Mitts, Muffs, and Hoods: A Winter Skill-building Sewing Weekend--Information

Those post is for those who do not have access to Facebook.

We will be holding an 18th century sewing weekend on Saturday Feb. 11 at historic Carroll Baldwin Hall in Savage, Maryland.  If you are a historic costumer/reenactor, we suggest dressing in period dress to make this a more authentic hands on experience but this is not a requirement for participation.

The day will begin at 9:30 am with a meet and greet session.  We will then be treated to a presentation by Carolyn Dowdell about how women kept warm during the 18th century.

We will then have 3 hands on workshops:

Mitts

Mitts were an important accessory for women in the 18th century. They were important for warmth during the colder months and sun protection during the warmer months. Our mitts workshop will focus on mitts for the winter. We will be using fitting muslins in a variety of sizes prepared by the instructor using the pattern in Costume Closeup to find the right fit . We will then cut out and stitch a pair of wool mitts with an optional silk lined tip. Participants will learn to do the herringbone and edge herringbone embroidery stitches as part of constructing their personal mitts.

Participants will bring a half yard of light weight wool--preferably something fulled like flannel or lightweight broadcloth with matching sewing thread (typically silk or cotton quilting). If they'd like a lined tip, they may bring a scrap of silk with matching thread as well. They will also need embroidery needles. The instructor will supply silk stranded embroidery floss in a variety of colors. She will also have some scraps of silk taffeta on hand in several colors for those who may need some to line their mitts.

Vicki Embrey will teach this workshop (Hey! That's me!). She has been sewing since she was a child and she studied French hand sewing and English smocking before becoming involved with the reenacting community. She recently taught the caps workshop at the Sky Meadows weekend hosted by Mrs. Boice's Academie Historie.

Muffs

Muffs have been a popular winter fashion accessory for hundreds of years. In our muffs class, we will be exploring example of 18th century muffs then we will begin making a muff cover as well as a simple white muff insert. Participants will bring precut rectangles of their chosen fabric as well as trims they may wish to use for decoration. They will also be given a link to purchase a premade muff insert if they prefer to do so. These details will be on our supply list which will be uploaded early January.

Our instructor for this class will be Sarah Cooper. Sarah has over 20 years' experience sewing everything from pajama pants to historic ball gowns. Sarah has worked and volunteered with museums that cover the 18th through early 20th centuries and has created her own clothing collection to match, as well as sewing for customers, coworkers, and friends. Although she would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite era, Sarah is most interested in working-class clothing throughout history. She is currently creating the costume collection for the Agricultural History Farm Park in Derwood, MD, which is set to kick off their season next year focusing on 1917.

Hoods

Although we think of hoods attached to cloaks, they did exist as a separate garment in the 17th & 18th centuries. Most popular for Englishwomen in the late -17th century, American utilitarian extants do exist that are dated in the 18th c. Earlier style hoods are fitted close to the head and with, or without, a small cape like the gray silk one dated from 1750-1790 in Sharon Burnston's book "Fitting and Proper". By the 1770's they would be fashioned with room for bigger hairstyles of that era, like the 1776 quilted black sarsenet extant in LACMA's collection which also features a small cape. However, references to hoods do not appear in runaway adverts in either "Had On Took With Her" or "Wenches Wives and Servant Girls", leaving us to speculate on their actual value as a fashion accessory. However there is no doubt that a wool hood adds warmth when worn over a cap but without a cloak for 'hands free' working OR under a hooded cloak for extra warmth. Bring 1/2 yard, 54+" wide wool and 1/2 yard of silk taffeta (black or any 18th c. color), matching thread, 2 yards ribbon or plain linen tape, to fashion your own plain OR lined hood, with OR without a small cape. Choose from either the earlier, fitted hood style OR 1770's large hood style during the workshop - with or without a narrow cape.

The event will include lunch and dinner will beverages and snacks available throughout the day concluding at 8 pm.

If you choose to arrive early, we will meet for dinner at the Rams Head Tavern at historic Savage Mill which is across the street from the venue and we will tie up any loose ends over brunch Sunday morning.

A supply list will be uploaded to the registration page the first week of January.  

For those who must travel--a list of hotels is available on our REGISTRATION PAGE.

Payment information is also available there.

The fee is $100.

We MUST have 20 people registered by12/29/16 in order for this event to take place as we have to pay for the venue by the end of the month.  If we fail to get enough people to register, we will refund the registration to those who paid,

Mitts, Muffs and Hoods: A skill-building sewing weekend--Registration

Registration is now closed for new participants.

Just to recap a few details here:
Date:  Feb. 11, 2017
Time:  9:30 am - 8 pm
Location:  Carroll Baldwin Hall  9035 Baltimore St, Savage, Maryland 20763

Check in begins at 9:15 am.

Format:  We will have a presentation about how women kept warm in the winter and learn about winter garments followed by 3 workshops in which we make or start a pair of mitts, a hood, and a muff using 18th century construction techniques.  All of these projects require a half yard of fabric or less.  A materials list will be available for download here soon.  A hotel list is available for download here as well.


All downloadable forms will be available on this page. We will update as needed.



If you still have an outstanding balance, please sent it to:

Kozy Kitty
P.O. Box 415
Savage, MD  20763

Note--Due to the financial constraints that many people face this time of year, we are happy to offer a 2 payment plan for those paying by check.  If you wish to take advantage of this, follow the paying by check instructions above but enclose a check for $50.  You will receive an email reminder the first week of January to mail your second payment of $60 by Jan. 25.



Hotel Information:

Click on link below for pdf hotel list.

Hotel List


Workshop Materials List:

Will be emailed to you directly.

1790's Headdress -- a tutorial

Necessity is the mother of invention, or so they say.  When making preparations to attend a 1790's ball, it occurred to me that I didn't have the proper accessories to wear with my Chemise a la Reine as I had styled it from a portrait from 1783.  I originally made a lovely straw hat to wear with it during the day which you can see in this post.  I thought a headdress of some sort plus 1790's shoes were in order to wear to a ball that included an evening of English Country Dance.   I envisioned something with plumes that could be worn with my hedgehog wig.  I looked at some portraits:

I was particularly taken with the last portrait.  I love the wispiness of the sheer fabric along with the darker band and pearls.  I used this for my inspiration.    

For my project, I used the following materials:  Silk taffeta, silk gauze,  batting, glass pearls, wire, felt, ostrich plumes.  The first task was to measure the size of the band needed.  I blocked my wig on a head block which matches my size and measured.  I tamed the wig a bit with bobby pins and used a measuring tape to determine the size of the band.  It measured around 30 inches.

I rolled the thin batting to make a long solid tube around an inch in diameter by 30 inches long then stitched the tube closed.

Next, I folded the cut edge of my silk in by 1/4 inch and rolled it around the tube, pinning it in place.

I stitched the silk in place, connected the ends and sewed the silk closed.

The band is complete.  I checked to make sure the fit was correct.

Next I strung my glass pearls on a piece of beading wire.  At this point I wasn't sure how many beads I'd need so I figured I'd cut the wire long enough to be able to add more beads if I needed them.

I wrapped the beads around the fabric tube and twisted the wire ends together, hiding them in the folds of the fabric.

I placed the band on the wig again and used my measuring tape to try to "guesstimate" the size of the circle I would need for the sheer part of the headpiece.  This was definitely a situation of making it up as I went along!  I determined that I would need a 30 inch wide circle in order to have enough fabric to manipulate it into folds of some sort.

I pressed under 1/4 inch around the edge of the circle and pleated it to the headpiece.  I didn't measure the pleats, but they were quite deep--over an inch deep. When I was pleased with the pleating, I whip stitched it in place to the headpiece.

Here is the result so far.  The sheer part of the cap is very tall--much like a chef's hat!  Now it's time to manipulate it!

This part is hard to describe.  I pushed the center of the cap down and made random pleats with the fabric while the headpiece was on the wig.  I pinned each pleat in place.

Here you can see the pleats from the top. These pleats were just invisibly tacked in place rather than stitched down.

I knew that I'd need a way to secure the plumes so I made a half cockade.  I cut a strip of silk 4 - 5 inches wide, folded it in half lengthwise and pressed it.  I pleated the strip to form a half of a cockade and pressed it.  The pleats were then stitched in place from behind.

The inspiration portrait has 3 plumes:  two white ones with a black one in the middle on top of the white ones--so I decided to do something similar.  The plumes were curled so they did not stand up straight and positioned them the way I wanted them.  I had cut two pieces of blue felt into half circles smaller than my cockade.  The plumes were sandwiched between the felt pieces and stitched in place.

The cockade was stitched on top of the felt pieces, stitching under the pleats and along the bottom.

The plume assembly was then secured to the headpiece by tucking it in the headband and stitching it in place to the band.  This does leave it somewhat lose when wearing but I use pearl headed hat pins to secure it better to my hair.  The pins can be hidden in the folds of the fabric.

Here's a view from the top.

I also decided to add some shoe clips to my American Duchess Pemberly shoes.  I had previously worn my chemise with 1780's shoes and I wanted to dress up my plain Pemberly pair.

Materials for this project were scraps of heavy Pellon, 1.5 inch double faced silk satin ribbon, shoe clips.

I cut pieces of Pellon to the contour of the shoe for the base of the ornament.  I then gathered the ribbon as shown in this post.

The ends of the ribbon were tucked under and the gathered ribbon was tacked to the Pellon base. Three shoe clips were attached to make sure that the clips would be secure during a night of dancing.

Fancy!

Here are some pics from the ball showing the finished items!  

The complete outfit included the items made plus a blue silk sash, a lover's eye pendant (tutorial in this post) and white leather gloves.  Chemise a la Reine is worn over 18th century stays, Regency chemise and two white linen petticoats. Ties were added inside the side backs of the Chemise to draw up the train. Earrings are by Dames a la Mode.

I love having several sets of accessories to make this gown work for two different decades!

Quickie project! A new short gown.

I needed something fairly quick to wear on a warm weekend so I decided to bite the bullet and finally make a short gown.  I'm not sure why I had such an aversion to them in the past.  They really are practical little garments.  They're unlined, which removes one layer making them nice in warmer weather.  They're also not fitted which eliminates a whole world of problems.

I started researching them and found that linen is the most common fabric used so I picked up a brown striped mid weight linen.  I like the reduced pattern in Fitting and Proper by Sharon Burston. This pattern was made from an extant example.  I enlarged the pattern and it clearly wasn't going to fit without major alterations which I just didn't have time for so I pulled out the JP Ryan pattern that I happened to have.  The JPR pattern instructions have you making the garment by machine.  I knew this pattern would fit so I cut it out all in one piece and I used the instructions in Fitting and Proper for constructing it by hand.

I whip stitched the side seams before realizing that they should've been flat felled so I felled the inside which rendered them nearly invisible.  The back pleats were stitched with running stitches and whipstitched in place on the inside.

side seam

back pleats

Inside of back

The neck edge, front edge, hem and sleeves were hemmed with a 1/4 inch hem.  I used a facing at the back neck where the pleats are as turning it in twice there would be too bulky.  This is the way the extant in the book was constructed as well.

That was it!  No lining or anything fiddly involved with this one.  I've already decided to do one with long sleeves:  wool lined with linen.  It was an enjoyable project.

Front

Back

Here's one view of the short gown being worn:

Inspired by a runaway ad from 1780:  "Ran away on Monday morning the 20th instant, an Irish servant girl named Jane Smith . . .had on and took with her, a striped short gown, striped lincey petticoat, a pair of new stockings, new shoes, and a new check handkerchief:  She stole and took with her a dark gray cloak almost new,  a green bonnet with a white ribbond round it, a pair of silver shoe bucles, a pair of white mitts, and about forty dollars in Continental money. . ."

Wearing the drapes! Not just in movies any more! (a tutorial)

I've had a few occasions that required Regency dress lately so I decided that I really needed to make a new Regency gown. My current Regency gowns include a wool worsted winter gown, a silk ball gown and the first reenacting gown I ever made of dotted Swiss which was machine sewn. It's time for one based on research rather than one simply made from a pattern.  

I've always been enamored by the wispy white muslin Regency gowns--particularly those that have whitework embroidery of some sort.  I had been fortunate enough to come across a pair of antique white muslin curtains with a tambour embroidery.  The curtains were quite large--measuring 90 X 90 inches.  I used part of one to make a lovely 18th century tambour work apron which you can see in this post..  I was still left with one untouched curtain and most of the 2nd one so it seemed like I had plenty of fabric to use for a gown.   

Here are some examples of existing extant embroidered gowns from the Regency era:

1804-05 French origin  V&A Museum

Unknown origin--believed to be British

Napolean and Empire exhibit

Unknown European origin

Kent State Costume Collection

Early 1800's Boston Museum of Fine Art

The first consideration is how much embroidery you have, the size of the embroidery and where you would like it to appear on the gown.  This curtain panel had embroidery on the bottom edge only.  I decided that I wanted the embroidery to be around the skirt and on the sleeve as in the very last picture above.  This sleeve style is representative of an earlier gown ca.1800-1805.  I decided to use the Sense and Sensibility pattern, going with the bodice from the Butterick pattern with drawstrings and a higher neckline.  

The curtain fabric is very sheer so I felt that I could use the full 90 inch width since it wouldn't be too thick when gathered.  The first quandary was where to place the seams.  The pattern I was using has side seams with no center front or back seam.  I really wanted to keep the seams to a minimum since it would disrupt the embroidery pattern so I decided to simply have a single back seam.  First I folded the curtain in half and I placed the front pattern piece on the fold and the back piece with the center back at the selvedge  edge.  I cut one single piece connecting the two--marking where the front side seams would be.  The extra fabric was to be worked into the back.

I still had half of the first curtain left over so I placed the sleeves on that hem after determining the length they would be, then I used the scraps of the remaining part of the curtain to cut the bodice out.

As this fabric is extremely sheer, I made tiny French seams first in the sleeve then the center back, leaving open at the top about 6 inches for a placket.

Since there was a center back seam, I just turned the seam allowances in for the back closing which is what appears to have been done in the extant example.

I decided that the bodice needed to be lined so I just used some bleached muslin from Joann's and cut the bodice pieces.  I placed the curtain fabric on top and treated the 2 layers as one, stitching them with felled seams.  The sleeves were not lined. They were stitched in and the the seam allowance was turned in then the seam allowance was secured with a running stitch.

The skirt was gathered to the bodice and stitched and the center back of the bodice was folded in twice and whip stitched on the inside.  The bodice/skirt seam was covered with 1 inch wide woven cotton tape which was stitched to create a casing for the silk ribbon.  The neckline was also turned in and whip stitched to form the top casing.

Outside of bodice

Back closure

Close-up of sleeve embroidery

Bottom of skirt

Close-up of skirt embroidery

Because the skirt of this gown is very sheer, I made a strapped petticoat.  I used the skirt from the pattern and added a waistband to fit just under the bust gussets of my stays.  I stitched wide cotton twill tape in the back and tried it on with my stays on to adjust the length of the straps which were then stitched in place in the front.  Antique mother of pearl buttons were used as closures.

Since I was feeling motivated, I decided that a new dress required a new bonnet so I pulled out my Lynn McMasters soft crown bonnet pattern.  I found some red silk in my stash and went to work.  Since I knew I'd be stitching the silk to the crown form, I decided to us heavy pellon rather than buckram for the form.

The bonnet required cockades or bows at the side to cover the raw edges of the pleats so I decided on red and white cockades.

I trimmed the width of the ribbon and made smaller cockades to wear on my walking boots.  They are attached with shoe clips so they can also be worn on my white flats.  I also made a larger reticule so I could carry my necessities for the day.

It was a lovely day to wear my new gown and accessories to the DAR costume exhibit.  

I'm very pleased with the results of this the lightweight curtain ended up making the perfect gown for a hot day in Washington DC!