Reenactment Dress

My Civil War dress is finally finished! AAHHHHHH! So excited! Didn't really want to take it off when I was finished, so I went for a walk in the neighborhood and got several funny looks.

 A good picture of the piping on the waistband

 Piping on the sleeves

I am going to go extensively into the making of this thing, so if you get bored, please feel free to leave. 

The first thing that I did was make the skirt. I really wanted my friend Lizzie's help on the top, because it needs to fit really well. So I made the skirt, sewing all the panels together and then gathering the top and sewing it to a grosgrain ribbon as a waistband. I had to hand sew the skirt to the waistband, which took quite a lot of time. 

The first thing Lizzie said when she came in was, "What did you do to the skirt?" Uh oh. "I just gathered it to the waistband." Come to find out, women in the Civil War did not  gather their skirts, but rather gauged them. So off the waistband went, the gathering stitches were thrown out, and I had to start over. Brilliant.
 But gauging was fun, even though it took a really long time. I had to do the stitching over several times, because I didn't know how whether to use one thread and gather as I go, or do different threads for each panel. I ended up redoing the first two panels at least 3 times, finally going with 2 threads for each panel. That worked, but now I have a ton of threads hanging out my skirt and would probably go with 2 threads all the way around next time.

Lizzie showed me how to do a blind stitch, so I blind stitched the hem. When you read that I had to hand stitch the hem, it may sound like it took forever, but it goes quick when you listen to a story!

The bodice was the hard part. Lizzie had to come over multiple times to help me get it to fit. We used the Butterick pattern 5831; the pattern makes it a little slouchy in the front and back when you really want it to lay smooth. So Lizzie made a mock up and did a ton to that pattern! She cut the armholes a little bigger in front so I have room to move, and then did a lot of other slashing that I probably don't even know about.

One problem we ran into was that she did quite a bit of the fitting on Lucille, my dress form, and come to find out, Lucille is not quite the same size as me because her back split a little, so she was a little bigger in some areas and a little smaller in others. It wasn't too big a deal, but it did take a little more time because Lizzie had to start putting it on me to make sure it fit.

Lizzie gathered the front just a bit and then sewed it to a ribbon waistband. She then discovered that the gathers weren't even and had to rip out one side and bring the gathers more forward.

She also suggested making the back smooth by bringing in the side seams, and then not putting any gathers in the back at all. The gathers make it puff out too much, but now it fits perfectly in the back.

The sleeves I did myself, and the only thing I would change about them next time would be to make them a bit shorter. They are not too long, because of the cuffs, but they do hang down a bit past the cuff if I put my arms straight down. Because of the piping, I hand sewed the first sleeve to the armhole while watching Gone With the Wind. Keep in mind that sewing entertainment is about all that that movie is good for. I apparently wasn't paying attention, because as soon as I finished, I realized that I had sewed the underarm seam of the sleeve to the side seam. Palm. To. The. Forehead. I was supposed to sew the underarm sleeve a few more inches forward, allowing for more give when I stretch my arm forward. Ugghh. So out the stitches came. I re-hand stitched it back on the right way, then decided that hand sewing it wasn't worth it for the other sleeve. I still feel like the second sleeve wasn't sewn on as well as the first. Next time, I would also make sure I center the top gathers more by my shoulder, because I made then line up with the very top of the sleeve. But when the sleeve rotated, it made all the gathers in the back.

For this project, I needed to make piping, which I had never done at all. Making it was easy; you just sew strips of fabric cut from the diagonal of the grain and then sew a cord inside. That was the easy part, but attaching it is a pain because you have to get right up next to it. For that reason, I hand stitched that one sleeve and also the bodice and skirt together because when hand sewing, you can be sure to get right up next to the cord on the inside of the fabric. The neckline and other sleeve have piping as well, but sewing it with the sewing machine is not easy, and I had to redo some parts to nudge it right up to the cord.

Sewing the skirt to the bodice wasn't too easy. The grosgrain ribbon we used was just to keep all the gauging and gathers neat, and I needed to sew the piping on as well. My machine isn't great with sewing thick stuff, so I hand sewed that part as well. The grosgrain ribbon doesn't show on the outside.

Lizzie sewed a placket to the front for the buttons, explaining that it helps reinforce the front. She did most of that part, so I don't really know how to explain what she did. I sewed all the buttonholes (not by hand!) and the buttons onto the placket, then sewed a really big hook and eye onto the inside of the waistband. Lizzie was right; I now love those big hook and eyes! It is really sturdy, and helps the bottom button from too much strain.

I actually did have to hand sew the very bottom buttonhole, because my poor machine was getting stuck on all the layers from the waistband. The hole doesn't look very good, but it doesn't show on the outside. I also had to make a buttonhole with the zigzag stitch for one of the sleeve buttonholes, because the machine was not doing well and I was getting impatient. It too doesn't look very good, but not noticeable as well.

I learned from the Sewing Sisters something I didn't know before that I was able to apply to my dress: buttonholes weren't sewn vertically until clothing was made by machines. Vertical buttonholes are almost useless because buttonholes are supposed to be horizontally, to take all the stress on the side. But machines can do vertical buttonholes; they can go from one hole to the next without needing someone to move the clothing.

June in Seattle

I know our trip to Seattle was a long time ago, but I really wanted to get some of the good pictures labeled.

 Camille and I in our new hats from Celeste that she brought back from South America

 This is the best picture ever!

 Because Grandma and Grandpa were moving, we had to take down all the pictures from their 6,000 square foot house and wrap all the big ones. We wrapped 70 pictures all together, with 100 in all!

Here are all the wrapped pictures in the front entryway

A silly picture by the gum wall

Down on the waterfront

 Some good pictures of the Tickle Monster, Mary and Frubert and I. Of course, Camille is the one squished in the upper picture

 A really awesome picture of my friends and I; and just to end on a weird note, here is a picture of my Grandma's empty fridge, which my parents thought was hilarious!

Gauging Tutorial

Lizzie also taught me how to do gauging. What is gauging? It sounds really weird, but it really is a reenactor's term for cartridge pleating; gauging is what it was called in the Civil War. I like to call it gauging, because it makes me sounds like I know what I am doing and because no one really has any idea of what I'm talking about.
I once heard that gauging is just very organized gathering, which makes sense to me. Skirts were gauged instead of gathered, because it was much less bulky and looked very neat. Personally, I think it is also one of the faster things to hand sew, but sewing gathers takes longer.
To gauge, you will first need to take your skirt and press down about 2 inches; now is a good time to even your skirt out. Hems were done first, then evened out and controlled at the top. What I did for my sister's reenactment dress was blind stitch the hem, then did relatively about 2 inches; I measured from the hem and made it a little more in some areas.

The next part is a little time consuming; best to turn on an audio or a movie! Taking a ruler and pen (pencil if your fabric is thin), mark out every half inch along just the very top edge. All the way around. This takes quite a lot of time. Then mark out every half inch about a quarter inch down from your first set. This takes just as much time.
Some tutorials don't have this, and they just say to do very even stitches, but by doing it this way, it is very precise. Some tutorials also say to do 3 rows of stitches; this makes it look more like pleats that gathers, but I prefer the more gathered look.

Take a needle and thread (no machines; that's cheating!) and sew along the first dotted line using a double thread, going in and out at the dots.  For your skirt, measure your waist and add about, oh, maybe 10 inches, and just push gathers into the skirt as you go. I made the mistake of doing different threads for each panel in my skirt (4 panels), and now I have a lot of threads hanging off that I don't really need. You will spare yourself if you make it all on one thread. Do the same for the second set, but make sure that if you went out for the first stitch on the first row, you do the same for the other first stitch, so that the stitches are synchronized. Like this:

 If you have multiple panels on your skirt, then take your waist band (I just used a grosgrain ribbon on my dress and in this example), and mark out where you want the panels to line up with the ribbon. For instance, I wanted the back seam on one panel to match up with the center back on the top, so I found the middle of the ribbon to match that up to. I did the same with the other panels, so that one seam would line up with the back, two at the sides, and the front would line up with the ends of the ribbon, because it has an opening at the front.
Pull both threads to gather and match them to the areas marked on your waistband. Pin it together, right sides together.

Tie off the thread once you match up the ribbon to the skirt.
Take a needle and a closely matched thread, and with a double thread, pick up just the inside fold of the first pleat and through the ribbon, just the very edge. Like this:

Keep stitching, picking up just the close edge of the fabric and the very edge of the ribbon until you reach the end. Because my skirt closes in the front and because I made an error in the cutting, I didn't have pleats up to the very end of my ribbon, so I just whip stitched it together. Here is what it should look like when it is finished:

It sort of looks funny on the wrong side with the other unsewn edges hanging off, but that is the key to the entire thing. When worn, because it is only sewn on the very edge, it keeps the bulk of the pleats off your waist. If it had been sewn flat, like a gather, then it would be smooshed against you; very uncomfortable! But by only catching the very side, it causes it to hinge out, away from you. When worn with a hoop, it looks not quite so stiff. The fold that you did at the beginning also helps the gauging to keep it's shape.
One last thing: keep the stitches in! If they are sufficiently squished together, you should not be able to see them very well. If the bottom thread is still visible, pull it a little tighter. 

Blind Stitch Hem Tutorial

As I've been working on my reenactment dress, I've been learning some cool techniques from Lizzie; my favorite one is the blind stitch, which I used to hem my dress.
To do a blind stitch, first make sure your hem is pretty even on the bottom and doesn't curve. I'm not sure how this stitch would work with a curved hem.
Press down 1/4 inch on the bottom edge, evening out any 'lumpy' edges, making it more or less where needed to make it even.

Then press it up to the length that you want it; my hem is quite large, to become like a hem guard, which you can trim off and wash when the dress becomes dirty.

Using one strand of matching thread, lift up the large hem and stick the needle in up through the 1/4 inch fold so that the knot is hidden. Pull the thread all the way through.

The next part is the secret to the whole stitch: take your needle and pick up literally one or two threads from the fabric, barely securing the fold to the fabric. Pull the thread through all the way.

I know the picture isn't very good, but you can picture it, right? Next, push the needle back into the fabric right next to where you first came up, and slide the needle about a needle's length through the 1/4 inch fold and poke up a needle's length away.

Picking up only one thread may seem like it won't be very strong, but unless the hem is too long and you trip on it, the hem doesn't get pulled on very much. Once you poke up a needle's length way, begin again by picking up one or two threads.
Even though I used contrasting thread, it is still practically invisible; you may not know what you are looking at, but that is the hem on both sides!

Bunco Party!

My birthday party (which was quite a while ago) was so awesome! Bunco is a super fun thing to do for a birthday. I would totally do it again! Everyone had a good time. We made root beer floats and Daddy made hamburgers.
Mom bought black plates and white stickers, and I spent quite a lot of time sticking the stickers on the plates so that they looked like dice. It took a lot of time, but they were really cute. 
It was rather hot, so the Kalouseks lent us their shade structure. Sadly, as we were putting it together, we realized that in several places it had broken. As we assembled it, it started to break in more than 3 places. It held for the party, but was thrown away afterwords.
A good thing to keep in mind for outdoor parties: cover the food! After everyone was done eating, the flies were swarming and everything left over had to be thrown out.

Willow Creek

So, remember several years ago when we took that camping trip to a place called Willow Creek with the Kalouseks? My arm was broken, and we all had at least a hundred mosquito bites at the end of the trip.
Yes, it was very memorable; I was a bit nervous when Mom and Dad decided to go up for a day to fish. Pack the bug spray!
As soon as we got there, however, there weren't any blood-sucking mosquito's waiting with dinner napkins tied around their tiny, tiny necks. In fact, there weren't really any bugs at all. It was very shady, and a really nice breeze picked up.
I really enjoyed the trip; however, I decided I don't have the patience or the desire to fish. Besides, Dad, who had his line in the entire time, didn't even get a bite. He did see a Pacific Lampray, though, and apparently those are pretty rare.
The best part of the trip was when Camille dragged me into the river, despite it's freezing coldness, and we floated down to our fishing  spot. Then climbed out and did it again. The water was so deep in parts that it went down a good several feet below my toes!
The only glitch in the trip was that Mom had only packed one towel for Benji, in case he got wet. Thankfully, it was long enough that we could spread it out across the seats on the way back.
We also saw a vulture and a couple ospreys on our way there!

The Project, by Brian Falkner

Luke, who lives in Iowa, finds himself in the middle of the flood season. Luke is a bit of a trouble maker and doesn't seem to have any problem breaking school rules with his best friend Tommy. Both fail to turn in a book report, which they were supposed to turn in by the end of the school year, claiming that the book they were supposed to read was, "The most boring book in the world." The principle makes them a deal, saying that if they can find that book on any of the "most boring book lists," that they would not have to do the report.
Luke does not find the book on any of the lists, but does find a book on one of the lists that intrigues him, because there is only one copy in the whole world, and it's whereabouts are unknown.
With the river rising, the library's book are endangered. Luke and Tommy offer to help transfer the book to higher ground. While moving the books, Luke sees the book he read about, called, "Leonardo's River," written by a man in the 18th century. However, he doesn't have time to read it, for so many other books need to be moved.
Later, the boys go back and steal the book, which does not seem to bother them at all.
They also discover that the book has been wanted by a man by the name of Erich Mueller, who knows that they have it.
After doing a great deal of spying, the boys learn that Erich Mueller has plans for a bomb in his briefcase, is German, and has kidnapped their teacher!
Luke finally reads Leonardo's River, which takes him forever because he keeps falling asleep, and discovers the secret to the book. In it, there is a brief mention of something that seems strange, a mention of being able to reverse time. After piecing clues together, Luke figures out that Leonardo Da Vinci must have made a time machine, but didn't want anyone to know about it. The author of the book had learned of it as well, so he hid the clues in the book.
The book disappears, and the boys are kidnapped by Mueller, who they learn is the child of a Nazi, and are taken to Germany. Tommy also magically happens to speak German.
The boys also figure out that Mueller wants to go back in time and give the plans of the bomb to Hitler to change history. Once arriving in Germany, the boys are astonished to see that Da Vinci already made the time machine, but no one knew how to use it. With the book, Mueller and his men use it to leave for the 1940s. Tommy and Luke follow, knowing that they have to get the plans back before they fall into Hitler's hands.
The boys manage to get the plans back and shred them into bits, but Mueller knows that Luke has an amazing photographic memory. Luke and Tommy race the men back to the time machine, with Luke and Tommy arriving first. They jump in and are transported back to present time, and then blow up the time machine as fast as possible.
The book has an intriguing ending, giving you the impression that the clues to the time machine were hidden in story.

I only sort of liked the book; however, I had some problems with the story. First, I didn't like that the boys didn't have any problem with stealing Leonardo's River. Second, I didn't like that Tommy happened to have every spy gadget under the sun, including night vision goggles and a lock-pick. Third, it seemed a little strange that Tommy was able to speak German (what are the chances of that?), and fourth, I did not like the beginning; the whole book didn't pick up until the very middle. Fifth, what boy has perfect memory? I just looked up photographic memory, and it is extremely rare.
So, over all, I had more problems with the book and I don't think I would recommend it just because these things bothered me. The idea was great, but a lot of things could have been changed. Like using a camera instead of having super hero memory. Or not being able to speak German at all. Or happening to find the book somewhere instead of stealing it.