(18)50s Fabric Relapse
April 14th, 2012
Now that I can’t pop up to 38th street (in NYC’s Fashion District) whenever I need some fabric, I am gradually getting reacquainted with the way most of the country shops for sewing supplies. One of my very favorite blogs, Romantic History, had a recent post about finding bargains on fabric at Walmart, which inspired me to drop by their crafts counter this afternoon. And indeed, there were a couple of not-so-awful cotton prints to be had at very fair prices.
Actually, they’re pretty awful. But in a delicious 1850s kind of way. In fact, the second this caught my eye, I was head over heels for the mid-19th century again. So much for my valiant resolutions to ignore the decade and devote myself to Poiret. Not that I intend to resume my myopic ways. But I can’t quite give up the 50s completely. And as if to prove it, 9 yards (all that was left on the bolt) of this stuff are now waiting patiently to be made into a new dress.
Given my druthers, I’d probably have bought it in this colorway:
I am that fond of purple. But there was only 1 and a half yards left. I took it anyways. Perhaps an apron? A late Edwardian blouse? A sunbonnet?
Piecework
April 13th, 2012
As mentioned in my last post, I’ve been curtaining.
Curtain for a closet
The bathroom off the kitchen has now been covered at the windows, the shower, and around a little closet-like alcove with blue and white striped sheeting. In the thrifty spirit of the 19th century, all of my new curtains to date are recycled from old bed sheets. With some clever cutting and patching to avoid worn spots, the results are surprisingly fresh. And because the fabrics are all familiar, in some cases going back to my childhood on the east coast, they add a particularly homey feeling.
The window and shower curtains for the bathroom used up most of my blue and white fabric (I started with two full-sized flat sheets). As I was folding up the remnants, I suddenly decided that I needed a curtain to hide the area beneath a wide shelf in the far corner of the bathroom. Alas, the piece that remained just wasn’t long enough to reach the floor. But it WAS quite a bit wider than required. So I did what any self respecting 19th-century housewife would do. I pieced it.
Dividing the fabric into thirds by width, I cut off one third (plus 1 inch for seam allowance). I then took the third-width and cut it in two at the vertical center. The resulting pieces were sewn together, then seamed across the bottom of the wider piece.
For the time it took to match the stripes, I probably could have earned the money to buy a brand new length of fabric in the right length. But the satisfaction of eking out all the curtains and finishing with nary a scrap left over was worth far more. And it’s hardly noticeable unless you know what you’re looking for, if I do say so myself.
Can you see the tiny patch I stitched in by hand above the piecing line as well? There were two little holes that seemed quite harmless, but threatened to grow over time.
Things I’ve Been Up To
April 10th, 2012
In case you were wondering what I’ve been doing with myself instead of writing endless blog posts, I’ve compiled a selection of my recent activities.
Bathroom curtains from reclaimed sheets.
- Moving In
This one goes without saying perhaps, but it’s taken up such a large chunk of my time for the past month that I had to mention it. From refinishing 90-year-old floors to installing new laminate flooring (you should see all the power tools I’ve learned to use); from making curtains out of old sheets to hanging towel bars; etc. And then there are the seemingly endless boxes. Every other one of which contains either books or fabric. Oops. You can see more pictures of our homemaking progress at Bungalowing. - Volunteering at the local Historical Society
You can bet I made a beeline for the history museum in a nearby town. I’ve been volunteering there since February, helping with their surprisingly (for a relatively small area) complete and truly fantastic costume collection. There are dresses from 1860 to 1980, uniforms from every 20th-century war, undergarments, coats, hats, gloves, and much more. They even let me pick out four dresses to put on display later this month for their seasonal fashion exhibit. - Learning to Play Bridge
It turns out there are even fewer whist players in California than New York. So I begged the local bridge doyens to teach me. Along with our expert teacher, there are two other lovely ladies who are also studying the game. We play every Saturday afternoon. - Tickling the Ivories
Our new house came complete with a baby grand piano. It’s the first time in more than 10 years that I’ve had constant access to a keyboard instrument and I had no idea how much I missed playing. My mother made me a present of the music books I used during my decade of piano lessons (they’d been hers when she studied music). I also inherited batches of sheet music from my grandmother and from a dear friend and musician who once lived in our new house — it was her piano as well. Then there’s my collection of early 20th-century hymnals… - Producing a Radio Show
Life has a funny way of making you do things you never imagined you’d do. I suddenly find myself the producer/engineer of a syndicated radio program.
Alas, my sewing has been limited to simple curtains and other little household odds and ends lately. With time of the essence and most of my supplies still in boxes, I haven’t even tried to find an historic angle to these projects. But life is gradually settling into a semblance of routine. Which means it won’t be long before I’m up to my old tricks again…
A Tale of Two Covers
April 9th, 2012
In the course of unpacking — a slow and reflective process in our house — I have come across a number of books I forgot I had. Some are mementos of childhood, my own and others’; some have been carefully saved up in hopes I’d eventually find time to read them. But my favorites by far are those old friends whose scarred spines and tattered covers, the results of being carried around in pockets and bags to be enjoyed in odd moments, bespeak many happy re-readings.
Some in fact are so battered as to be unfit for further use. The pair of paperbacks pictured here were in such terrible condition that keeping them at all seemed futile. But still I couldn’t quite bear to part with them completely. So I removed the crumbling pages and kept their covers (I do so love pulp cover art).
The Night of the Hunter, published in 1953, is perhaps even better known as a film — the only one Sir Charles Laughton ever directed — starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and the divine Lillian Gish. This copy belonged to my husband, who also used to own the soundtrack record.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is in a different class altogether (sorry Mr. Grubb). It was banned in the US for many years on grounds of obscenity. Ha! Today Connie’s exploits would be considered tame by comparison with your average family-oriented television sit-com script. But at the time it was shocking.
Barney Rosset’s Grove Press, crusader against literary censorship, eventually won the right to publish Lawrence’s 1928 novel in its original form. This gorgeous edition was a gift from my husband before we were even engaged. I drove my mother crazy by carrying it around in my purse and reading it conspicuously in public. I’ve always been something of a literary exhibitionist…
Old-Time Easter
April 8th, 2012
Article from Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1897, apropos to the day.
« Newer Posts — Older Posts »INTERESTING POINTS ON THE CUSTOMS
AND CEREMONIES OF OTHER DAYSBy Gabrielle Marie Jacobs
THE first celebration of Easter, the oldest of the Christian festivals, antedates the dawn of the third century. The ancient Christian year began with this period, and not with Advent, the Resurrection having been, to the early church, an event of greater importance and solemnity than the Nativity.
All the ceremonies attending the observance of Easter were at first exceedingly simple, but in the early part of the fourth century a decided change was brought about by Constantine. He instituted vigils, or night-watches, for Easter eve, at which the people remained in the churches until midnight. The tapers which it had been customary to burn at this time were displaced by huge pillars of wax, not only in the churches but all over the Imperial City, so that the brilliancy of the night exceeded the light of day. Easter Sunday was observed with all the pomp and imposing accessory that could be devised by a ruler naturally fond of display.
The Resurrection festival was early made coincident with that of the heathen goddess of spring, and on the new faith and its observances were grafted many pagan traditions. One of them was the use of eggs as symbols of Easter. The egg has been for thousands of years the emblem of reincarnation. The Egyptians held it sacred as the emblem of the renovation of the human race after the Deluge. The Persians, who celebrate their New Year at the vernal equinox, present one another with appropriate gifts, among them being colored eggs. The Jews accepted the egg as a symbol of their departure from Egypt, and at the feast of the Passover it was placed on the table with the paschal lamb. Thus it was natural that the early Christians should have adopted it as an emblem of the Resurrection and a future life.
On this day their salutation was, “Christ is arisen,” to which the person addressed answered, “Christ is arisen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon,” a custom which is still retained in the Greek Church. In Greece the courts of justice were formerly closed, alms were distributed, slaves were freed, and the people gave themselves up to rejoicing and feasting in honor of the day.Dancing was, during many centuries, a religious ceremony. In the temples of Jerusalem, Samaria, and Alexandria, the enclosure still known as the choir was devoted to this ceremony; for, according to the teaching of some of the early fathers, dancing is a part of the ceaseless worship of the saints, angels, prophets, and martyrs. The pious enthusiast and statesman, Cardinal Ximenes, revived the Mozarabic liturgy in the Cathedral of Toledo, and at the Easter festivals the worshippers danced decorously in both the choir and the nave. The custom was discontinued about the middle of the seventeenth century.
In mediaeval times it was the practice of many Continental clergymen to illustrate their Easter sermons with what were termed “Fabulse Paschales,” in which the sacred incidents of Scripture, in order that they might be more intelligible, were mixed with frivolous tales. These, like the miracle plays, owed their origin to the rude and uncultivated state of the laity.
Superstition was the mother of many curious customs, which began with Maundy Thursday and ended with Easter Wednesday. In some of the rural localities of England loaves of bread are baked, even yet, on Good Friday, and put by for medicine, for it is believed that a small portion grated in water and given to a person suffering with various ailments will work a certain cure. The non-eating of crossbuns was also believed to place the house of the non-eater in danger of being burned down. All fires were put out on Easter eve, for good-luck and other blessings. The fires were relighted with consecrated flints, preserved in the churches especially for that purpose. The flint signified Christ, and the flame the Holy Ghost, and fire obtained in this manner was held to prevent the effect of storms.
It was also said that people ought to put on some new article of dress for the first time on Easter Sunday, or they would have no good fortune in love affairs during the year, and would, besides, be liable to various illnesses.
On Easter Monday the young men in the Yorkshire villages had a custom of taking off the young girls’ shoe-buckles. On Easter Tuesday the young men’s shoe-buckles were taken off by the young women. On Wednesday they were redeemed by little pecuniary forfeits, with which were purchased materials for a ” Tansy Cake,” with dressing. Tansy is supposed to have been the “bitter herb ” used by the Jews at the feast of the Passover, but the Christians cleverly disguised its bitterness with sugar, spices, etc. The ancient idea is to-day embodied in the mintsauce which generally accompanies the spring lamb to modern tables.
Formerly the spurs of travelers were confiscated by jokers during Easter week, and their owners were compelled to redeem them with a small sum of money.
“Lifting ” or ” heaving ” is a very old custom. It is emblematic of our Saviour’s Resurrection, and the accompanying kiss is said to be in remembrance of His kissing His disciples. A party of gayly dressed, ribbon-decked young women sallied forth carrying a chair with arms, back, and legs decorated with rosettes. They seized a youth and placed him in the chair. He was held fast by some and by the others raised above their heads three times, then kissed by each girl. This observance took place on Easter Tuesday, and was intended as a punishment for a somewhat similar practice indulged in by the men the day before.
The origin of the sepulchre rite is not known. It probably had its rise in the old mystery plays which were often performed in the churches. Some of the characteristics of this ceremony would lend support to such a theory. However, at first it consisted only of the burial of the cross, and not of the blessed sacrament. The object of the custom was the strengthening of the faith of the ignorant and of converts. The first sepulchres were recesses at the side of the altar, closely resembling tombs. Frequently the altar-tombs of great persons were used as the resting places of the carved, painted, and gilded structures of wood which, in the smaller and poorer churches, did duty in lieu of a permanent receptacle.
The temporary structures, though in use only two days in each year, were as ornate and costly as the funds of the parish would permit . They were usually covered with gold-leaf, and no sepulchre was complete without its hangings, pall, and lights. The tapers, blessed for the occasion, were generally thirteen in number, to represent Christ and His disciples. The central taper of the group was always very large. One used as late as 1557, in the abbey church of Westminster, is said to have been three hundred pounds in weight. In earlier times representatives in iron, timber, and cloth, of God, His angels, and the devil, were a portion of the furnishings of an Easter sepulchre. Frequently to these were added effigies of knights, with weapons in their hands, to guard the sepulchre from Good Friday until Easter morning, the real work, however, being done by watchmen, paid and victualled for that purpose. One account of the “properties” of a certain Easter sepulchre mentions that the angels were provided with perukes as well as wings.
After the solemn adoration of the cross, sometimes known as the “creeping” ceremony, the cross, which had been wrapped in a winding-sheet, was brought to the recess or tomb, and placed therein, to the singing of appropriate antiphons.
There is another tradition to the effect that, after the adoration of the cross, and before it was wrapped in its winding-sheet, it was washed with wine and water, and the ablution given to the priests and the people to drink.
Only in the process of time did the host come to be buried with the cross. The precise period when the addition was made is not known, but it was prior to the thirteenth century. In those days the belief prevailed that the Lord’s second coming would be on Easter eve; hence, in many localities the sepulchres were anxiously watched through the night preceding Easter
Sunday, until three o’clock in the morning, when two aged monks would enter and remove the symbol of the Resurrection, which was held up before the worshipping audience during the chanting of the anthem “Christus Resurgens.” It was then carried to the high altar, where a procession formed, with lighted tapers, old men bearing a canopy of velvet over the symbol. The procession then made a circuit of the exterior of the church, all singing, rejoicing, and praying, until, coming again to the high altar, their precious burden was placed there, not to be removed until Ascension-day.