2018 Year in Review

It's been quite the year!

Not that you could possibly know that, given how little I've blogged...oops. But it's the time of year in which we review our work and reflect on the year to come, so what better opportunity to renew blogging efforts?

This year has been eventful for me in the life-way, which is part of why I haven't been blogging. There's just been a lot going on! And honestly, not a lot of sewing. But I'm hoping that will change with the list of projects I have planned for 2019!

But before plans, the 2018 review...

January 

I got engaged!

March

I made a new silk 1860s ballgown and wore it to Returning Heroes, our annual costume-required ball

I clearly planned to blog about this...but never did

May

I attended the Bath Victorian Ball in a new dress, and I did actually manage to blog about it

Also: I graduated!

July

I partnered with Emily and the Vintage Express to put together a WWII display as part of the Strawberry Banke Museum American Lives event 

We demonstrated a variety of roles people played during the war, and Emily and I focused on women in the armed services. Here I am in my summer WAC uniform looking very warm...it was almost 100 degrees and super humid!

August

I took an adventure to Baker's Island, where intrepid adventuring friends and I mostly survived and entertained boats of tourists! 

I also revisited the Crane Estate for their Roaring 20s Lawn Party

and I did actually sew some things! I forgot. For Gatsby on the Isles I whipped up a quick and dirty 1920s bathing suit...

...and finished this pink striped summer dress I started a lot of years (and two apartments) ago. Whew!

September

Back to Hogwarts (and Knockturn Alley) on a weekend getaway!

October

Mostly October was just work (and work travel), but we also took engagement photos with our AMAZING AMAZING wedding photographers, so I am throwing one in here!

December

December means Fezziwig's Ball! This wasn't an exciting costuming event this time, but that's ok! Because it was a great year for friends both old and new. 

plaid brings people together ;) Hi Kenna!

I AM YOUR GHOST HOST--wait, wrong...hmm.

So that's it! Not much of a sewing year, but definitely A Year. Thank you so much to everyone who has said hello at events or left me notes on Instagram. I love that this hobby is full of such wonderful, nerdy,  interesting people. I hope your holiday season is full of good cheer!

And to round things off...I have set myself what I think is a reasonable list of 2019 projects. I feel pretty on top of wedding things right now, but that house of cards is sure to tumble at any moment. Right? right. So it goes. For posterity, here is what I hope to do (and blog about):

Early 1870s winter ensemble

Regency pelisse 

Tartan 1860s re-make 

Chemises and petticoats (because I realized my go-to 1860s chemise is from 2007...eek!)
Bonus Round: something new for Fezziwig's next year

I always try to set myself a goal in addition to projects I hope to accomplish. This year, my goal is accessories. Not necessarily making them, but at least spending the time to acquire them or alter things to be appropriate. Because accessories really do make the time travel magic happen, and I'm always happier with the dress I've made when it feels like a real ensemble. So let's see how I do with that!

COME AT ME 2019!

via GIPHY

#TBT: My First Francaise Attempt

If you've been here before, you're already aware that I've been diving into my first 18th century ensemble with a low-key, no deadline project to figure things out. Or, rather, we've all embraced the crazy and I'm building a robe a la francaise from the undergarments out for my first time at the Palace of Versailles.

I've been practicing my minuet! (still from Coppola's Marie Antoinette)

Mostly this is my first real foray into the 18th century, but I went through a serious Marie Antoinette phase in high school after watching Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette movie. I read both Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey (the biography that inspired the movie) and Weber's Queen of Fashion, and decided to make my own. It was a bit of a mess. There are a lot of reasons why, but at the time it didn't really matter, because I was frustrated and didn't know enough to problem-solve. The dress traveled with me to college, was worn in various pieces with various safety-pin alterations, and stayed in the collection.

high school goals: Duchess Polignac (from the movie)

At the end of my sophomore year of college, I attended a Dances of Vice event with my friend themed "the enchanted menagerie." Back in the day, DoV events were much more 18th century-leaning, with massive theatrical wigs on very tall, fabulously-dressed New Yorkers...so it was the perfect time to revive the battered francaise. I made a stomacher out of a butterfly brocade remnant, and used the remaining square as a petticoat (but it was just pinned to the panniers, because I couldn't find the matching petticoat I'd originally made). All of the butterflies on the stomacher and petticoat-thing were rhinestoned, many sitting in traffic on the way to NY (don't worry, I wasn't driving!). My friend was already blogging, but I wasn't yet, and so these pictures have never seen the light of day.

my sewing may have progressed but my flair for the dramatic hasn't changed

Have a giggle at my expense (oh man, I've come a long way on a lot of fronts since then), and enjoy!

it's hard to see the rhinestones in the event pictures, but here s an in-progress snap of the stomacher

rhinestoning in traffic!

columns are always good for posing

Exciting News and a #ThrowbackThursday Contribution

Those of you who have been around a while know that I love tartan, and that I often look for ways to add tartan into my historical wardrobe. In order to produce historically accurate plaid clothes, I've also ended up doing a lot of research on how tartan (and other plaids) play into fashion trends throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. I love reading and writing about tartan, and I love sharing it with you!

I'm excited to say that now I'm getting to share all of this crazy plaid love with a whole new audience over at Jezebel/Pictorial! The article itself pulls from some of the posts I've written here, but is updated to reflect the amount I've learned since I started posting about tartan almost two years ago.

Plus, how cool is the illustration the Pictorial team came up with? I love it!

You can check out the article on Pictorial here.

You know I love tartan, but what about you? I'd love to see/hear about your favorite tartans, plaid outfits, or other historical inspirations!

the (Dress Stuart) tartan ballgown that started it all, at Newport in 2012

Underpinnings: My Achilles Heel

I have a serious sewing problem: I always magically lose motivation as soon as I have to make undergarments. Which is probably why I'm still wearing the same chemises and drawers I acquired in high school (with a few additions over the years). My corsets are all in dire shape (they're only two years old, but they get a lot of wear), and I need new ones. I'm also embarking on a new period for the "Mother/Daughter Dress Project" and I need the proper undergarments for 1870s so I can fit the clothes over them.

So of course, I haven't actually done any sewing in a week. Because I have to sew bustle pads, corsets, and petticoats...and I just feel so "meh" about the prospect. So in an attempt to motivate myself and get my project momentum back, I've been looking at pretty undergarments. Here are a few to motivate you too!

Does anybody else have a particular costuming thing that you always have trouble with? Please share in the comments!

tiered whitework petticoat, 1870s

striped petticoat, late 19th century (via the Met)

petticoat c.1875 (via the Met)--interesting ruffle arrangement

pink petticoat with lace, 1880 (Met)

corset, 1864 (via the V&A)

corset, 1890 (V&A)

corset c.1880s (V&A)

I was looking for tartan drawers, meaning the kind you wear (or did in the 19th century, anyways)...I found this instead!

Growing Up Alcott

"She opens the door of one house, and all find it is their own house which they enter, a visitor once said of Louisa May Alcott"*

When I was little my mother read Little Women to me, and when I got a little older I found the Alcott shelf in the children's section of the library. I was hooked--not just on Alcott's novels, but on the period, the family, and the Orchard House. I went on tour several times as a kid: for programs with my Girl Scout troop, with my church's religious education curriculum, with my mom, and eventually with my sister after I gave her my copy of Little Women. That year I was twelve, at the end of middle school and awkward, but I loved history and its living traditions--Plymouth Plantation, Sturbridge Village, the annual Patriot's Day celebrations. So when we went to a program at Orchard House that winter, I was already wondering when I could get a job there. My mother started talking to the woman at the desk, and by the time I finished eighth grade I was actively researching, writing, and training to do living history programs with a volunteer group affiliated with the house.

chasing a rolling hoop down the hill at the front of the house during a program, sometime between 2006-2008

As soon as I was old enough to legally have a job I applied for a position as staff, and worked as a tour guide, living history educator, and eventually "In-Charge" (the guide in charge of opening/closing, managing the day's schedule, and running the shop) every summer, school vacation, and other assorted days until I graduated college. I spent a lot of time in the Alcotts' home--I did my homework there, read through the guides' room library of Alcott-related books, went on my first date on the same paths Louisa and her family walked by the North Bridge--and going back to the museum feels like coming home again. While a lot of the staff has changed over the years, many of the women are still there, and they have been an incredible wealth of encouragement and faith in me as I grew out of that awkward phase into a young professional.

Orchard House c.1865, with Alcotts in the foreground (via Orchard House)

Over the years as I grew as a researcher and interpreter, I became especially interested in May Alcott. Her enthusiasm for ridiculous adventures with her friends, her passion for making beautiful things, and her complete refusal to let Louisa have all of the family glory (she became quite an accomplished artist in her own right) spoke to me, as did her age--May was the only teenager to live in the house (she was 18 when they moved in in 1858). The ordinary adventures described in the papers of May and her contemporaries (capsizing a rowboat, playing croquet, attending costume parties, pranks with her sisters) brought 1860s Concord to life for me, and perhaps more importantly, these stories became my way of opening a path for visitors less interested in the family or Louisa's work (like middle school boys dragged in on field trips). I ended up spending several days off the last couple of summers at the house in Houghton Library, transcribing May's letters from her time as a young adult in Concord, before she moved to Europe to study art. I also adopted May as my favored Alcott when performing living history programs. May, and May's friends, still feel like my part of my social group (which includes several other former Orchard House employees). We had inside jokes that referenced them, we knew told their anecdotes as our own. I actually went to prom with a friend who also worked at the house and sometimes portrayed Julian Hawthorne to my May (they were friends and next door neighbors in the early 1860s). While I spent the school week in the 21st century, I spent the weekends in the 19th with the Alcotts.

playing May for a living history program, summer 2008

detail from a portrait of May Alcott, 1870s painted by Rose Peckham

showing visitors jacob's ladder (as May), 2008

Right now, Orchard House is running a Kickstarter campaign to make a documentary about the house, and I hope you will take a look at the video and donate if you can. The site has been a museum for over 100 years (the centennial was celebrated in 2012), and the story of how the Alcotts have inspired generations is obviously one that I hold near and dear. It's also really interesting, and the resulting documentary would be well worth watching!

at the house for the centennial celebration (in 1900s clothing), 2012

Possibly (hopefully) all this waxing nostalgic has already convinced you the Orchard House is a very special place, and the campaign is worth checking out. Watching the video (which also happened to hit just as I was reviewing my notes for returning next weekend--I have a couple of dedicated Alcott/Orchard House bookshelves at home) reminded me just how special the Orchard House is and how much it truly is a home to me, along with so many others. If you're not yet convinced, then it's time to let the house do the talking. After all, that's who this is all about.

(By the way, if you want to experience the house in person to let it convince you, I'll be giving the Welcome to Our Home tour Saturday September 27th! Come visit!)

Here are a few more pictures from growing up at Orchard House, and I hope you will all check out the Kickstarter info below!

Prepping for a program in May's bedroom, 2010. The bonnet was my first attempt at trimming/covering a hat; it's based on a description by Louisa of a hat May was making (which she called dreadful)

With a Turner painting in the British National Gallery, London, 2011. I met up with another Orchard House guide while we were both studying in the UK for a reunion and quest to find some of the paintings May studied while she lived there.

In the nursery during my last Christmas program, 2012. Hopefully I'll be back this year!

Some friends from Scotland visited while I was working, 2012.

Here's how you can help!





*From the Orchard House introductory video

Inner Monologue: Dressed for Dinner

I don't talk about the modern(ish) clothes I wear day to day, because that's not really what this blog is for. But recently my family took our first trip together in several years to visit my grandparents in Florida. As part of the adventure, we also went on a 4-day cruise. Well, it happens that nautical-themed clothing is a summer staple of mine, and possibly my favorite part of my modern summer wardrobe. (I would say my overall modern wardrobe, but my batman and other superhero items might take the sailor suits on.)

When my mom told me what the plan was, I told her I would have a sailor outfit for every day on the boat.

I'm pretty sure this challenge provided some entertainment to my family, who were super helpful and took pictures of all of my outfits. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great (I don't think I recommend taking a cruise during a tropical storm-turning-hurricane), so these are mostly interior shots. But my self-imposed nautical challenge was too silly and fun not to share!

Day 1

embarking! sailor blouse, denim sailor shorts, striped jacket, and straw cloche

casual dinner: button-down sailor dress c.1980s (shoulder pads removed)

Day 2

formal dinner: white sailor dress, pearls, and red patent pumps

Day 3

we tried to go swimming, but it poured! denim sailor shorts and anchor-printed crop top over my bathing suit

on the (hurricane windy) deck after casual dinner in a navy and white belted dress

 Day 4

I didn't get an outfit picture! But we did take a picture with out waiter team in the dinner room, so you can at least see the bodice of this sailor dress

I hope you enjoyed this snapshot into my slightly silly modern closet. If you have questions about the origin of any of these pieces, feel free to ask!