A Day In The Life Of Maggie

     Several years ago my friend Amy made up the most adorable dress based on an image dated 1848. She recently sent the dress to me in hopes that Maggie could now wear it and I've waited several days for the chance to get some action shots. Amy's original post is here.

    For reasons best known to herself it didn't happen to suit Maggie to pose for pictures, she is pretty hacked off in most of them. Still, the dress is beautiful and these pictures do capture her as she actually is.  :)

Various things pertaining to historical living

This is Katie's "transition dress" which she wore to Christmas in ---, it is called a transition dress because she's beginning to cross the divide from girlhood to womanhood. In the 1860's that transition was delayed until the mid to late teens, very unlike today where the littlest of girls are routinely dressed like street walkers. It has features of both children's and adult's dresses and still is not the floor length of an adult gown. For the event she wore her hair in a single braid down the back tied with a silk ribbon, the pinner apron is a wonderfully useful garment for keeping one's dress from becoming mussed up and is handy for carrying and wiping any number of things!

Courtesy of Gramma, the 6 youngest children had presents to open at ---. Tabitha and Rebekah received the penny wooden dolls on the left and Katie made the rolled cloth dolls on the right for Elisabethe and Abigail. We brought along blocks and cloth scraps and the girls made their dolls a house with beds and put a pine branch in an empty wooden spool for a Christmas tree in miniature. Levi and Micah enjoyed entertaining us with the flapjack on the bottom left and quickly learned how to use the top on the bottom right and competed with who could spin it the longest which eventually became "see who can knock the top over as it spins so your brother doesn't win". Pretty much everybody tried their hand (er, mouth) at the Jew's harp in the center. We also got a book about making paper dolls since the girls are forever-and-a-day wanting me to cut dolls for them. All these toys were purchased from the Ragged Soldier, a wonderful on-line store run by the Mescher's, selling all kinds of nifty old-fashioned toys for reenacting children!




We went today to try on the coat that I ordered for Aleks. A pair of Amish sisters sew coats for a living so I'm having wool coats made for the three boys. Aleks' coat fit great and the woman did an excellent job, which is a relief to me. I have several people who have helped me with sewing at various times and some are certainly more skilled than others. The shirt to the right is one of nine shirts that my friend Anna made for the boys. It is a "squares and rectangles" shirt, excellently sewn complete with beautiful handmade buttonholes. Truly, a well made shirt is a thing of beauty!


The picture below is called "Watchers in the Night", I used to have a very small version of it hanging up when we lived in North Carolina, but it apparently got mislaid in the many moves since then. I absolutely love the angel depicted in it, so manly and protective! Did you know that every Biblical angel whose gender is known is male? I think it's just another example of every good thing being corrupted into something different than the Lord intended, I can't think of too many pictures I've ever seen with manly angels. Either they are completely effeminate (which is an abomination) or they're female (which I suppose would also be an abomination since God didn't create them thus). Every child has an angel who always beholds the face of the Father, I take comfort in that. But, supper is almost ready, we're having ham steaks, mashed potatoes with cream and cream cheese, and peas! Good night.

Christmas in Zoar

It has been quite a while since I wrote anything here due to the press of getting everything ready for the Christmas in Zoar event. Zoar is a village that is now a historical site, the home of 19th century German separatists. They have a semi-annual reenactment that we really enjoy but this is their first Christmas reenactment. We don't normally do cold weather events so I had quite a few garments to sew to be ready. Originally we were to be in the Gardener's house but on wednesday (3 days ago!) the Ohio Historical Society decided that we could not be there after all, no reason was given and they could not be persuaded! So, we were moved to the Sewing house, they *did* furnish it for us and it was "heated" which was a requirement because of the children. Well, as it turns out, this is the coldest "first weekend in December" we've had in 10 years! So much for global warming. ;-) The house was COLD! The children were huddled around with teeth chattering, bored to death because nobody came. Well, 4 small groups did, but not a single child. This was due to several reasons: the cold, the programs had us listed in the Gardener's house which was closer to where the public mainly was (there were signs put up re-directing the public), but the sign outside the Sewing house said "not open to the public" which nobody thought about until we pointed it out. What a letdown. I'm not sure if we're going back tomorrow or not, it depends on the weather, I guess.

Oh happy day!

I have *finally* got all the CdV's uploaded to the other site. I did the last 40 yesterday and today and I'm so glad to have that done!!! They are here if you'd like to take a look.

Well, in other news........ we got more cider pressed, bringing our total to 55 gallons, that's a good feeling. ;-) I've been busily sewing my wrapper that I need for the "Christmas in Zoar" event coming up in 3 weeks. And, we made homemade cranberry apple relish! We had it with herbed porkchops one night and with chicken tonight. It is *so* good!

Sorry for such a short post but I'm rather tired tonight. ;-)

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!

Elisabethe's new dress

Here is Elisabethe's new dress, all done at last! I did the sleeves on the bias and added a ruffle like a little girl in a CdV that I have. She actually has 2 ruffles on hers whereas Elisabethe only has 1. She's pretty pleased with her new dress in case you can't tell. ;-)

Shoes and dresses

Finally, this week, after a long wait, I got my Robert Land boots! I'm so thrilled. The really neat thing is that he made them just for me, how rare is that?!? An actual shoe maker made my shoes. OK, so other people probably think I have a real problem with the stuff that I get excited about; but I can't help it! Here's a picture because I knew you'd want to admire them for yourselves.
My other great project has been to finish up the dresses that the girls need for ---. I finished Katie's on Monday and Rebekah's today. Rebekah's is for her birthday and I'm pretty proud of the fact that I got it done with 11 days to spare. Now I need to sew her pinafore. Here are their pictures.
Katie's really laughing here; hence the look on her face!

Abigail's corded sun bonnet

I decided to get on the ball and get sewing the corded sun bonnets that the girls will need for --- in August. We have a local shop that sells some heirloom fabrics and I found this pale lavender batiste there. It has 6 cords, then an inch & a half space, then 3 cords, then 3/4" space and then 3 more cords. It took me quite a lot longer to complete than I thought it would. Well, one down, four more to go!

Today I need to take the soutache braid off of Elisabethe's dress and let the hem down. The only one who really needs a new dress is Katie; I'm really thankful for that, I love seeing the girls dressed this way! I've found that Civil War sewing is really addictive. I do far and away more 1860's garments than I do regular dresses so when I go to sew modern clothes, I end up using "outdated" techniques.