A thought on knitting

This past weekend L and I went to a reenactment in Michigan. While there I was chatting with a woman who was knitting a scarf. When she learned that I had taught myself to knit without a teacher she was impressed, especially when she found out I made mittens first. When I started knitting I wanted to make something useful. As I'm sure I mentioned before, I didn't want or need a scarf, I wanted mittens!! Anyway, the lady knitting showed me how she was doing cabling. It looks like something I want to try next. Maybe in a few months you will see a knitted project with cabling. It will all depend on how many other projects get in the way.

Too Small!!

From my sneak preview a couple months ago (here), you may have guessed that I was making L a new waistcoat for reenacting. Because I was starting from the beginning, I wanted to make it as authentic as possible. This means that I needed to completely hand stitch the entire thing, start to finish, button hole and all. That first day I cut out the pattern in a size based on the measurements I had taken of L the night before. After that I cut out the lining and had it completely together by the time he came home from work. He tried it on, and IT WAS TOO SMALL. I was able to remedy this by added a small triangular section across the shoulder. 

From then on I sewed here and there whenever I had the time or got into the mood. Recently I had finished attaching the lining and the pockets and all that was needed were button holes and buttons. I had L try it on, just for good measure, and it was once again too small. 

(Insert picture here of sad looking husband in a too small waistcoat)

So for now this project has reached the back burner as those of you who have ever hand sewn anything know that you don't want to undo your hard work. Plus, I haven't figured out how exactly I'm going to fix said waistcoat.

Oh well

We are reenactors

Husband and I are French and Indian War reenactors. He's been reenacting since he was young, and I have been since 15. I don't remember the story of how his family started, but I started when my best friend invited me to join her family for the weekend. That weekend was a lot of fun! Husband and I actually met at that same reenactment the next year when we were 16. It's funny because that weekend a lady was telling us about how she had met her husband at an event years ago and I thought that was the cutest thing, but enough about us.

I have slowly been working on replacing our machine sewn clothing with hand sewn because only rich people had sewing machines in the mid 18th century (that's 1750s for those of you who get confused by centuries like I do). Sewing by hand can take forever, but I find it relaxing to be able to sew anywhere I want; in font of the TV, in my sewing room, on the couch, in bed, while I'm driving, at dinner (ok, so I admit, I've never done those last two.)

Last fall I began working on a Robe à l’Anglaise (or English Nightgown) for myself as I had had been reenacting for a while and wanted a fancy dress for a Christmas ball we were having.

Underneath the dress is a set of panniers. They enhance your hips and allow more of the dress fabric to be shown. I made my own pair, but do not have a picture. They look like this:

(source)

Every piece of this dress is hand sewn, and while I didn't keep track of how long it took, if I had to guess it would be over 48 hours of sewing. 

This is the best picture I could get of the pleating I did on the back of the dress. The pleats flow down into the skirt of the dress. 

In my sneak peek from earlier this week, I started working on a new waistcoat for Husband. I haven't finished it yet, but I promise it will be done soon.