OSV costume

I'd like to preface this by saying that this outfit is all Andrew's fault.  :)  Last year Chris and I went to a dinner at Sturbridge and had so much fun that we knew we wanted to do it again.  We convinced Andrew and Gentry to join us the next year and they agreed.  (We also convinced our friends to do a dinner, so we are going to a private dinner next month.)  Back in the spring or early summer Andrew announced that he was going to make an outfit for himself and Gentry (turns out she didn't get one after all) and that I should do the same for myself and Chris.  I knew I wasn't going to make one for Chris as men's attire doesn't really interest me that much, but I was up for making myself a costume.  I ordered some linen and then looked at the box for about 5 or 6 months before finally starting.  Below is a breakdown of all of the pieces of my costume, some with pictures, some without.  At some point I would like to get decent pictures of all the various pieces, but who knows when that will happen.

As I mentioned, this was originally made for the dinners at OSV but we did also just have a regular visit where Andrew and I dressed up, and I imagine I may dress up at some other points in the future as well.

Shift: This was the first part of the costume that I made.  I figured I should start with the layer closest to the skin and work out.  I started it back in November, I think, got frustrated with it, and then finally got around to finishing it (in about a day) in early January.  In my defense, I did have a couple of Christmas knitting projects that took precedence. I used directions from The Workwoman's Guide which proved to be rather challenging for me.  I guess I'm used to more clear cut tutorials.

Stays: Before starting I made the decision to make a trial/practice set of stays, with the knowledge that I may not get to the "real" stays in time for the dinner.  I used fabric that I had on hand, so it's completely unauthentic, but really all it cost me was a couple bucks for the cording (yarn) and time.  Lots of time.  When I make my second set of stays I'll definitely make some changes so that they fit better, lowering the waist and maybe doing something with the straps/neckline since even with it laced well it still seems very loose.

Pockets: These were pretty basic.  Just some white linen.  I did refer to The Workwoman's Guide again for this.  Maybe not perfect, but no one will see them and they should work fine.

Corded Petticoat:  I can't even begin to imagine how long this would take someone sewing by hand!  Mine certainly has a lot more cording than some examples, but I like the rigidity that it provides.  It has 35 rows of cording in the bottom section, 20 rows in the middle section, and about 12 in the top section.  I also put a tuck between the bottom and middle sections to make it a smidge shorter.  After this was done it got starched to make it hold its shape even more.  Yes, it will pretty much stand up on its own.

Bustle: It looks so pretty in this picture!  This was another quick project using The Workwoman's Guide.  There was one step that I'm not quite sure if I did it correctly, but I'm not sure how else to have done it.  In this picture it had received a couple of coats of spray starch.  I later gave it a much heavier starching.  This made it much harder to gather up on the waist band, but does give it more body.

Second Petticoat: This was really simple.  Just a plain circle gathered onto a waistband.  Like the corded petticoat it also got a tuck to make it a smidge shorter.  And it got starched as well, but not as heavily as the bustle or the corded petticoat.

Dress: This was a bit of a pain.  I ended up changing the neckline which then presented some other issues.  It's still a bit loose in the bodice so I may go back and fix that.  Of course this means lots of ripping out of seams, especially since I added piping at the top and bottom.

Sleeve plumpers: The sleeves of the dress don't stay that big on their own! Historically plumpers would have been attached to your stays, but if I do that my plumpers don't fit into the arm holes of the dress.  So my method is to insert the plumper into the sleeve, then my arm, and then creatively tie the plumper to the strap of my stays.

Shoes: These didn't arrive as I imagined, but since they took about 6 weeks to get to me from when I ordered them and it was only a little over a week before the dinner, I  made the most of them.  I did later contact the company and they did give me a 20% discount.  If I hadn't already worn them I could have returned them for a full refund.  But due to the timing, I wouldn't have had shoes to wear.

The shoes come with the straps unfinished so that you can finish them however you wish.  I brought them with me to Sturbridge one day and asked the shoemaker to help.  :)

Bonnet: I think the bonnet is perhaps my favorite part of the costume, and I only wear it for a short time- from when I arrive at the Village until I get to the building where the dinner is held and then back again.  So maybe 10-15 minutes total?  And that includes time in the Visitors Center waiting for everyone to arrive.

The bonnet starts off with a buckram frame.  It's three pieces of buckram with wire at the top, the edge of the brim, and where the brim meets the crown.  Buckram is very stiff on its own and then the wire helps it keep its shape.

I then covered the buckram frame with fabric- silk on the outside and a cotton lining inside.  The cotton was a bit too sheer at first, so I had to do two layers.  It was a little tricky figuring out which pieces of fabric to sew when so that seems would be mostly hidden.  Then when it was all done I sewed down some flowers and feathers.

Tyre: I would have just called it an apron, but one of the interpreters told me that it's called a tyre.  I took measurements and traced the curves of one of the tyres at the village.  It looks a little funky when my petticoats are as big as they are, but it laid much better before they were starched.

Cloak: I made this in high school.  I would have liked to alter it a bit but I didn't have time.  Maybe for the second dinner?  The other problem with it is that it just looks silly when I'm wearing my sleeve plumpers.  Oh well.  Luckily, like my bonnet, it's only being worn for a short time.

Fortnightly review

Once again this post will cover multiple weeks.  One of these days I'll get back into regular weekly posting.  Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

We start off our recap with Presidents' Day.  Chris and I had off from work but Bennett's daycare was open.  We took advantage of that and took a trip to Ikea.  Then in the afternoon I finished sewing a bonnet for my costume.

Bennett and Daddy later had lots of fun racing some cars down a ramp made of Ikea boxes.

One day while in the car Bennett drew a picture of our cat Tony.  We didn't see what he was doing as he was drawing, but he mentioned legs, a tail, the head, a collar, and a heart shaped tag.  Considering most of his drawings are still indiscernible scribbles, we were rather impressed when we saw this.

On the 22nd Bennett had his last skating class.  They gave him a ribbon indicating that he had passed Tot 1, but we're pretty skeptical about that.  We had decided to hold off on signing him up again though because he spends a lot of time on the ice just people watching and doesn't seem all that interested.  So maybe next year he'll be back?

The other exciting part of our weekend was that Chris and I along with Andrew, Gentry, and 9 strangers participated in a Dinner in a Country Village at OSV.  Sturbridge explains it best:

Enjoy a unique opportunity to prepare and eat a meal as early New Englanders did. Participants gather in the Parsonage, where costumed interpreters oversee the preparations, but the guests do the roasting, baking, and mulling. Roast meat using a tin reflector oven, fire a brick bake oven, and mull spiced cider over the hearth before sitting down to enjoy the results, all by candlelight.

Chris and I had gone to one of these events last March and knew we wanted to do it again.  Andrew and Gentry agreed to join us, and Andrew also suggested that I dress up, so for the past two months I've been busy sewing.  I'll get more into my costume at a later time, but for now here are a few pictures from the dinner.

While we were out Bennett spent the night with Nana.  He had lots of fun baking, playing in the snow, etc.

On Sunday we picked Bennett up from Nana's house and went back to OSV.  Yes, it's official.  We're crazy.  I showed a picture of my costume to one of the interpreters and her first thought was that I was Victoria.  (Woo hoo!  My costume was a success.)  She then asked me why I didn't work/volunteer at OSV.

It was a good visit with a couple of baby animals.  Button had her calf, a girl, earlier in the week  Button and the calf were in a mostly private barn but one of the interpreters snuck us in to take a look.  Button apparently wasn't too thrilled because she pushed the door closed on us.  The message was clear- stay away from my baby.

There also was a baby lamb.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the afternoon though was the running of the sheep.  Typically the sheep are kept in a pasture at one side of the common during the day, and in the afternoon they run down the common to go to their barn for the night.  At first that's what we thought was happening, but then we realized that none of the interpreters were around.  Turns out the sheep had broken through their gate.  Unfortunately the gate by the barn was closed so there were a number of confused sheep milling around.  We thought about opening the gate for them, but soon a couple of interpreters arrived.

Bennett quickly turned a toy cow/ox/calf that he had received in January into Button's calf for use on his farm.  "Shhh, my Button's calf is sleeping."

Continuing with the weekly pie, we once again had a Pork and Apple Pie.

Moving on to this past week...

Here I am rocking my baby while he rocks his baby

On Saturday morning I wanted to make my pie and Chris was busy with other things.  I let Bennett watch Cars, but since I also wanted him to eat some breakfast (he chose cheese and crackers) I set him up on the couch with a tray.  This worked rather well for containing crumbs.  Otherwise he would have been up and down from the couch or would have forgotten about eating.

And speaking of pie, I found a new one in one of my cookbooks called Fruit Salad Pie.  It had banana, pineapple, and strawberries with tapioca as a thickener/binder.  It was ok, but I'm not sure that I would make it again.

After the pie came out of the oven we headed out to Sturbridge.  Knowing that Button was going to have a calf soon we stopped at the gift shop and picked up a toy calf for Bennett so that he would have it when the time came. A few minutes later we learned that Bonnie had had her calf the night before.  And it was a boy!  The hope is now that Betsy will also have a boy so that they can be raised as a pair of oxen.  If Betsy has a girl then this boy would be raised for about a year and then it would be sold.

We suggested to Rhys (the interpreter in charge of all the animals) that this new calf should be named Bennett since we come so often.  We'll have to see if that happens.  As it is, Button's calf still doesn't have a name.  Rhys gave Bennett and I a sneak peek at the calf and later he brought others into the pen as well, but we lucked out with a much longer look.  Since Chris had been in the cooper shop when Bennett and I saw the calf, he joined the line of people to get the quick peek.  I had Bennett go with him and I gave Bennett the new calf.  He proudly showed the calf his Bonnie's calf and Rhys asked if that was the calf for his Freeman Farm.


Bennett had also brought his Doc and Blue with him and of course had to show them to the real Doc and Blue.  Here we have Blue giving Doc a bath.

After Sturbridge we headed out to Agawam.  Luckily Bennett fell asleep quickly in the car, but it was still a shorter nap than we would have liked.  Oh well.  He had a blast playing with the other kids (he excitedly told us about their dance party).  I'm sure he frustrated them a bit given that there's a bit of an age difference, but they were pretty good about it.

On Sunday we had a relatively quiet day.  We visited Mimi and then ran some other errands.

Recapping the last two weeks

I never got around to updating the blog last week, so this will cover the past two weeks, mostly with pictures and just a bit of text thrown in for good measure.

Wearing his kilt to school

Bowling with Daddy

A little over a month ago we took our cat to the vet as she had lost weight and wasn't eating.  Two weeks ago we knew it was time to have her put down.  She had lost even more weight, she wasn't eating, she was having diarrhea daily, and was having trouble jumping onto the bed and couch.  We brought Bennett with us so that he could say goodbye, and also so that we could maybe explain things a bit better rather than him coming home and wondering where she was.  When we got back from the vet he said to the other cat, "Tony, Brit not here.  She still at the doctor."  We drive past the vet daily, so we've had a few more conversations about Brit and we just keep explaining that her heart stopped beating and she stopped breathing, and that means that she died.  And when you die, you go to a cemetery.  Pretty sure he doesn't fully understand the cemetery concept, but we can explain that one more another time.

On Saturday we continued the weekly trips to OSV.  They were baking down at the Freeman Farm, including a pork & apple pie.  Here Victoria measures molasses for a gingerbread.

Lance and Henry in the snow

Bennett discovered our Legos, or more precisely, Daddy built the Grand Emporium, or "the mall" as Bennett calls it.  He loved looking at everything and moving the people around.

Inspired by OSV, I made my own pork & apple pie.

On Sunday we celebrated Auntie Hanna's 19th birthday!

Naps have been a bit wonky these past couple of weeks.  One week he only napped two days, the next he napped 3 days.

Watching a parade.  Or were they in the parade?

We finally upgraded the cardboard barns from Bennett's barnyard to the wood ones.  This also meant the big barn got a roof.  It's a little snug, but he's doing ok with it.

The sheep were given some hay.

The chickens laid eggs. 
When we next went to OSV we told Dave about this. 
Dave asked where they laid eggs and Bennett said
"In the chicken coop, in the nesting boxes." 
Hmm, do we really need to make nesting boxes?

The pigs are eating toast. 
Previously the toast had been electric blankets for the cows and chickens, a la Click, Clack, Moo

More playing with the mall.

This past Friday Bennett was sent home from school with 102.9 fever.  After nap we checked again and even after some Tylenol it had gone up to 103.1.  We took him to the doctor but since there were no other symptoms, his ears were fine, and the strep culture came back negative we just needed to wait it out.  By Saturday morning the fever was gone and he was feeling fine.  We skipped skating but then went to OSV where we went on sleigh ride around the common, saw the stagecoach in the parsonage barn, and helped fill the parsonage wood box.  We're getting used to these quiet winter days at the village.  The crowds of summer are going to be a shock to us!

On Sunday Daddy went to work to make up for the time he had lost on Friday when Bennett was home sick.  Bennett turned his toy workbench into a forge and played "blackmsith".  He watched a bunch of Curious George and then played in my craft room while I tried to do some sewing.

Wearing one of his capes.

More pie baking this week.  On Monday since I was home for MLK Day I baked a cherry pie.

My weekend pie was a quiche for dinner on Sunday.

So what's this sewing I've been working on?  I'm making an 1830's outfit to wear to OSV for a couple of their upcoming Dinner in a Country Village events that we are going to.

Corded petticoat.  3 sections of cording. 
Bottom section has 35 rows, middle has 20, top section has 15 rows.

Here's my shift, stays (I will be remaking these), corded petticoat, and 2nd petticoat. 
I still need to make sleeve supports and likely a small bustle.

And the mock-up of the bodice.  Need to change a couple of things.

Evolution of a Halloween Costume

This past week was pretty much all about getting ready for Halloween.

Here's what I was making.  Meet Doc (and his teammate, Blue).

Cutting out the fabric took longer than anticipated so at first I was feeling a little stressed about getting the costume done in time.  But once I got sewing, it went together pretty quickly.

SUNDAY
Realized that for the suggested layout of the pattern pieces, I couldn't have the fabric folded in half.  Ugh.  Cutting out fabric is tedious!

MONDAY
Finished cutting everything out, and after night one of sewing I had this:

TUESDAY
The next night, after we got home from work/school, I had Bennett try it on so that I could mark the hems.  He was so excited that there was a tail!

That same evening, while Chris worked on making dinner, I started working on the head covering.  It's a good thing that I did this while Bennett was awake, because I had to do a couple of adjustments to get it to fit right.  After he went to bed, I finished putting it together and got this:

At which point, I figured I might as well try putting some paint on it.

WEDNESDAY

The  next evening I had Bennett try the whole thing on, including the mittens and foot coverings.  He was excited to see that his head covering (hood? hat?) had "corns".

And then Daddy did a test fit of the yoke. (One must be on all fours like an ox for this part, right?)

After Bennett went to bed I stuffed the costume with bubble wrap and taped it to the drop cloth on my floor so that I could better visualize how it would stand on all fours so that I could get the rest of the paint done. And then every time I walked past my craft room I thought there was something in there. 

I also decided to give my old stage makeup a try.   It didn't go as well as I would have liked.  Maybe because it's about 17 years old?  I also didn't have the best of luck taking it off, so decided it wouldn't work for Bennett.  Instead I turned to Amazon and ordered some face paint.  Yay for Prime shipping!

THURSDAY
Not too much left to do.  I had decided that the mittens I made probably wouldn't be the best, so ran to Target in search of black mittens.  Easier said than done.  So many black mittens have other color on them as well.  I did find some "ski mittens" which have the long arm gaiters.  Tried them on Bennett and he declared them "too big".  Checked at home and found that we did in fact have a couple of other pairs that might work, but Bennett wasn't a big fan of either of them.  Maybe if he's cold enough he'll give in and wear them?

After Bennett went to bed I added some velcro to the hood to keep it on and Chris also did a little more work on the yoke.

FRIDAY
Face paint arrived!  I had it shipped to my work address and the box was sitting on my desk when I walked in.

And then after work/school, we went to Sturbridge for their "Treats & Tricks" event.  Unfortunately we weren't able to attend.  (Hurumph.)  It was a free eent this year and there were too many people trying to attend.  We had left work early to try to beat some of the traffic, but we ended up spending over an hour and a half to drive two miles.  We arrived right at 8 when the event ended.  What was frustrating about it was that the way the roads are in that area, there's really no way to give up and turn around- we were stuck.

SATURDAY
We decided that Bennett should go in costume for our weekly visit.

I'm inclined to say that most people didn't recognize him at first.  Maybe some did?  But after hearing that he was Doc, they then agreed that yes, he did look like Doc.  One of the interpreters was very excited to see that his back was in fact painted like a Randall Lineback. 

Here's mini Doc with the real Doc and Blue behind him.

We tried to get him to work at the cider mill, but he knew Henry was supposed to do it.  (You can see Henry waiting to get hooked up in the next picture.)  Daddy tried to show Bennett how it was done, but he wanted nothing to do with it.

We made our way down to the farm and Victoria loved the costume.  Bennett walked in first and I could tell that she was looking at him trying to figure it out.  And she did!  (Maybe it helped that last week I had mentioned he would be either Doc or Blue?)  But what was even better was when she pulled out her phone and handed it to me so that we could get a picture of him for her so that she could share it with Dave. 

If Dave had been working we likely would have asked him if it would be possible to get a picture of Bennett with the real Doc, but we didn't feel comfortable asking that of any of the others.  Instead we lifted Bennett over a fence to get pictures of him in a field.  We asked him to get down on all fours, but he didn't want to do that.

And here are a couple other pictures from our visit.

And where's the yoke, you ask?  Since it was made from a garden hose Chris tried painting it.  But the paint remained tacky, so we had to skip using it.  Maybe we'll have it ready for Halloween?