High Flying Eagle

My head is in the clouds about this new find - a patriotic eagle!

I have a bit of an unusual hobby: attempting to pair up extant mid-19th century artifacts with the period publications that supplied the pattern. It's even better when I can manage to purchase the item, like the nightgown I recently received.

The yoke of the nightgown is adorned with extravagant  braidwork in an eagle design - a very popular motif during wartime, the Civil War specifically.

Here's the pattern, as published by  W. F. Sherwood & Co. of Chicago Illinois, circa 1865, in a mmanufacturer's sample book of embroidery and beading patterns - Sherwood's Impression Powder and Perforated Patterns, For Printing all Kinds of Designs for Braiding, Embroidery and Beading.

The entire pamphlet is available at the Antique Pattern Library, a fabulous site with hundreds of publications from a large variety of eras - all for FREE - although donations are accepted and encouraged.

I found it interesting that the nightgown was in Canada; the seller was not able to provide any provenance for the garment having purchased it at a "jumble sale". It would be lovely to know if the nighty was created in the States and migrated to Canada or did the pamphlet itself do the traveling?

The maker did not use the suggested cuff pattern and used a different motif (not in the pamphlet) of what appears to be a dove taking a nosedive on the back yoke - possibly some type of political comment?

I've been  in progress on my own nightgown for quite some time now, using a Sherwood design, although not the eagle pattern - maybe some year I'll be able to share that with you!

Fancywork Headdress

I've spent a fair bit of time studying mid-19th century beadwork and I was thrilled to recently acquire this very interesting example.

Fashion trends come and go and this headdress is  great example of the transition occurring during the 1860's - from beads being used primarily in "crafts" and jewelry to beads being increasingly used directly on garments.

The headdress is crocheted of red wool, with distinctly different looks to the front and back. The front is loopy, resembling shag carpeting with the addition of large white satin glass cylinder beads. The beads would have been strung on the wool prior to beginning the crochet work.

The back is far smoother, to rest against the hair. There is a decorative bow at the back and ribbon ties.

I'm always trying to find surviving artifacts that can be definitively matched to published patterns from the period - if you've encountered period instructions or images of a similar headdress, please share!!!

By the Yard Extra

This was a very interesting show: 10 different artists with 10 varying visions of surface designed textiles.

The techniques were wide ranging - weaving, dyeing, machine and hand embroidery, image transfer, even stamping with the end of a branch!



I was really pleased with my final piece and loved how it looked on display.

I felt the need to create a little something "extra" - an "art to wear" vest made from the applique scraps!

I used an 1860's paletot pattern as my base, then block printed and embroidered and added a wild fringy collar.



The show ends tomorrow, but the vest lives on!

Capping It off

I obtained this mid-19th century night cap via an online auction and while it has some condition issues, it still has plenty to tell us regarding period attitudes and concerns.

During the 19th century, night caps were worn by all ages and social classes. They were designed to fully cover the head and tied under the chin - they closely resemble the day caps worn by women in the 1700's. Night caps were nearly always constructed of white fabric, which allowed for easy washing and boiling if necessary. They were a functional item, intended to confine the hair, protect the bed linens from the oils and pomades used to dress the hair and provided warmth in chilly bed chambers.

The seller did not provide any provenance for this cap, I believe it may be a museum deaccesion due to the number penciled on the tie.

This cap is an excellent illustration of the relative cost of materials versus cost of labor during the period. A cap of this style would usually be constructed with three pieces of material: the brim, crown and neck curtain. This cap has been extensively pieced - 14 pieces in fact - including a tiny triangle, with sides less than 3/4" in length. All the pieces have been very carefully sewn, the stripes matching perfectly and all seams finished with no raw edges visible. A great deal of time was spent in making the minimal amount of available materials (probably recycled from a previous garment) work - a very 19th century mindset.

It's not something we see done very often in modern interpretations of historic clothing; we typically purchase new textiles and go buy more if we run short. It's an option I'm increasingly trying to incorporate into my garments: piecing materials, reusing materials, tiny details that add to the authenticity!

Night cap available for purchase here.

2013 Needlework Competition - Braidwork

A highlight of the Ladies & Gentlemen of the 1860's conference is the needlework competition.
This year's competition was for the best reproduction of an article of clothing or an object embellished with braidwork.

 Entries had to be a style commonly found and used between 1855 and 1865 and had to be made using
period construction techniques. A variety of materials and methods could be used to embellish entries,
including manufactured braid, hand-made braid, or embroidery stitches that resemble braid.

 Participants were divided into two categories - Those who have won in a previous competition, judged or popular ballot, competed in the Masters Class. Those who had never won in a previous competition, competed in the Needleworkers Class. Two prizes were awarded in each class: one for the best reproduction as judged by the speakers and one for the entry selected by popular ballot of the conference participants.

Here's this year's Needlework Class submissions - as there were only two, both were winners:

This teal silk necktie was the popular vote winner. It has gold braidwork and handknit silk lace and was accompanied by very good documentation.

The Judged winner is this grey wool Spanish jacket, with a scrolling couched design.

The speakers at the conference are the judges - I was one of the judges this year. We assign a value of 1-5 for each of the following criteria:

• Overall Appearance. Is the entry typical of an item used during the period? Does it have the correct
style and shape?
 • Fabrics and Materials. Are the fabrics, materials and findings used consistent with those used for similar
items during the period? Are they made from appropriate fibers? Do they have the correct weave, color,
pattern, weight and hand?
• Trimmings and Embellishments. Are the trimmings and embellishments used consistent with those used
on similar items during the period? Are they made from appropriate fibers? Do they have the correct
weave, color, pattern, weight and/or hand?
• Construction. Are period construction techniques used? Are they the appropriate techniques for this
item?
• Workmanship/quality of detail. Is the workmanship typical of that found on original garments? Are fine
details and finishing incorporated into the construction?
• Documentation. What references were used in the creation of this item? Where did you get the idea?
Any unusual features should be especially documented.

We could also assign "Judge's Points" for outstanding effort in any of the categories.

There were several entries in the Master's Class:

A crimson wool flannel "Lancer's Jacket", with black braid and velvet buttons.

A heavily embellished vest, created as part of a fancy dress costume for a Pasha.

A "watering place" ensemble.

The Popular Vote winner was a net, silk and velvet mantle.

And the Judged winner was this brown wool paletot, based on an original. I was especially impressed by the use of crushed cuttlefish bone as the pattern transfer methodology and assigned extra "judge's" points for the documentation.

The needlework competition is a great way to stretch your skills and knowledge base; I spent a year researching cork soles as a result of the slipper competition and managed to find a source of material from a company that has been in production since 1852.

Next year's theme is a doll, with one outfit - you might want to start working right now!

Yes, They Did!

Every so often, a debate arises in mid-19th century living history circles - did anyone really create the projects depicted in the lady's magazines of the period?

Just like now, certain magazines were specifically marketed towards women and just like today, they have articles on fashion, cooking, child care, home decoration and craft projects. Two of the more popular were Godey's Lady's Book and Peterson's Magazine; they were targeted for the growing middle class and are a great research resource.

But did anyone actually create the projects?

YES, they did!

I've thus far been able to find four original items that I can directly link to specific published projects and recently was able to purchase one - a beaded pincushion. 

It's from the March 1865 issue of Godey's, with the following directions:

To be worked with clear glass beads, on canvas sufficiently coarse for one bead to cover a stitch. The  ground can be filled with Solerino, blue, or scarlet wool, worked in cross-stitch. The patterns are reduced about one half. The fringe should be formed on the cushions with the clear white beads. Forty beads should be strung and looped up three stitches from where it commences, and each loop should be caught into the one next to it. This forms a very graceful and rich fringe. These same patterns will answer for netted tidies, the figures to be darned in.

The maker of this cushion followed most of the directions: clear glass beads, scarlet wool ground and beaded fringe, but she did not cross stitch the ground - she used the basic continental stitch. The cushion is approximately 7 inches square. It has a red velvet back and is stiffly stuffed, perhaps with bran. There is damage to the wool ground and the fringe and it appears there may have been some type of trim applied in a square around the central design which is now missing.  

I probably would not have recognized the design except that I had previously used it myself, as decoration on a needle book. The design was beaded onto silk taffeta, which was used to cover two bell shaped pasteboard pieces. The pieces were connected on the sides and wool flannel pages can be exposed by pulling the emery strawberry "clapper" and retracted by pulling the velvet loop at the top.

I have another project to share, but need to wait until summer when I'll have the proper equine model...

Sunshine on the North Shore

Summer's nearly over, we're quickly moving toward fall. But the colors of summer linger here and there, especially within this clump of  black eyed susans growing along the north shore, like a bit of sunshine caught on earth.

I really enjoy creating these mixed media pieces; the challenge of finding just the right thread, stitch or bead to enhance the image is endlessly satisfying!

Available for purchase here.

Emily's White Dress

We had an unusual event on Mackinac recently, a marathon poetry reading of Emily Dickinson - 12 hours, 1789 poems!

It was billed as "Emily meets Mackinac Island", but I suspect in many cases, it was actually Mackinac meeting Emily.

Emily Dickinson was known for her white dresses and a replica of a dress thought to have been worn by her was on display.

The dress is a white wrapper, dating to the late 1870's. For many years, the original dress was displayed at the Dickinson Homestead site, but it was eventually decided that it should be removed from display and conserved.

As the dress was an exceedingly popular object for visitors, the decision was made to create a reproduction, actually two, so they could be rotated for display.

A pattern was created by painstaking measurement of the original dress and a muslin sewn to check the accuracy of the pattern.

Context Weavers, an English firm, reproduced the fabric by punching a custom set of cards to be used on their Jacquard loom. The embroidered insertion and edging trim was reproduced by an American company - this relatively simple dress has over 14 yards of trim!

While finding firms able to recreate the proper materials was difficult, a larger challenge was finding the funding - $10,000 for the two replicas.

Having made reproduction garments myself, I can only wonder what it must be like to work with such expensive materials - I think I'd be terrified to touch it must less cut into it!

The dress made a wonderful focal point for the final reading of the day and several young ladies added to the  ambiance by wearing their own white dresses - it was a wonderful day!

Hidden Details: A Mid-19th Century Quilted Silk Petticoat

Quilted petticoats of the 19th century were a revival of an 18th century fashion. Many styles of 18th century dresses feature a split front skirt, which was worn over a petticoat of matching or contrasting fabric - the petticoat was intended to be seen.

Before the introduction of the cage crinoline in 1856, women typically wore multiple layers of petticoats. The petticoat layers (sometimes as many as 6!) not only shaped the skirt into a fashionable bell-shape, but also provided warmth. During the mid-19th century, petticoats of wool, silk or cotton might be quilted in designs ranging from a simple grid to elaborate scrolls and floral patterns.

A quilted petticoat could serve a number of purposes besides warmth - it could reduce the number of total petticoats, due to the bulk provided by the quilting and if worn with the intention of being visible, say with a lifted skirt or an open wrapper, provided a place for a lady to show off her needlework skills and her husband's ability to provide her with the leisure to produce such fancywork.

I was fortunate enough to purchase a beautiful silk quilted petticoat at an estate auction and I thought I would share some of it's less obvious details.

Here's the petticoat:

And here's a detail shot of the fancy silk outer fabric:

Turning the petticoat inside out shows the quilting much more clearly. The quilting is done by hand, with a dense diamond pattern from approximately from the knee level down and in diagonal strips up to the waist.

The inner fabric is a dense brown cotton with a very thin layer of wool wadding.

The waist band is cotton with a single button closure; the petticoat has been simply gathered into the waist band.

An interesting technique was used to create additional fullness at the back of the petticoat, without adding additional bulk at the waist - by removing four gores from the quilted fabric, then sewing the resulting raw edges together and finishing with an overcast stitch.

The photo below shows that three different colors of thread were used: one for the quilting, one for closing the seam and yet another for the overcast stitching.

The petticoat also shows evidence of a period repair: here's the patch on the inside:

And here's a couple shots showing the exterior repair, note the careful matching of the fabric for the patch:

The hem treatment consists of the quilted layers being turned to the inside and the application wool braid tape.

Clothing was frequently "remade" in the 19th century, after all, fabric was relatively expensive and labor was cheap! 

Godey's Lady's book gave the following advice in February 1862:

"Another good use to which to put an old dress is, by altering the body and sleeves, to adapt it for a petticoat.  It is well, however, not to be in a hurry to do this.  Two mothers had each a good black satin dress; in the course of time they became, as unfortunately all dresses will, too shabby or too old-fashioned for their wearers' use.  One mother picked hers to pieces, washed and ironed it, and made from it two handsome-looking mantles for her daughters.  The other adapted hers for a petticoat, and spent five-and-twenty shillings in the purchase of new mantles for her two daughters. The mantles made of the old material were far the best-looking, and most serviceable. Now, five shillings would have bought a petticoat; and thus the saving of twenty shillings might have been made for the pocket of the husband."

This petticoat shows signs that it may very well have been remade; the inner fabric shows distinct fold marks and fading.

Hidden in the fullness at the back of the petticoat is a panel of fabric that has been pieced of over a dozen small pieces of silk, with minimal matching of the pattern.

In fact, there is one area, approximately 8" x 2", that consists of six individual scraps all pieced together!

Examining this original garment has been a great learning experience - it appears so simple and straightforward on the surface, but it really has a number of hidden details that have enriched my knowledge of period clothing.

Having said that, I don't space to either display or store it properly. So I am reluctantly offering for purchase here. I hope it finds a new home where it will be treasured.