Still Working
February 16th, 2011
I promise you’ll hear from me soon…so much is happening!
Tickets Now on Sale
February 15th, 2011
Guess what I’m doing on March 23?
Wednesday, March 23, 7 p.m.
Lecture: Hand-Sewing in the 1850s — 60 Years before the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
In participation with Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition’s 100th anniversary memorial
Before sewing machines and factories revolutionized clothing production in the second half of the 19th century, most garments were made entirely by hand. Learn about forgotten hand-sewing methods used at home and in dressmaker’s workshops during the mid-19th century in this “hands-on” presentation. $15, $10 Students & Seniors, Free for MHM Members.
I hope you’ll be there! You can purchase tickets by clicking here.
Busy Bee
February 10th, 2011
I’ve been quite distracted lately — so many projects in various stages of completion.
- My practice stays are finally ready for binding (more on that soon, plus discoveries about my ill-fated busk).
- I’m well past the half-way mark on my broderie anglaise petticoat frill.
- I’ve got the materials ready to start work on a pair of broderie anglaise undersleeves (like these, with thanks to Hal for sending the link).
- Two workshops on 19th-century Hand-Sewing are coming up: March 23 at the Merchant’s House Museum and April 9 at Trade School.
- The New York Nineteenth Century Society is starting up in real earnest now, with regular meetings, events, and a sewing circle.
- I hope to write a novel that is part Thomas Hardy, part D. H. Lawrence, and part Elizabeth Gaskell (long story, don’t ask).
- As soon as the practice stays are completed, I must begin fitting dresses.
- I need a new spring wardrobe for everyday modern(ish) wear.
- One of my very dearest friends is getting married, and I am in her wedding!
- Etc.
Sometimes I do feel rather as if I was being bombarded by a pack of anthropomorphized playing cards…
Blizzard
January 29th, 2011
In 1888, New York suffered such a violent blizzard that it remains legend to this day. This picture of Trinity Church was taken in the aftermath of that storm.
Notice the people standing up to their hips in snow banks? I guess we don’t have that much to complain about this winter after all. Even so, with more than 20 inches of snow this past week alone, you can’t blame me for keeping mostly indoors. I slosh back and forth between my garret and the Museum two times each day, and to the grocery store when I simply can’t avoid it.*
I just can’t bring myself to trek uptown to a trim store. So I’ve decided to use a piece of twill fabric to case the busk on my stays instead of waiting for webbing. I’m using zip ties instead of real boning, so a piece of fabric instead of webbing can’t be too much worse. And there’s no reason it should affect the fitting experiments I plan to conduct with this first pair of stays.
*I actually love the snow. I grew up in the Mid-Atlantic piedmont region, and have spent many a happy afternoon hiking (or occasionally riding on horseback) through silent and glistening fields, bordered by forests blanketed in snow. But in New York City, the snow is shoveled into dirty heaps as soon as it falls. The result is slushy, gritty, ugly streets; filled with miserable people trying to dig out their cars.
For Want of Webbing
January 22nd, 2011
My new stays are on hold again. This time, I’m waiting for 16 inches of 3/4 inch webbing to encase the busk. I’ve finished re-setting the stomach gores (now twice as large as before) and hemming down as many of the bone casings as I can without placing the busk.
Once I get some webbing, I’ll be able to sew the center seam and position the tapes for the little diagonal bones at the top of the center front. The next step is to bind the top and bottom and make holes for the bones. But before I get to that, I want to put all the bones in temporarily and lace it up. The instructions don’t show side bones of any kind, but there are indications from other sources that side bones were pretty common. I want to see how they fit as written — without side bones — before I commit.
I also have to buy corset lacing. Wherever I go for the webbing, I’m sure they’ll also carry lacing. I guess I could go uptown today and acquire the supplies. But it snowed yesterday and the streets are still gloppy. And the temperature dipped well below freezing and promises to remain so through the weekend.
So I think I will stay in my cozy apartment (where a big casserole of made-from-scratch macaroni and cheese is bubbling merrily in the oven) and work on something else. Another repeat on my Broderie Anglaise petticoat trim? A pair of serviceable calico undersleeves with matching collar? A new chemise?
P.S. Did you know that Catherine Beecher classified macaroni and cheese as a vegetable in Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book, 1846? I like the way she thinks.
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