Fabric, fabric, fabric

Ah, the joys of finding period correct fabrics at really good prices! I'm one happy person today. We went to Zinck's looking for some good wool for little girl coats. They've usually got some really good deals, but not today. Instead, I found 8-10 period correct cottons for girls dresses, I narrowed my choice down to 2 and these are they:

The bottom brown is a Windham and the middle green is a Solebury, both were $2.99 a yard. The top is a plum that I got at Jo-Ann's a while ago.

Then, I found these! The top 2 are a 55% linen 45% cotton blend, they were $1.99 and $2.49 a yard. The bottom was listed as a "wool blend", the picture makes it look drab but it is really a bright fabric, plum and royal blue stripes on a tan background. It felt like a wool flannel but I only got a yard and a half to use for trim because it isn't 100% wool. Well, I got it home and did a burn test and there isn't any synthetic content at all! It might be a blend but if so then it's an all matural fiber blend! I'm so excited. Oh, it was $2.70 a yard!

School bells are ringing

Here is what we've spent the last couple of days doing. We completely re-painted the livingroom and got the desks set up. A few of the desks I already owned, the littlest and the biggest, but the trio of mid-size ones I found this past week. I'm not an all out desk enthusiast, but for subjects that involve neat handwriting, I really like the children to be properly seated. The problem is that in the winter no one wants to sit at the kitchen table; because we don't have central heat it gets a bit arctic out there. ;-) So, problem solved, hopefully. The minute we got these set up all of the younger 6 children scrambled to find their seat and whipped out schoolbooks from last year and...... started doing school. I guess they miss it, lol.

Hale Farm

We had our first and only event this weekend, the annual Hale Farm reenactment. Unfortunately, the event itself can best be described as mediocre; and that's being kind. Still, I got to meet some people who frequent the Sewing Academy and it was nice to put names to faces. First was Bevin Coggeshall, then Glenna Jo Christen, Bill Clark, and finally Kay Gnagey. Mrs. Gnagey asked the children to be in the fashion show on Sunday to illustrate how period correct children ought to be dressed. They were quite excited to be asked. We videoed the whole thing but didn't take any still photos (sorry Angie ;-) ) Bevin, Chris and Bill brought a croquet set and Tabitha and Rebekah enjoyed playing on the lawn.






As you can see, somebody else thought this was worth photographing, I didn't mean for him to be in the picture but, so it is!






These are some girls who were interested in trying on Tabitha and Rebekah's bonnets. Their Mother hadn't brought her camera so I took the picture and e-mailed it to her.

Done at last!

I decided yesterday so sew a little bit on Tabitha's dress. It was already cut out thanks to Katie. Well, anyway, 3 hours later it was done except for the buttonholes which I did today. So, without further ado, here she is.

Hers was also the last corded bonnet that I had to finish. I was pretty tired of bonnets long before I was finished but they needed doing so........ Suffice to say, I won't be undertaking anymore anytime in the near future!

Rebekah's 8th birthday

We celebrated Rebekah's birthday today, though it was actually yesterday the 3rd. We've had her for 8 whole years! We modeled (loosely) her birthday off of Tasha Tudor's book Becky's Birthday.


I sewed her a new dress and pinafore and then Katie hid them until after Rebekah was asleep so that the first thing she saw upon waking was the outfit. When she saw it she smiled and immediately put it on and was very happy, dancing around, laughing...... ;-)


Katie helped her braid her hair and then after breakfast I put the daisy crown that I made her on her head and she opened her presents. She asked for:

1. new underwear
2. a singing bird (this is a stuffed songbird that sings its call)
3. books
4. a new dress

We got her everything that she wanted plus some sea shells and 3 nesting boxes that I found at Goodwill. I made her cake and decorated it with Chicory flowers.

Then we borrowed a friend's icecream freezer and made peach icecream. I'm no great fan of icecream or desserts in general, but I must say that it was the best icecream I've ever had. All in all a very nice day!