A few random updates

This will be a short post, mostly just to show that I have finished stitching the bottom binding down to the front (brocade) side of one half of the stays.  It was really hard getting the binding to play nicely around all of those tabs (especially stitching in the really tight turns), but I started to get a good feel for it about halfway through, so I think the next one will go more quickly.  I am hoping to get the binding turned and stitched down to the coutil side tomorrow, plus the bottom binding on the other half.  Then I will "only" have the eyelets to sew, and I will finally be done with these stays.

In other news, the fabric for Abigail's gown arrived from India!!!  I feel like I should be writing this by hand in a letter rather than a blog post ;-)  I am really, really happy with it.  If you look at the image shown on the eBay auction compared to the pictures I took of it, there's a slight difference in the saturation of the colors, but that's to be expected both with different cameras and lighting and also with block-printing and dyeing by hand.  They also may have used a photo of a different batch of fabric, but they provided full disclosure that variations might occur in the course of the fabric production process.  It was a little nerve-wracking to place the order not really knowing for sure what it would like when it got here, but to me that's part of the thrill of using period-correct fabrics.

eBay auction photo

My camera with flash

My camera without flash

And honestly?  I actually prefer it slightly subdued.  The colors are still nice and bright, and I love love LOVE that it has three (possibly four?) unique colors in the design (which is much closer to extant examples than the monochrome scrolling floral designs you see nowadays).  The best part is that the reds are more pinky/rosy than orangey/red, because I think rosy/pinky reds are better with my complexion.

And because I realized I haven't shared this yet, here's a picture of the pattern I'm using for my gown.  Since I have 10 yards of this fabric (did I mention it was only $5.50/yd??), I'm wondering if it would be overly cutesy to use it for Ziva's "Nabby" dress also.  I'm sure it's historically accurate that if there were enough yardage left over after making mom's gown, it would be made up into clothing for the little ones.  And even if it's not, I think being in the same fabric might help visitors understand that we are portraying a family.  I will have to think about this one.  I don't think I have a whole lot of other options currently in my stash, and I don't want to purchase any more fabric for this project if I can possibly help it.

Stays are coming along

Wow, it's been almost two weeks since I posted.  But never fear, I have been steadily working on these stays and the finish line is in sight.  I had really hoped to get started on the eyelets by now, but at least I've moved on to binding!

In case anyone reading this blog doesn't know, at the end of February, I started working at a certain well-known community organization and workout facility (you might know its name best as the Village People song that is overplayed at weddings - if this seems like I'm being coy, it's because I think it's best to keep work and social media separate).  I work in the Child Watch area, where members can drop off their kids for a couple of hours while they use the facility).  Ziva comes with me to almost all of my shifts, and she can just play and hang out with the other kids while I'm working, which is great for both of us.  It's not a huge space, so she's happy that I'm nearby, and she'll occasionally check in, but she's usually keen to do her own thing.  That's really the best benefit of working there.  See, employees who work in other areas get 10 hours of Child Watch during their work shifts (whereas I get to have Ziva with me for all 25 hours if I want to), and then all of us get a discount on the daily or monthly rates to have their kids in Child Watch beyond those hours.  Also, employees get a free membership.  And with that membership comes things like swim classes, so I do a parent+child class with Ziva twice a week.  The kicker is, it's 2.5 hours after my shift ends, so I've just been paying for the day rate so she can keep playing and I get some uninterrupted sewing time.  Most of the other staff use their Child Watch hours for exercising - but you know, I'm just that special that I use it for handsewing 18th century stays. I wish I'd started using that time between work and swimming for sewing when I first began this project, because it's super cheap and an excellent use of time!  Ah well.

When I last blogged, I had just finished tracing down the boning channels.  Since then I have:

1) cut and rounded off my cable ties into 28 individual "bones" (all in different lengths, of course - it would have been far too easy if they were all uniform, right??)
2) inserted all of the bones
3) stitched binding by hand down to the top openings of both halves of the stays, and
4) trimmed the tabs at the bottom of the stays so they are rounded instead of squared.

I was going back and forth about that last one, because there are period examples with square and rounded tabs, but to me, rounded is a bit more aesthetically pleasing.  I was terrified to cut them because I'd already put so much work into these stays, but I lined up the two halves and pinned them together so even if I made little mistakes here and there, they'd at least be identical little mistakes!  I just have to keep reminding myself that binding hides a world of sins.

Now I just need to get the binding sewn down around all of those tabs, which will involve lots of futzing and squiggling around corners, but I think I can manage it.  Oh, and speaking of the binding, I was originally thinking of using binding and lacing ribbon in a coordinating but contrasting color like purple, but I couldn't find both binding and ribbon in the same matching shade (why don't these companies use the same dye lots???), so I ended up going with a perfectly matched green for the binding, and then I found this sweet sort of homespun ribbon in a kind of light linen color with - would you believe it - tiny little green accent stitches running down each side!  I couldn't resist.  I actually like that the binding is such a good match, because it's just one nice uniform background color, so I could switch out the lacing ribbon for something a little more flashy if I want to.

After the binding is complete, there will still be eyelets to sew by hand.  Probably about 60 of them.  Yeah, I bit off a lot with this whole project.  I'm going to be borrowing a lot of underpinnings and accessories, and I've hired someone to make a dress for Ziva as "Nabby."  The fabric for my gown hasn't arrived from India yet!  I just got word that it made it to New York, though, so it's at least in the country!

But now let's focus on the good stuff...pictures of my progress!!

Here's the package of cable ties - they're 36" long and 1/4" wide.  They were a little wider than I had expected, so I stitched the boning channels just a tad outside the edge of the lines I had traced.

Here's a cable tie cut down to the right length, and the top sort of shaved down and rounded off (I scraped it against very rough sandpaper, which you can see in the picture above) so it doesn't poke through the fabric.  I cut them with tinsnips, which made the job much easier!

BONED!  In the best possible sense, of course.  Eamon has been saying all along that it's no fun because the jokes are too easy to make.

Here's the boning shown from the coutil side.  You can see that it really gives the stays their structure.

And here's a closeup on the brocade side.  The channels are slightly raised.  

This is after stitching the binding down on the brocade side.  You can see how nicely the binding (which is cut on the bias, or the diagonal of fabric) curves around the shape of the top of the stays.  If it was cut on the straight grain it wouldn't stretch and be this flexible.

Here's the same thing from the coutil side, before folding the binding over and stitching it down.  This is all done by hand because it's too fiddly for the machine.  Not all of the stitches came all the way through, which is fine, it's all hidden anyway once the binding is folded down.  The bias is pre-folded and basically comes down right where it's supposed to on this side, so it's not like you need the hand stitches as a guide.  But dang it, I sewed by hand and I almost never do that, so please admire my hand stitching!!

The bias stitched down, shown from the brocade side.

And here's how it looks all stitched down from the coutil side.  It's a little wrinkly but pressing it should help.

This is a really minor detail, but if you look carefully at the bottom of the stays, this is after I rounded off the tabs rather than leaving them squared at the bottom.

Isn't this terrific for the lacing ribbon?? I just love that little hint of green. I'm sure it won't show (anyone who gets close enough to see it had better know me REALLY well), but I'll know it's there!

They're really starting to look like stays!

I didn't get a chance to blog last night so this is two-ish days' worth of work on the stays.  

Although the pork ramen I had on Saturday in Seattle was delicious, it was very fatty, plus I was not drinking enough water throughout the day, and I was up way too late.  The upshot was, I woke up yesterday (Sunday) feeling kind of yucky.  It wasn't awful, not food poisoning or anything, just tummy troubles that could have made it fairly miserable to be at work all day.  So I ended up calling in sick, and I just drank a ton of water and got some more sleep (thank you Eamon for hanging out with Ziva!!) and finally started to feel better.  Eamon and I kind of tag-teamed the rest of the day with Z so he also got to sleep a bit more, and I was able to dedicate some real time to the stays.  It was very productive, except for the part where Ziva decided that I couldn't cut out my fabric until she got a chance to wear it!

She looked very regal, no?

When Her Majesty was done parading around, I got the fronts and backs of the stays cut out.  It was really hard to get my phone to take accurate pictures of the color - it looks darker in the picture above than it actually is, and it looks lighter and more yellow toned in the pictures below than it actually is!!  In any case, I'm pretty pleased with how the pattern came out.  I didn't try to match it up, I just put the pattern piece down over the folded fabric and hoped for the best.  It's not a directional pattern that only works if the fabric is pointing the same way, it's just kind of a nice scrolling design.   

The two fronts placed side by side, and the two backs.  

Slightly more accurate depiction of the color.  It's really hard!

It's always cool when you discover you already have matching thread for a project!!  I might have to get more, with all of those boning channels to sew, but this is a good start!

Here's when I had one half of the corset (coutil and brocade) stitched together along the two sides, turned and pressed.

And here's the whole thing!  The white showing around the edges doesn't matter that much because it's all going to be bound with binding tape (provided I can find a nice match...or I might go with something contrasting depending on what's available).

Here's the same thing turned around to the coutil side.

Slightly closer up showing the red dotted lines (applied with chalk tracing paper) indicating where the boning will go and where the cuts form the tabs at the waist.  If you really look closely you might see a tiny dot at the top of that rounded part, which is where there will be an eyelet. The strap, which will also have an eyelet, will come over from the back and get tied in place with a ribbon or cord.  I'd like to find matching binding and ribbon, if I can.  Oh, and I intend to do the eyelets by hand.

Tomorrow I will stitch the boning channels, and if the cable ties and sandpaper arrive like they're supposed to, I might even get to start inserting them!  That would be over a week of work on the stays, and I will need to move much more quickly than that on everything else if it's all going to be finished by the first week of November.  Motivation, I've got.  But I've always been terrible at just buckling down and working on something until it's done.  I'm always bouncing up and getting distracted by something after completing a step.  I'm just going to have to get better!  

A tiny bit of progress on the stays

Eamon and Ziva and I went over to Seattle for the day to run a bunch of errands around SoDo - I needed to go to a pottery supply store, plus we stopped in at the Tango Zulu in Pioneer Square (that's the store I used to work at in Port Gamble) and we've both been wanting to go to Uwajimaya for a really long time.  It was a successful trip on all counts - Uwajimaya even had calamansi juice, this Filipino citrus drink that we stumbled upon last fall in an Asian market near our apartment in Groton, CT.  We became addicted to the stuff and were really excited to find it.  Yay!!

The only downside was that we didn't get home until almost 8:30, so I didn't get much time to sew.  My trick of putting the heavy books on the stays mockup actually worked, so they were finally mostly flat and I was able to hold up the boned half to myself and get a sense for how well they will fit, and it looked just right.  Because I don't have a lot of time for this project, I decided not to bone the other half and just run with it since the measurements match mine, and instead of just having lacing in the back, I'm altering it slightly to lace in front too, which is very forgiving.  So, tonight I cut out all of the pieces in coutil, and I'm hoping that tomorrow night I will be able to cut out the brocade and start stitching the boning channels.  Ideally, I'd love to have all of that done by Tuesday so that when the cable ties arrive all I have to do is trim them and insert them.  I do need to get a bunch of matching thread and something to use for binding*.  In the period, it looks like the most common material for binding was actually a long thin strip of leather or suede.  I might have to go with regular binding tape just because it will be easiest to find.  I will also need ribbon or cord for tying down the straps and lacing the corset.  The straps are stitched to the back of the stays and come up and over, and there is an eyelet** at the end of the strap and at the top point of the front of the stays where you attach the strap with a ribbon or cord.

Definitions
* Binding - bias-cut fabric, sometimes folded or double-folded, used to cover raw cut edges of fabric.  Sometimes raw edges are hidden by placing the fabric right sides together, stitching almost all the way around, turning and then closing the opening by hand (this is called "bagging").  But for these stays, I'll just be stitching the two fabrics together only at the center back and center front and then adding binding around the entire top raw edge and bottom raw edge.

** Eyelets - nowadays they are usually made with metal grommets that get stamped into the fabric.  But in the period, they were worked by hand.  You punch a hole in the fabric with an awl, which just kind of moves the fibers aside rather than tearing them, and then stitch around the hole to ensure that it doesn't fray.  Stays were not laced extremely tightly in this period - that didn't come until the Victorian era - but eyelets still need to be strong enough so that the stays can form the desired shape.  I do hope to make my eyelets by hand for these stays, but that's a lot of time I'm not sure I have!  Maybe that will be the sort of thing I'll do in between work and Ziva's swim classes, when I'm just sitting in the car with her while she naps :-/

Featherlite boning is of the very devil

Seriously.  I just finished boning one half of my stays mockup. This is basically "before" and "after" - on the left is the unboned half.  On the right, the boning has mangled the muslin into a curled up mess.

This stuff is evil!!  It comes packaged rolled up into a tight coil and even though I rolled individual pieces around my hand in the opposite direction, AND stitched them down alternating the curl, it refuses to straighten out.  So what's my solution?  I have all these massive reference books on costuming.  Turns out they are not just weighty with knowledge, they are also weighty with weight.  I hope these flatten out the boning a little bit so I can actually test whether these stays will fit me!!  

See, the measurements give for size medium are pretty darn close to my own, but it really is best to try it out with a cheap fabric I don't care about before I go cutting into the pretty stuff.  And speaking of the pretty stuff, here is the fabric I'll be using for the stays.  On the left is the coutil.  There's really nothing that exciting about coutil, it's just a heavy weight, stiff fabric, about half as thick as those canvas bags you have to keep buying at the grocery store because you left your reusable bags at home AGAIN.  They have those helpful "Did you bring your bags?" signs in the parking lot, but I actually need one at the end of my driveway.  

Sorry, where was I?

Ah, yes.  To decide what to use for the outer fabric of the stays, I consulted with my friend Rebecca Maiten, who is a very accomplished seamstress and historical costumer (her website and the link to her Etsy shop is here: Lady Rebecca Fashions).  She steered me away from a printed cotton I was thinking of using, and said that out of the fabrics I already had in my stash, this olive green brocade would be the best choice for the period.  It's a teeny bit lighter in person than in this picture (taken with my phone, because my stupid camera eats up battery power and gave up the ghost) but this is a pretty good representation of it.  The pattern calls for steel boning, but that is apparently completely wrong, so again on Rebecca's recommendation, I have purchased a package of cable ties - like, industrial plumbing cable ties.  They are apparently the best modern alternative to whalebone, which is what would have been used in the 18th century (hence the term, boning).  I remembered reading a dress diary by Jessamyn Reeves-Brown in which she discussed using cable ties for a Renaissance corset. So while her gown was based on styles two centuries older than what I'm making, late 18th century dresses still emphasize an upside-down conical bodice shape that requires light but firm boning, unlike the very curvy corsets that used flexible spiral boning in the late 19th century to nip in the waist.

Now I just need to bone the other half of the mockup, wait for it to flatten (grrrr!), check the fit, and make adjustments to the boning channel placement.  The cable ties and sandpaper (to smooth down the ends, after cutting them to the necessary lengths) will arrive from Amazon on Tuesday.  THEN I will be able to make my stays, a shift, a pocket, at least one underpetticoat, and my gown.  Plus I need to style a wig for myself and make a shift and a dress for Ziva.  Y'know, that's all.  I already have a bum roll (a doughnut-shaped pillow that sits on the hips to fluff out the gown) which was part of my "1776" costume, so that's one thing off my list of to-dos!  Thanks again, Barb!

I did something!

Look, I cut things out!!  These are the pieces for the stays* that I cut out of cheap muslin so I can do a trial fitting before tackling my coutil.** I wanted to trace down the guidelines for the boning channels, but I had to stop here because I couldn't find any tracing chalk.*** I brought a lot of my sewing stuff with me to Connecticut last fall, so my best guess is that it's still in a box somewhere.  Grrrr!  So, this is the extent of my progress for now.  A friend of mine just opened a fabric store in downtown Bremerton, Dylan Fabrics, but like just opened, so she's still getting everything organized and on the shelves.  If she has tracing chalk in stock I will go tomorrow and get some (hooray for an alternative to JoAnn!!)

I am using the "Half-Boned Diderot Stays" pattern by Nehelenia Patterns, which I bought from (guess who?) Dylan Fabrics!  It's a pattern company that is new to me, so I'm excited to dive in.  I also bought the "Open Robe 1730-1760" pattern by the same company.  1760 is a tad early for this specific reenactment, but the Americas were slightly behind the Continent as far as fashions go.  The other thing I like about this pattern is that as an open robe, I can make a few different petticoats**** and switch them out,

Oh, and I almost forgot, I ordered fabric for my gown!  I got 10 yards of this block-printed fabric from India on eBay.  Even if I make the petticoat out of the same fabric, the gown won't require 10 yards, but it won't hurt to have extra in case of mistakes.  I'm a little nervous about when the fabric will arrive, since it's being shipped from India, but even if it's on the later side I should have plenty of time.  I have plenty to do until it gets here!

Here's a picture of the gentleman who portrays John Adams.  He's on the right.  On the left is, of course, the venerable Dr. Benjamin Franklin, with George Washington between them:

Photo credit: IL Martin

Doesn't the green in the fabric I bought match John's suit nicely?  I think it will be a good subtle nod to the fact that they are husband and wife.

Definitions, for those not familiar with sewing and historical costuming terms:

* Another word for a corset
** Coutil is a strong, heavy twill fabric used in corsetry.
*** Tracing chalk comes in one-sided sheets. You put a sheet face down on the fabric and run along the lines on the pattern piece with a marking wheel, and the chalk markings are transferred to the fabric.
**** In this era, "petticoat" referred not to the unseen garments that added shape and lift to the gown (that would be an underpetticoat!), but to the skirt made of fine fabric, intended to be seen in the opening of a split overgown.  It could be the same as the main gown fabric or pull one of the colors from the design of the fabric.

Costuming stuff! Much to do and not a lot of time to do it!

As you may or may not know, last summer I portrayed Abigail Adams in an all-female production of "1776" put on by Reboot Theatre Company, Twelfth Night Productions, and Seattle Musical Theatre.  It was Reboot's inaugural show, and by all accounts a resounding success.  As a co-producer, I contributed funds as well as time and sewing know-how, assisting our amazing, talented costumer Barbara Klingberg. She did all of the designing, I just watched in awe and stitched whatever she gave me to stitch!  She churned out 24 historically correct and beautiful men's suits (cut for women's bodies) - that's breeches, waistcoats and frock coats - plus two elaborate and intricate gowns, one for me and one for Martha Jefferson!  All of this had to be made from scratch because, well, no one had done this before!  As a thank-you for my assistance, Barb gifted me my costume.

And now we're up to speed!  So, last month, I attended the Northwest Colonial Festival in Port Angeles at the beautiful George Washington Inn and Lavender Farm (check it out, it's such a beautiful location!).  I went with a couple of other ladies who are involved in a group called Somewhere in Time, Unlimited - historical costuming enthusiasts covering just about every era that sponsors some events and sends out regular notices about other groups' events as well (there tends to be a lot of overlap with membership in the other groups).  I wore my Abigail Adams costume, and at the afternoon tea we met John Adams and Benjamin Franklin!  The men were both wonderful interpreters and, as we were all also costumed, they set aside the roles for a few moments to talk shop with us (one of the ladies I went with had been Martha Washington the previous year).  John and I exchanged lines from "1776" and very nearly broke out in song.  It was lots of fun!  We took some pictures and chatted some more and they went off to finish out the day.

Well, what this is all leading to is that the gentleman portraying John Adams (who is about to play him in "1776" for the third time) told me about an upcoming event in Phoenix, AZ called Rebels and Redcoats (which goes November 4-6) and he wants me to come and participate and be Abigail!  He's hoping to get me a travel stipend to cover some of the costs of getting there.  Ziva can even come along and be "Nabby," the Adams's first daughter.

All that is to say - I've got a lot of sewing to do in a little less than two months!  As amazing as my costume was for the show, it would need a lot of alterations to make it authentic enough for living history interpretation, so if I'm going to put in the work, I might as well just start from the ground up.  I don't have a shift or stays (the costume had boning in the bodice, making it sort of stays-gown combination) so I will need to make those as well as a gown (and a pocket, if I'm feeling ambitious).  I have the cap I wore for the show, but I need to style a wig.  I also hope to make Ziva a shift and dress and accessories.  I've set up a Pinterest page with some fabric swatches as well as pictures of mothers and children and families to get an idea of how little ones were dressed, and it's kind of all over the place.  Some portraits show the children (sons and daughters) in almost Regency-esque chemise dresses with wide sashes, and others show the more typical 18th century shape - a bodice with a rounded point at the bottom and skirt gathered or pleated to it.  I think I'm going to try to replicate the latter.  But as far as I can tell, most commercial "colonial" patterns for children are of the "prairie" variety, so I'm going to make my first attempt at creating my own pattern for actual clothing.  Like, I've thrown together some pieces of fabric to make caps and aprons, but never for garments.  I'm starting small...literally!!

And finally, I will be blogging this whole project 1) to keep track of my progress and 2) so that I am accountable to myself and to you, dear readers!  I make a lot of ambitious plans and then lose steam, and I am determined not to let that happen.  Feel free to subscribe so you get an update whenever I put up a new post, and follow along!