1860s cap and evening headdress

This is an 1860s dressy cap from the collection of the Lackawanna Historical Society. I believe it is for day wear, although I find it difficult to differentiate between day and evening caps for this period. 

This cap is made of very fine black silk netting and lace, horsehair-like ecru edging, and purple silk ribbons mounted on a wire frame. 

The ecru edging and the lace and netting are extremely fragile and are crumbling into dust. I wonder if the color combination indicates 2nd mourning, or coming out of mourning.

Provenance unknown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another 1860 headdress from the collection of the Lackawanna Historical Society. This would be for ball wear. 

Fine tan colored silk taffeta ribbon is pleated over a wire frame and accented with faceted black glass beads. They probably sparkled when new! Attached behind the center front are three embroidered cotton medallions.

Provenance unknown.

 

1870s cotton pique dress

I have been a volunteer at the Lackawanna Historical Society for almost 25 years, and have been very fortunate to be able to work with their extensive historic clothing collection which includes over 1000 items of apparel from 1810 to 1980. Today I put on display a pretty cotton dress that dates to about 1870. Unfortunately, we do not know who the original owner was, although we believe it has some connection to The Home for the Friendless in Scranton.

The dress (2016.09.01) was made in three pieces: bodice, skirt, and overskirt, all in the same white cotton pique fabric that has a vertical blue design. All pieces are unlined. The bodice closes center front with crochet-covered ball buttons. White cotton fringe runs vertically along the bodice. The side seams and front darts are boned. The skirt closes side left front; the front skirt panels are gored, and the back panel is cartridge pleated to the plain cotton waistband. There is a plain cotton pocket in the right side seam. The hem is scalloped and finished with white wool brush braid. This treatment is also used on the cuffs of the bodice sleeves. The overskirt is also gored, and cartridge pleated at the back. It closes center back. It is trimmed with the same fringe used on the bodice.

The lady who wore the dress would have been about 5'3" tall. The waist size is 22.5". It looks smaller than that because of the wide shoulder-styling above. 

This is an excellent example of the transition from the wide-hooped styles of the early-middle 1860s to the narrower skirts of the late 1860s and early 1870s that featured drapings that foreshadowed the bustle period. It is displayed over a cage crinoline about 90" in circumference (one petticoat over the cage).

Here are three views of the dress taken in one of the former bedrooms in the Catlin House.

Holiday Traditions at the Swetland Homestead

My friend Jenn and I spent the weekend of December 7 and 8 cooking in the Summer Kitchen of the Swetland Homestead in Wyoming, PA. The homestead is maintained by the Luzerne County Historical Society. It is believed that the kitchen dates to 1810. On Saturday we wore colonial era clothing (the Swetlands were living on the property during the Revolutionary War), and on Sunday we wore clothing from the Federal (Regency) period. We spent each day cooking, using the open hearth, and making pies, puddings, stews and biscuits using period recipes, all the while talking to visitors about what we were doing, and about life in Wyoming when it was a rural outpost.

This is my Federal (Regency) gown. I used Past Patterns Lewis & Clark Era 1796-1806 (#031) pattern. It's madder wool purchased from Burnley & Trowbridge. The wool is very lightweight and has beautiful drape. It's light enough to wear in the summer too. The pattern is very well done, with excellent instructions. It closes in the center front with drawstrings at the neckline and waist. I did struggle with the back bodice. The pattern is drafted from an original gown, and it has an unusual seaming across the back that I could not get to lie flat and to not gap and pucker in an unflattering way. I had copied all the pattern markings carefully, but as I am not very familiar with dress construction for this period, I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Eventually I cut the whole back off at the shoulder seams and drafted a more conventional back using curved back seams and a slightly scooped neckline. I used Nora Waugh's The Cut of Women's Clothes as a guide. I cartridge pleated the back instead of knife pleating it as per the pattern. I am very pleased with the gown and enjoyed wearing it for the first time this weekend. The chemisette is plain white sheer cotton. I used a Simplicity Pattern (Sense & Sensibility Regency Underthings) for it. One of my Edwardian full slips worked well enough as a petticoat, along with a shorter Victorian wool petticoat. I can wear this dress without a corset.

Filling up our wash tubs. I like my apron. It's just a bunch of rectangles sewn together. It is sewn completely by hand.

Done with cooking for the day! The fire is almost out. My guess is that the fire both days was running about 450 F or hotter. We could barely shovel out coals for the hearth burners and had mild burns on our forearms at the end of each day. Ugh.

My 1770s costume was my first attempt at making clothes for this period. It was challenging, not having extant garments to study, as I do for the Victorian and Edwardian periods. I was struggling with trying to figure out appropriate seam placement, finishes, closures, etc. I used JP Ryan's pattern for my wool jacket. The fit was confusing. I wasn't sure how it was supposed to hang. It seemed like it was cut to hang straight from the shoulders in the front, but a long jacket like this has to curve over  the hips. It buckled in an unflattering way at the waist. I decided to put horizontal darts at the waist, although I doubt this is correct for the period. I was in such a quandary over this! I perused photos of extant garments, and photos of reproductions, but...I still could not figure out what was the right approach. Anyway, the jacket is medium weight brown wool, lined in plain white cotton. Is this correct? I do not know. My skirt is also wool, pleated to a narrow tape waistband. I used the Nora Waugh book again to draft the skirt. It's rather impractical to have a pale colored skirt to work and cook in, but I made the skirt in light blue wool because I thought it a pretty color. My cream wool apron covers a lot of it, so it hasn't gotten too beat up and mucky from cooking in it. My cotton cap was made using Miller's Millinery pattern (#C12B). The neckerchief and my brown buckled shoes came from Burnley & Trowbridge. I bought plain canvas stays from Jas. Townsend. I made lovely brocade stays for this period, but they lace up the back which is a rather impractical arrangement for dressing myself. The Townsend stays lace front and back. Stays for this period flatten the bust, and they don't really pull in the waist. They take some getting used to, after years of wearing longer corsets from the Victorian period that don't suppress the bust and which support the weight of the skirts. I made my chemise from the Regency Underthings pattern in a lightweight linen. My cap, apron, and the neckline of my chemise are handsewn. I used a machine for the rest of the seams.

We have the fire going, and are getting ready to cook! I'm not sure if the sleeves of my chemise are supposed to show below my jacket sleeves...I splashed a bunch of porter on my apron before we even got started!

Recovering an 1860s parasol (continued)

Instead of recovering it with plain black silk, I decided to use a plaid. This beautiful piece of brown, gold, cream and black silk taffeta was purchased from The Dressmaker's Shop. If you haven't shopped at Kimberly Lynch's online store, I highly recommend it. She has lovely fabrics suitable for period pieces, for reasonable prices. The bottom of each top piece for each section was scalloped. I used a pair of vintage scalloping shears to recreate this.

The new cover, all sections stitched together. Once all the sections were stitched, I finished the bottom edge with a narrow rolled hem (machine stitched).

The first step in recovering the parasol is pushing the finial through the center of the cover and drawing the fabric tightly to the little space under the finial. I used buttonhole thread to do this and went around the finial several times before knotting it off. Next, the tip of each section is stretched tightly to meet the tip of each rib. The rib tips are little metal pieces with a hole through which to draw the thread and a bit of the fabric. I worked the cover onto the frame by moving from side to side, in order to keep the cover taught. This is similar to what is done in millinery. When the tips were secured, I stitched the cover to each rib just below its hinge.

The finished cover, with original beading added.











Ready for summer! This was much easier than I had thought. Now I'm ready to tackle a larger, Edwardian parasol!

Recovering an 1860s parasol

Last summer I purchased an 1860s parasol (I think it dates to the post-American Civil War period); the handle, which is beautifully carved wood is in beautiful condition, but the black silk cover was shredded. I was kind of nervous about being able to recreate the cover. After lots of mental planning, last weekend I started work on it. First, I removed the original silk cover, and picked apart one of the sections. The entire cover had been sewn by hand. Each section was made of two pieces, which were joined before all of the sections were stitched together. The join was covered with a narrow strip of tiny black glass beads. Here is one of the original sections and the paper pattern made from it.

Using the pattern, I recreated the cover in muslin to check the fit. Happily, it fit well! I didn't expect to get it right on the first try, but here it is.

This is the bottom of the handle. There are two little wooden balls that roll around inside the carving!

Scranton Annual Civil War Ball

I'm still trying to get the hang of getting the text around photos, so these are just lumped together this time! These photos are from last weekend's Annual Civil War Ball, hosted by the Lackawanna Historical Society. Lots of our friends were in attendance! I meant to take more pictures, but once we started dancing, I forgot to do it. Clockwise from the top: Bill and me; ball coiffure and headdress; Lucille and me; Lu, Bill, Ed, and Gregg; Kathy and Jan. The event was held at the beautiful Century Club in Scranton. It's a large, yet cozy feeling building, built in 1914 as a Ladies' Club (which it still is). The dance floor is excellent. For intermission, everyone sweeps up the grand central staircase for refreshments in the large parlor on the second floor. It's amazing that our gowns acually look intact; the wind was gale force as we left our house, the rain was driving across the porch, and Lu caught her skirt in the front door as we were dashing to the waiting car! Then we had to climb up the steep front stairs to the club, the wind yanking our shawls and umbrellas as we tried to manage elevating our skirts to make the climb! Bill could not help as he dropped us off in front to let us out and then he went to park the car. We should have done what Jan did and dressed at the club! She has so much sense.

Lu's dress is just smashing on her, it's white bengaline trimmed with black satin pleated ribbon and tiny little yellow flowers that she made. She can pull off pure white with her coloring. My mauve gown was formerly soft white, a color I can wear, but the effect washed me out, so I plunked the whole thing in the tub (it's a thin striped lightweight silk) and hoped for the best! Amazingly, it turned out ok, and I like the color. I re-trimmed it about three times before I was satisfied. The lace on the bodice is taken from an early 1870s overskirt that I had acquired (the rest of the gown was missing). The garland is inspired by one worn by Mary Todd Lincoln in one of those famous photos of her in ball dress.

I think I look a little tired! I was! We had 21 of the ball-goers over for breakfast the next morning, and I had spent two weeks Spring cleaning the house like a maniac. Well, at least it's all done now, except for the windows. Now we are done with balls for the season, and I'll be doing a few reenactments in the next couple of months with my group, The Union Patriotic League.

1860s shoes

These little shoes were recently acquired by my county historical society. Robert Land has introduced this style in his collection of reproductions. He says they are quite rare for the period, and calls them "walking shoes." So, I was quite amazed to see a pair show up at LHS (Lackawanna Historical Society). This pair is in great shape, despite their age and evidence that they received a considerable amount of wear. The toes are beige leather, and the rest of the shoe is a black and cream checked silk fabric, with silk shoelaces. The soles are thin leather. They are very tiny, probably a modern size 5, maybe even a 4.5. I would imagine that the use of silk fabric made them suitable for indoor use only. Land's reproductions are two-tone all leather, so they can be worn out of doors.