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As I mentioned, this was originally made for the dinners at OSV but we did also just have a regular visit where Andrew and I dressed up, and I imagine I may dress up at some other points in the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

The past three weeks

So I've gotten bad with updating the blog.  So this is a summary of three weeks.

January 27th - February 2nd

• Upon seeing me dressed in my apron and cap:

Bennett: Are you Victoria?
Me: Do I look like Victoria?
Bennett: Yes.  Are you Ryan?
Me: Do I look like Ryan?
Bennett: Yes.

          I guess this means my costume is a success!

• The next day, after I had put my apron on, he told me I needed my cap so that my hair wouldn't get dirty.

•  Wore a play skirt as an apron.  Said he needed it so that his clothes wouldn't get dirty.

Playing with the Lego "mall"

Bennett made a card/craft project for Nana's birthday

• Saturday Bennett had skating and then he went to Aunt Gentry and Uncle Andrew's house for a bit so that I could do some sewing and get my hair cut.  We then went to visit Daddy who was working all day/evening (tech).  Bennett fell asleep at 6:45 in the car on our way home.

• On Sunday we had our weekly trip to OSV.  Bennett helped the farmers split logs for fence posts.  In the tin shop he had lots of fun playing with the various sizes of measures.  We also learned the names of two more interpreters.

• It got slightly overcooked, but the weekly pie was apple.

February 3rd - 9th

• On Monday he started falling asleep during dinner due to lack of nap

• On Wednesday we had a snow day.  Mummy tried to do some work from home but Bennett watched a bunch of TV and we also went outside and shoveled the driveway a couple of times.

• On Thursday Nana came over for dinner and then played Legos with Bennett.

• On Saturday we went to Sturbridge where they were celebrating Valentine's Day.  Victoria was portraying Esther Howland, the woman who popularized Valentine's in the U.S.  She was in a different building than she normally is and this building also has some dress up clothes.  So Bennett dressed up as Dave.  :)  The sleeves on his shirt were a bit long, but as Victoria mentioned, she doesn't recall ever having seen Dave with his sleeves rolled down.

Bennett made this valentine and later gave it to Victoria. 
She then gave him one in return.

• In the tin shop Bennett again had fun playing with all of the measures.  As we were leaving the village we ran into Phil (the tinner) and he gave us a tour of the tin production shop, musket storage, etc.

• At Victoria's recommendation, the weekly pie was a chicken pie.  Pretty simple- just chicken and gravy in a crust.

• On Sunday we went to the local sledding hill.  We went up pretty high and had a blast, but other than in this one photo we had Bennett walk up the hill, and after having done that a few times he was tired out.  (But pulling him up was too much work for us.)

• Other Sunday afternoon activities included working on writing his name on his Valentine's for school, reading books, and playing out various things from Sturbridge.  In this case, he was chopping wood and putting it in the woodbox, and also fixing a gate because Henry broke it.

February 10th - 16th

Opening a Valentine's gift from Grandma and Grandpa Tedford

Brrr.... it was cold!

• On Thursday we got another big snowstorm so we left work early.  Of course this was the first day of the week that Bennett actually napped and he didn't like being woken up.  He was very disoriented and didn't understand why he was going home from school.

• Happy Valentine's Day!  He had gifts to open from us and also from Nana.

• Saturday was another trip to OSV.  He had fun playing in the snow.

• While we were in the farmhouse we had this conversation:

Bennett: I want to go back outside
Me: Now, it's cold out.
Bennett: I want to be cold.

• We also stopped at the shoe shop.  I had ordered a pair of shoes to go with my costume but they needed to be finished.  (They are left unfinished so that you can add buckles/laces however you want.)  I'm sure I could have done it myself, but Peter was nice enough to finish them up for me.

• We got more snow on Saturday night, so on Sunday we cleaned up driveway from more snow plus I climbed up on a small roof to clear off more snow/ice from the gutters.

• Grandpa came over for dinner and the weekly pie was a Jefferson Davis Pie.

In other completely unrelated news, I recently was looking through some old pictures- slides that I had scanned years ago- and I came across this one of OSV.  Based on the date of 1978, I would guess that this might have been from my very first visit.  I'm guessing an extended family member also came along since all 4 of us are pictured here.  (Ok, technically I'm not pictured, but at less than a year old I'm either in the stroller or in arms- certainly not taking the picture.)  It's interesting to see how much is the same and what has changed.  There were a few other pictures from that trip, but it's a little hard to tell what some of them are of.

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.