preferences are more important to me than what is period correct. I am not sure what to do about her head. She hates hats or bonnets for any extended period of time. I have leftover black lawn from my dress that would make a cute sunbonnet but I do not think she would wear it!

This is another one of those garments that could be mourning, or could be just an everyday style of dress. It is nice to have such versatility!

Love,
Sarah

A Bonnet for Second Mourning

I have finally been getting around to covering a buckram-and-wire bonnet form I made almost two years ago. I am not a milliner. Through attempting to make some of my own bonnets I have gained a very deep respect for people who *are* milliners. It is a completely different thing from sewing garments.

There are lots of layers. It's hard to figure out how they all work together. Judah watched me work on this particular bonnet and said, "It's just like a body, Mommy! You have a skeleton and muscles and a fatty layer and epidermis and dermis."

And something clicked. Yeah! It's like that. Well, sort of. You have your buckram layer, reinforced with wire. You have padding, if needed. You have interfacing, if needed. You have your outside layer. You having lining and facing on the inside. It all works together somehow.

Although this bonnet form was not intended to becoming a Mourning bonnet, it was quite convenient to have it already made and ready to cover when I began preparing to make a mourning bonnet.

Now, a "Mourning Bonnet" per se, isn't exactly what I wanted. I have found it difficult to find any hard-and-fast "rules" about mourning during the 1860's. Some magazines and books give guidelines for dress for the various stages of mourning but they do not all agree with one another. Generally, though, a bonnet of black crape (a thin gauzy sort of material, from what I can find) was worn during Deep Mourning. This would have not had any trimmings except perhaps a band of crape, and the inside of the bonnet, which is typically finished with a white frill, would have been trimmed with crape as well. A woman in deep mourning may have worn, over her bonnet, a very long veil made of crape that covered her to the waist in the front and back. It was all very sober and black and crape-y.

This is one of those "I found it online" images. . .so if it is yours, let me know!

From there, it seems there are less strict guidelines for lesser degrees of mourning.

"The next degree is to wear white collar and sleeves, a bow of crape upon the bonnet, and plain white lace facings, leaving off the crape veil, and substituting one of plain black net. . . From this the mourning passes into second mourning. Here a straw bonnet, trimmed with black ribbon or crape flowers, or a silk bonnet with black flowers on the outside, and white ones in the face, a black silk dress, and gray shawl or cloak, may be worn. Lead color, purple, lavender, and white, are all admissible in second mourning, and the dress may be lightened gradually, a white bonnet, shawl, and light purple or lavender dress, being the dress usually worn last, before the mourning is thrown aside entirely, and colors resumed. " - Florence Hartley, The Ladies Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness 1860

A fashion plate description from 1864 Godey's describes a bonnet for "light mourning" as such: : Bonnet for light mourning. the front is of black velvet. The crown is soft, and formed of white tulle, which is covered with a fanchion of black and white plaid silk, edged with bugle fringe. On the left side of the crown is a spray of white flowers. The cape is of black velvet, trimmed with a bullion of plaid silk. the inside trimming is of pearl color, and white flowers, and white tulle.

And another from the same year: : Bonnet for light mourning. The front is of black silk, with a fall of chinille dringe drooping over the front. The crown and caps are of white silk, trimmed with a chinille fanchion. The inside trimming is white roses, black grass, and white tulle.

There are other references that indicate sometimes mourning was not observed through attire at all, but rather through household practices, or the social behavior of the person in mourning.

I decided to make a bonnet for "second mourning", or a lighter stage of mourning, that could also be used as "normal" bonnet. A plain black silk bonnet (not of crape - it's not even made or available these days anyway) is perfectly serviceable for a woman of the 1860's period whether she be in mourning or not. I also decided to make a veil, since the use of one just seems to indicate modesty and reserve; traits that are desirable for a person who is in mourning. Quiet respect. Because I am not in deep mourning (one in deep mourning would not have gone out to the sort of social opportunities an average Civil War reenactment offers) I am not making the long crape veil, but rather an every-day style of bonnet veil.

So I started covering this thing on Friday and I finished hemming the veil today. I decided it can work for the current Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge, which is something made with rectangles, squares or triangles - one curve allowed. My bonnet is covered with completely rectangular strips of silk with the exception of the back tip, so that can count as my one curve.

Besides the fact that the bonnet is of low-sheen black silk this is no different than any bonnet. (Shiny, showy fabrics were to be avoided during the mourning period.) I decided to add a drawn section to the brim of the bonnet as many original bonnets seem to have a drawn section, plus I just like the look. And it hides any lumps or bumps in the buckram form! I didn't have wire or reed on hand to draw the silk over so I used a cord braided from wool yarn instead. It's a bit "soft" looking, but from a distance is not that noticeable. I padded the form with natural cotton batting before covering it, since the silk is a bit thin. The ties are made from the same silk and hemmed all around since it is hard to find ribbon wide enough to approximate the period look, not to mention ribbon made of natural fibers!

The inside is trimmed with a frill of white cotton and lace. Usually this frill would be made of silk net or tulle, but as that is incredibly expensive these days many milliners use cotton net instead. I, being the cheap person I am, found a light weight lace trimmed dresser scarf at the thrift store. I bought it for the lace since it is cotton and quite pretty but decided the actual cotton fabric was very nice as well. I cut two strips from the scarf, leaving the lace on the edge, and sewed the strips together and then gathered it up and attached it to the inside of the bonnet brim. I had some little white flowers on hand that were perfect for the inside trimmings (not only do these trimmings look pretty, they also serve a useful purpose for these bonnets that are worn far back on the head! They prevent the bonnet from sliding off!) I added some of the green leaves that were with the flowers (originally part of a long floral length) but I may take them off. I am not sure if green leaves were used for mourning wear, and I'm not sure if these particular green leaves are even appropriate. I like how the green, white and black looks together but the more I look at those leaves the more I am not sure about them. . .

The veil is a long rectangle that is wide enough to cover my face in the front and long enough to pin to the bonnet plus some. While original veils were made of net or lace, again we costumers have the problem of not having the appropriate fabric these days! I decided to use black silk gauze and I think it was a good choice. It is transparent enough to easily see through and still offers some privacy and shade.

While many bonnet veils had a drawstring at the top edge, to gather up to fit the bonnet, I decided to just pin mine to the bonnet instead. It's easier and I like how the floating ends look. I have seen veils worn this way in several images from the time period.

I am pleased with how this came out and I hope it gets a lot of good use in the years to come - although not necessarily connected with mourning!

Love,
Sarah

The Challenge: Squares, Rectangles and Triangles

Fabric: Silk for the outside, cotton batting for the padding, cotton voile for the inside lining, lightweight cotton and lace for the inside frill, dotted swiss cotton organdy for the curtain lining and silk gauze for the veil.

Pattern: None. All rectangles! ;) (except for the bonnet tip, but I traced around it to get the pattern.)

Year: Late 1850's/Early 1860's

Notions: Thread, needle, pins.

How historically accurate is it? The look is appropriate. The materials are plausible, although I made a few compromises. The fibers at least are correct. Constructions was done with a combination machine stitch and hand stitching.

Hours to complete: Perhaps eight.

First worn: Hopefully to an event this coming weekend.

Total cost:

New materials for the cover and the veil, about $15. Recycled or stash materials for everything else, about $5. Total cost: about $20.

An 1860's Cage Crinoline, Finished ~ And Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #10 "Literature"

I decided to plow ahead and finish my cage in time for the Historical Sew Fortnightly "Literature" challenge. But now that I finished it, I think I might have had my dates off, as I think it was due last Monday (?) - oh well. I have missed the last few challenges since I have been busy with other projects that didn't really fit in with the challenge themes. This one, though, reminded me of one of my favorite short stories:

The Cage at Cranford

This was written by Elizabeth Gaskell, famous 19th century authoress, who contributed the highly delightful novel Cranford to society and still delights readers today with timeless wit and power of description. The short story details the confusion a fashionable cage created in the humble, modest society of the genteel ladies of Cranford. 

"Mrs. Gordon wrote back to me, pleased, as she always was, with doing anything for her old friends. She told me she had been out for a day's shopping before going into the country, and had got a cage for herself, of the newest and most elegant description, and had thought that she could not do better than get another like it as my present for Miss Pole, as cages were so much better made in Paris than anywhere else. I was rather dismayed when I read this letter, for however pretty a cage might be, it was something for Miss Pole's own self, and not for her parrot, that I had intended to get."

The cage mentioned in the story appears to have been a covered cage, as it was described as hoops of steel "neatly covered over with calico".

Anyway, I finished my cage! Yeah! Go me. I came to hate it before it was done, just because it took so long and I was sick of seeing it every morning, unfinished and taunting. 

I finished sewing the steels into the tapes. After that, I set the grommets for the front lacing. This was difficult. I can't find small grommets anymore at the craft or sewing stores so I had to settle for larger grommets (I prefer 2 piece since they are much sturdier than the 1 piece "eyelets" you can easily get almost anywhere.) 

After that I realized that I really did need to cover all those steels with something besides just athletic tape. So, I sighed and despaired and resigned myself to my fate. I got 18 yards of twill tape and began stitching them around the steels. This would have been much easier if I had covered the steels BEFORE sewing them into the tapes. Note for next time. As it was, I had to cut small lengths of the twill tape and sew them to the steels that were exposed. It took forever. It really did. My fingers kept falling asleep. 

Once the steels were all covered, I cut a length of cotton twill and sewed it into a tube. I pressed the tube in half, wrong sides together, and pinned it around the bottom of the cage, covering the bottom 3 steels. I slip stitched it into place. 

The last thing to do was to attach a buckle to close the front opening. I think I need to take in the front waistband a bit as the buckle is not centered at all when I have it fastened once it is on. 

So, finally, it was done. While I am quite happy with how it came out I think I really feel attached to this cage for negative reasons - I just don't want to have to make one again anytime soon!

It gives a very good shape under my skirts. The finished circumference of the bottom is 102". Even though it is a smaller size, as far as reproduction cages go, it gives a rather large pouf to my skirts. I think this is because the 102" is just below my knee, and the petticoats cover and enlarge that frame, making it appear bigger than it is. If the 102" were positioned lower on my body (like right above the ankle) the visual silhouette of the skirts would be much narrower. 

Thanks to Judah for taking some pictures for me!

Next up: (I think anyway); a collar and cuff set of "clear muslin" for my black lawn dress. 

Love,

Sarah

Here are the stats for the Historical Sew Fortnightly: 

The Challenge: # 10 Literature 
"The Cage at Cranford" by Elizabeth Gaskell

Fabric: Brown cotton twill for the tapes and the bottom "bag"; tan twill tape to cover the steels and 13 yards of 1/4" steel hooping from corsetmaking.com Metal grommets for the front lacing and black cord for the front lacing. 

Pattern: My own. I tried to approximate the look of original cage crinolines. Fairly straightforward construction, but it turned into a very lengthy project by the end. 

Year: 1860-1865. (or thereabouts).

Notions: Belt buckle, thread, twill tape. 

How historically accurate is it? It approximates the look of period cages, and the steel is the appropriate width. Construction was just guesswork since I have never had the opportunity to look at an original cage in person. 

Hours to complete: Too many! Probably at least 50. 

First worn: Today, for pictures. It is meant to be worn for a mourning ensemble I am working on. Hopefully for an event next month. 

Total cost: The steel was about $20, the twill came from my stash and the twill tape and grommets were about $18 altogether. So about $38-$40 when all is said and done. Not too bad!

An 1860's Cage Crinoline, Pt. 1

I've known for a while I need to make a new cage to go under my 1860's dresses. My first hoop skirt was one of those adjustable bridal hoop numbers, that I bought in Billie Creek Village, IN back in 1999. It was actually a not so bad hoop as far as cheapy sutler hoops go. It was cotton and had 6 buckram-covered bones and the only bit of polyester was the lace at the bottom. I was able to adjust the bones to get a tolerable bell shape for my skirts, though I had none of that desirable and ubiquitous "back thrust" that all original crinolines seemed to have. Here is an original 1860's crinoline from the Victoria and Albert museum. You can see how it is definitley *not* round, but with a very specific shape and back thrust:

That bridal hoop lasted me a few years until I wanted to upgrade, then I got the Originals-by-Kay kit. My dad helped me cut the steels and put the thing together. Here you can see the really nice shape that cage gave; this picture is from back in May of 2005 right after I turned 19 (actually the very same day I first met David when he came in to visit that historic site! He was wearing blue jeans and a Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt, had a great big bushy beard and was wearing, to my distaste, sandals. I just don't dig sandals on dudes. Needless to say, he doesn't wear them anymore.)

In various forms, (it was remade several times) that cage lasted me until last spring, when I made the little 5-steel covered crinoline from Costume in Detail, which worked well enough (and is still in fine almost-new condition) but did not really give me the shape I wanted. The loft it gives is quite small and low and although it works great for working-class impressions or for use when I need to have less restriction, it just isn't exactly pretty. It's a period correct shape, but not a fashionable one at all. It is quite utilitarian.

This year I decided I would make a new cage. I ordered 2 rolls of hoop steel from corsetmaking.com and then I thought about how I would actually go about making it. For some reason the math aspect scared me. I had no idea how I'd figure out how long to cut each steel and how to space the tapes that would hold the hoops in place. So for a few months I shelved the steel and worked on other projects.

After Grampie passed away and I began to research a mourning impression I realized I really needed to actually make this cage in order to have the right look. So last week I finally gained a foggy idea of how to construct a cage: Make the tapes that hang from the waist. Sew pockets into the tapes to hold the steels. Cut the steels. Sew the tapes to a waistband. Thread the steels through the tapes. Try on to adjust for fit and shape. Permanently stitch each steel to the tapes and voila! There's a cage.

It hasn't been as easy as that. I decided to use twill fabric for my tapes instead of buying a woven twill tape or ribbon to use as tapes. (What can I say, I'm cheap and I already had the twill on hand.) I decided to go with a 2" wide tape. It seems the width of tapes varies a lot from original to original, but the wider tapes appealed to me for some reason. I don't know why. Anyway, to make the tapes, I tore lengths of the twill 4" wide x about 68" long. I then pressed each strip in half to find the center:

Excuse the faded and stained ironing board cover in the background.  They don't last me long. I need to get a new one.

Then opened the strip back up, and folded each edge in towards the center and pressed:

Then, wrong sides together, I pressed the entire strip in half. This gave me a finished side on both sides and the raw edges are tucked within the strip.

I did this to 7 strips. I was going to do 9 strips but I figured that was overkill. If my tapes were narrower, then I think 9 strips would have been nice. But not necessary with the wider strips and with the rather modest size of my cage.

Then I carefully measured and marked the little pockets I would sew into the strips. This took a very long time to do. My steels measured just under 1/2" wide, so I sewed the pockets to be just over 1/2" wide. Sewing the pockets took a long time too! But finally they were done.

After that, I cut the steels. It was late at night when I started cutting the steels. I was tired but I wanted to see how the cage would look. I decided to go with a bottom circumference of right around 100" (smaller than my Originals-by-Kay cage, but larger than the Costume in Detail covered hoop I made last year) and then decrease in 5" increments from that til I reached the top hoop. I decided to make the top 4 hoops partial hoops, leaving an opening in front. This method enables one to have hoop support springing almost from the waist, while giving you enough room to actually put the cage on. If I made full hoops, the hoops would have to start lower down on the body to enable the lady to step into the cage and pull it up to the waist. You can see the partial hoops at the top of an original cage at Ruby Lane, Here: c, 1863 Hoop Skirt, and in the photograph below:

This was my "main inspiration" cage. And when all the steels were in, mine did look a lot like this one. I wanted more of a bell shape than an A line shape, though. 

After cutting the steels I began to insert them into the pockets. Or, at least, I tried. The steels would *not* go through the pockets. The pockets were just a tad too narrow! I kept trying to force them through, to pull them through with needle nose pliers and to wiggle and tug the pockets over the hoops. The buckram covering on the steel started to peel away and I had not got a single hoop through a pocket. I was about to cry when David, who had idly been pursuing various online activities, suggested I cut the steels into two narrower steels. Modern steels are made by encasing two narrow steels into a glue and paper covering, and the whole thing is covered again with a layer of glue and cotton buckram. So it is possible to slice down the middle of a steel strip and separate the two steels that are inside. I had previously considered doing this, even before sewing the pockets, because narrower steels are more accurate for the 1860's period and seen in almost all examples of cages from then. However, doing so requires having to cover the bare steels with fabric or twill tape or *something* to prevent them from rusting, and I didn't want to have to do that.

David suggested using medical tape, also known as athletic tape, to cover the steels. He brought me a roll and I tried it. It worked! I wrapped a strip of the tape very tightly around the steels, rubbing it down smoothly and here is the result:

I was delighted. I had a sudden renewal of energy, so I covered 3 more steels before going to bed. David let me use his forceps from his medical kit to pull the steels easily through the pockets.

The next day I covered the rest of the steels and put them through the pockets. Here is the cage, with all the steels in, but still unshaped. I am building it on my much-shortened dressform, so I can sit on the floor and work on it easily. That is why the cage looks so long here! In general cages should be about mid calf length. This picture shows the side view, which has some back thrust already. From the front, the look is much more A line.

I made a quick waistband based on the crinoline on. p. 202 in Costume in Detail. The same kind of waistband is on this original 1860-1870 cage from The National Trust Collections.

This waistband has a little  half-oval shaped extension sewn at the center back, to allow for the greater length of the back measurement. From the waist to the ground in the front the length can be several inches shorter than the length from the waist to the ground in the back! This is because of the back thrust. I pinned the tapes to the waistband and tried the hoop on. It wasn't bad! But I was disappointed it was so A-line in shape in the front. The top steel barely encircled my hips. I wanted a more rounded shape at the hips, instead of skirts flatly hanging in a dreadful "lampshade" effect.

Now, it is true that the A-line-from-the-front shape is very appropriate for the 1860's. If you look at cdv's you can easily see many women who have the A-line shape to their skirts:

I have no idea who or where to credit this image. If it is yours please contact me ! I will gladly remove it or give you proper credit, whichever you desire. 

But then there are also images that show a much more rounded shape, with a back thrust that is very nice. (and even hoop skirts that are A line in front can have a great back thrust too, and some that are rounded may have very little back thrust. And it depends too on if you wear a bustle or bum pad underneath, and if your skirts are pushing against anything at the time a picture is being taken. There is a lot to take into account.) But I like the look of the skirts in this image:

Same notation as above - if this is yours let me know! It is one of those  "floating around on the internet" images.

I adore the skirts in this picture. It is A-line, to some extent, in the front, but see how it springs away from her waist just a tad? I like that. It gives much better waist definition! (not that she needs her waist to look narrower in the first place - she is very slender!)

I decided that the final steel at the top of my cage was too small and the whole cage was just a bit long. I ended up cutting off the tapes at the top and removing that smallest steel. The cage shifted up; I had more circumference of steel around my hips and the shape was immediately much, much better. In this front view, it looks more "hippie" that it will when finished. The partial steels want to naturally bow out, but when I add lacing to draw them closer together and keep them flat in front the look will be less hippie.

In-progress. The front is just temporarily taped for now and I need to clip the front partial steels on the left. (or, well, the readers right. The wearers left. :P)

I spent a while after that arranging the tapes. The creation of the back thrust is achieved through the placement of the tapes. If the tapes are equally spaced then the shape will be pretty much round. If you have tapes spaced wider in the back and narrower in the front, you will get more back thrust with a flatter front.

Many original cages I looked at seem to have tapes that start at almost center back then angle to the sides. This "pulls" the steels towards the back, creating even more back thrust. I had fun playing around with it. It was totally un scientific and when I got a shape I was happy with, I tried the cage on again. Love!!

To attach the tapes to the steels I decided to whip stitch the edges of the tapes together, wrapping the thread tightly around the steels when I reached one, then continuing on with the whip stitching up to the next steel. So, all up and down each side of the tape I need to sew. I'm still working on it. It will take a while. I only have one tape sewn to the steels and have six more to go!

After the steels are all secured to the tapes I plan to work eyelets along the edge of the tapes at the ends of the front partial steels, then have lacing in that area to draw the steels flatly and evenly across the front. This technique is seen on the Costume in Detail cage crinoline. I also plan to enclose the bottom steels in a bag, to prevent my feet from catching up in the steels when I walk. This isn't always a problem, but I did experience it a few times when I wore my Originals-by-Kay cage. You can see a similar bag on this original 1860's cage from Bonhams:

I may go over and paint the exposed steels (the parts that are not in the pockets) with glue afterwards, to more firmly secure the tape to the steels. Or, I may cover them in twill tape or something. The tape is working fine at the moment but has seemed to loosen a bit over the last few days. I am afraid of it "sliding" around the steels eventually. At least it was a temporary fix that gave me back my motivation to keep working on this thing.

It's an on going project and is taking a lot longer than I anticipated but I think I will be pleased with the end result.

Love,
Sarah

Grampie

Apologies for taking a bit of a blogging break. I meant to post after our Civil War event last weekend, but my dear Grampie passed from the world last Monday evening and in the whirl and flutter of various emotions since that time I have not been settled enough to write a blog post.

Now, as time goes on, I can take it all in. I can reconcile myself to it. I am still very sad, but now it is a methodical sadness. Not the wild burst of grief that has come in the night, sometimes. Not the tears that swell unbidden when I look at the faces of my children and know that they will never know their great grandfather, at least like I did.

It was not altogether unexpected. He was diagnosed with cancer a little over a month ago. And he was eighty-five. Still, I had hoped to be able to visit him this summer. To let my children meet the man who first showed me the world, barefooted on the beach, watching the waves fall over each other and wondering what lay beyond them. Thrilling to the idea that the ocean connected me to a completely different continent.  The doctor gave him 4-12 months. So his passing so soon was a bit of a shock.

Me and Grampie during his last visit to Illinois, over ten years ago. I think I'm 15 in this picture!

I am preparing a mourning impression for my dear Grampie for the remainder of the reenacting year. It may seem strange, but it does help to have something to *do*. Now that Grampie is gone and his memorial service is over and life seemingly must go on, it is nice to know that I have a job to do; I have things to research and make and I can outwardly show my respect for him, at least in some small way. It is relieving and comforting. Mourning is a process. I think the Victorians had it right; death seems such a quick thing anymore.

Since a woman in full mourning would not have gone into public beyond a very few occasions, I am researching a second mourning impression. The items I am making are not really very different than anything I might wear for "normal" wear, but they will reflect the mourning stage and will be appropriate for normal wear after mourning is over, although perhaps a bit more somber in color and more conservative regarding cut and trim.

I will update as I have things to update on. I'm working on my cage crinoline right now, since I do not have a suitable one to wear with my black dress (I will be using my black lawn for the summer.)

You can see David and his red flag here, and his litter-bearers. 

As for the Civil War reenactment, it was fun! We all had a lovely time and I am looking forward to going to more events as the season gets off to a start. It's nice to enjoy reenacting again! You can see more pictures here: Delevan Civil War Days 2013

Love,
Sarah