The Lord's Day

  Sunday. We went to church at a moderately sized CREC service in the interestingly named town of Newport News. We didn't stay afterward; we had some more sightseeing to do. We drove by Fort Monroe, an old military post that has been fortified on and off since 1609. It was one of Robert E. Lee's first postings, and was used all through WW2. It made for an interesting combination of early American through mid-twentieth century buildings. But we were all tired and hungry, so we didn't stay long.

The goal for the afternoon was Bacon's Castle, recently brought to my attention by this costumed photo shoot. We had a very dramatic elderly tour guide who succeeded in putting Mom to sleep, even though the rest of us enjoyed his style. It's an old house.

The house, of course, has been altered since it's completion in 1669. But you can still see the original hand-cut beams in several rooms, and one of the six original seven-foot wide fireplaces.

Stairs. Really cool stairs.

The one-handed antique clock.

Once we got done with the hour long tour we were all just fried. A week full of touring and sightseeing is just tiring! So we tried headed out to take the ferry back to Williamsburg; only, we ended up waiting for the ferry for almost an hour. But we did get back to our apartment eventually! Tomorrow is our last day of sightseeing before we heard out for Presbytery, and I think we'll all be happy for the change. Seeing all these news things is great, but one can only handle so much walking, touring, reading signs, and eating PB&J for lunch.

April Showers Bring May Snowstorms

We had a wonderful break in the cold weather, followed by an abnormal May snowstorm and a great deal of romance(which was mostly unrelated to the weather). I've been preparing for the two upcoming dance performances at the Midlands Renaissance Faire, getting the costumes, and washing, repairing and sewing what's needed. What with the cold weather there's a lot more to plan for when spending the day outside, in the weather, with no electrical outlets. 

 Our 17th Century themed outfits are slowly improving. This year I added three waistcoats and knit hats for the gentlemen. I love the costume colors we get to wear to Ren Faire! Everyone looks so much more austere when we go Regency, but Ren Faire brings out the colors.

Performance, day one: the weather truly was miserable. It was less than 50F, cloudy with a breeze. We had a tarp-encased canopy for in between performances, but we got fairly cold I still got a headache from being out in the weather all day. We ended the day with an interesting interlude at MacDonalds, with a passed-out drunk being awakened by the EMTs. Who knew Bellevue was so interesting?

Sewing Day

Last Saturday was Sewing day 2012 for dance group. Four girls out of ten are sewing their own costumes and I'm sewing the rest, so sewing day was meant to show the girls the ideal and then get them started on their own costumes. Four ladies dressed up for the mini-fashion show, and three of them wore stays. Last year the stays ratio was one to five, and this year it should be three to five. We're slowly improving. The stays are made with Butterick B4254 out of leftover pink linen.

I used plastic zip ties from Menard's for the boning.

I'd like to encourage some diversity between costumes, especially since everyone's using the same pattern. Here we have a Scottish lady modeling one of the rental bodices that I didn't have time to put eyelets in, with both a cheap cotton tartan and red linen petticoat.

The petticoats are pleated on to a simple band and tie around the waist. The bodice is made of brown linen and trimmed with the red. Of the 20 yards of white linen I bought, I have none left; of the 20 yards of brown I have four yards left.

Here is the test bodice. It turned out a little short, but fit well. The bodice is cotton and the gold petticoat is linen.

I wore my white quilted cotton petticoat and a new jacket.

17thC Project

17thC Project is plodding along. I'm not used to dealing with such a quantity of uncut fabric. It takes a lot of time to wash and cut so much material!

 

I had fun dyeing parts of the white material to the bright coral pink, golden yellow, and odd red you see on the left. I also used dye remover on four yards of the brown to soften it a little. This way not all the petticoats will be the same shade of brown. The deeper colors on the right are for the girls who will be sewing their own bodices.

I have three bodices in various stages of construction; five caps and three petticoats. All in all, my bottom line goal is to sew five complete outfits and at least five aprons, five neckerchiefs, and ten caps by late April. I don't doubt there will be additions to the list.

Progress

My test bodice, nearly done. No, I don't have a dress form.

I added cap sleeves and peplum, and finished the neckline and bottom front with bias tape. Bias tape is one of those things I love when it comes to making costumes, so I make allowances for it and try not to think about the fiber content and historical accuracy. In other news, the linen arrived today!

Arrived!

Fifty yards of linen!