Reenactment!!!!

The reenactment was awesome! I wish we could reenact every week.

Here is a picture of the tea:

Mr. Smith, the Blacksmith; normally his friend Mr. Black accompanies him (that seriously is their names!) :

 Banjo player dude:

 Here is a picture of the men firing off their muskets:

 Drummers:

This is the best picture ever of Camille and I:

Here are some pictures of the dancing:

Camille's Reenactment Dress

I finally finished Camille's dress!!! I am so excited about how it turned out, because I didn't use a pattern. I wanted to make her dress sort of like mine, but as soon as I saw this style, I totally decided to do that instead.

Lizzie again helped me to draft the mock up. She took the pattern to the dress, and made it fit Camille, then chopped off the entire bottom piece so that was left was the top bit to make the yoke.
The bottom part of the bodice was a bit trickier for Lizzie, because she had to make it up. But she was able to pretty much just take a big rectangle and cut out a little bit at the side for more arm room.

 I did the skirt first. It went pretty much just like my dress, but faster, because I did 3 panels instead of 4. I was a little worried that gauging wouldn't turn out very good because there wasn't as much fabric to smoosh up, but it went better than I thought. Somehow, though, the gauging is uneven in the back. I don't know how that happened, but on one side in the back there is a bunch of gauging, and on the other side there isn't really any. Hmmm....
Here is a picture of the skirt before it was gauged:

 Lizzie gave me very clear instructions on the top, which really helped keep me on track. The only part that was really tricky was the waistband. I didn't do a waistband on my dress, so that sort of made it trickier. I had to sew the bodice to the waistband, then sew the skirt to a ribbon, then sew the ribbon to the waistband.

The hardest and most unsure part was cutting the bottom part of the bodice off. Lizzie cut it very generously and told me to cut the bottom bit off. But I didn't know where. So I had Camille try the bodice on, then pinned the waistband over it snugly so it looked like it was gathered. That made it sit just at the right place. Then I took pins and made a line all around the bottom of the bodice, just along where the top of the waistband was. When I took it off, I gathered along that line and then cut off quite a lot off the bottom edge.
What I like about how I did that is it is very straight. Most patterns, just in the spot where there are gathers, go down just a bit, so that it looks straight when you are finished. But making up a pattern, there are usually straight lines, so it sometimes goes up where there are gathers. By doing it this way, I was able to get a pretty straight line.

 The sleeves I shortened from the original pattern and also made it less full, because you want the fullness of the sleeves to match the skirt. 

 For the buttons, I was able to use some really pretty mother-of-pearl ones that belonged to our Great Great Grandmother. Which is pretty neat.

Kuna Caves

On the 4th of July, my family and I took a trip out to the Kuna caves, just because. Dad has always wanted to go; honestly, I could have cared less.
But they were actually pretty cool. Driving out to the middle of someone's field only to find a huge black hole in the ground was more fun than I thought. The hole was really big, and you can't help but wonder who tested the ladder that goes down to the bottom!
It was pretty creepy descending that ladder; when you look down from the top, it sort of bends so that you go just a little more than straight down.
At the bottom, this huge cave had a really high ceiling, and went far back into blackness. Sadly, the walls were covered with graffiti, broken beer bottles littered the ground, and a fire pit long burned out sat right in the middle.
We ventured into the back of the cave, using Dad's phone as a flashlight, until we couldn't because the ceiling was so low.
Even though it was 100 degrees, it was really cool in the cave, and strangely a breeze seemed to come from nowhere.

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!