Costumes for the Ren Fest..(Wherein our Heroine muses on costuming and the internet)

I am inordinately pleased to say that I actually accomplished one of my goals for the year:  costumes for Jay and I for the Georgia Renaissance Festival.  We went last weekend with our friends Robert and Bill.

Despite Jay having a leather jerkin and a leather doublet already, he decided it was too warm the day we went so he in just his shirt.(Georgia is an "authenticity lite" faire, so despite this huge sartorial faux pas, he was still one of the better dressed men there)  I'd been planning on doing him a doublet and a flat cap but I declared both of them out of scope 10 days before the faire and, sanity wise, I'm glad I did.  Not to mention the words we would have had if I rushed to finish a doublet and then he decided not to wear it!  Other than a minor disaster requiring a bit of hand sewing the morning we were getting dressed, I was done sewing the afternoon before.  No mad midnight frenzy of last minute sewing!

I plan to complete the doublet and cap this summer when we're not on a hard deadline and probably a pair of German style pluderhosen to go with his doublet flat cap

I thought Faire clothes would be a relatively comfortable project, since I'd done so much of this sort of sewing while I was in the SCA.  Unfortunately, I have none of the patterns I drafted during that period (I am still wondering where my sanity was when I gave them away rather than move them *sigh*) So when I started this whole project, I pulled out my previous go-to reference for Elizabethan costuming...

..and found it sadly wanting.  Which got me to thinking about how much costuming has changed with the Internet. When I started costuming in the SCA, other than the Period Patterns line (which you could only buy if you ran into Medieval Miscallanea at an SCA event) there were no patterns. I learned quickly to recognize the lines of the garment I wanted to make and to franken-pattern from commercial patterns available (assuming I could find one in my size) and fake the rest.  It wasn't a whole lot better for later time periods, either.  In 1989, I was over the moon to find the original Amazon Dry Goods catalog (I was even lucky enough to visit  the old store in Davenport, IA)  When I got my hands on a print copy of the Whole Costumer's Catalogue, I thought I'd died and went to heaven.

In 2015, it's such a different world! There are so many small press pattern companies  offering historical patterns now. Admittedly, some better than others but there are several pattern review sites I can read opinions from people that have used the pattern already. Major museums are putting their collections online so I can research in the middle of the night in my pajamas rather than having to fund a trip to go to the V&A. (or the Met, or the Kent State Museum.).  I can keep track of my research on Pintrest and access it anywhere I have access to the 'net. (like in the fabric store where I want to check a key detail)  If I get lazy, I can buy a finished piece from Etsy.

While I still desperately rue my lack of having a local "fitting buddy" I am still a bit in awe of the plethora of resources available for costuming these days.  And, I can't help thinking a bit wistfully, that I wish I was 20 years younger.  Maybe I wouldn't take that 20 year hiatus if I was making the decision now.

A new sewing machine .....x2

It all started last month with my incorrigible habit of inserting myself into interesting conversations in public places. I was in Hancock Fabrics looking for waistband interfacing when I heard one of the clerks say:  "....  well, Tardis blue is a really pretty shade of royal blue..  I have no idea what I am going to do with it, but it was so buttery soft that I had to buy all of it!"

To which I said:  "Oh the Tandy leather sale?"    And found myself chatting with said clerk.  Who as it turns out works part time at God Save the Queen Fashions which is a small costume studio specializing in cosplay costumes.  Really Really Really good cosplay costumes.

And  GSTQ offers classes on weekends!  Classes on things like corset making techniques, glove making, wig care and styling and pattern alteration.  While I would consider myself far more on the historical side than the cosplay side of costuming, any sort of  opportunity to improve my skills by learning from someone is extremely welcome.  My costuming support network is entirely online and I have sorely missed being face to face with costuming folk..

But I was a little concerned about carting my Bernina back and forth.  It has been an absolute work horse and, in the five years I've had it, hasn't given me any trouble that re-threading the machine and the bobbin couldn't solve.  I didn't want to jinx it.

I'd been idly thinking about buying a second sewing machine for a while..  because if the Bernina did give me trouble,  it would be at the worst possible moment and I would be dead in the water.  And getting a truly portable machine that I could take to classes was the extra rationalizat justification that I needed to start looking at a second machine.

Me being me, my web research quickly discarded the $100ish Project Runway model and lead me to a Pfaff Passport 2.0.  Thirteen pounds light, did as much, if not more than my Bernina and was universally loved by quilters to take back and forth to quilting classes.  I have never quilted in my life (and don't intend to start) but it seemed to indicate that the machine was good with being moved frequently.

So I bought myself a new machine as an early birthday present.  And it was a timely early present, because my Bernina stopped sewing the Sunday before we were going to the Georgia Ren Fest and our garb was far from done!

Today, through a series of extremely serendipitous events, I acquired my second machine today: a beautiful 1920 Singer treadle.

The place we were going for my birthday brunch lost our reservations and since it was already overflowing because of Mother's Day, we opted for Plan B:  my favorite diner (the Landmark Jr) which happens to be just down the street from my favorite antique mall (Antiques and Beyond) I think that a third of our house has come from there over the years.  we can't ever seem to leave empty handed.  And today, in the very last row of the mall, there she was...in amazing condition. According to the dealer, other than needing a belt, she works.

After a brief consultation, she met the "where will we put it?" question which is our primary criterion for antique buying.  Better still, the dealer was in need of space and accepted my opening offer of 33% under his asking price without a blink. Best of all, she fit in the back of our Jetta Sportwagen.

So now she is safely ensconced in a corner of our living room with Lucy, my 1914 dressmaker's form that I've had since college.

I'm not sure how much sewing she will actually see, but she is just the sort of interesting antique that our decor is comprised of, so she fits in perfectly.

Turning the lights back on

Despite radio silence on the blog for the past three (has it really been that long?!) months, there has indeed been some sewing going on. :)  I need to get better at taking the blog posts in my head and making them a reality.

The Tang dynasty project is on hold for the time being. The 5000 Years of Chinese Costume book had absolutely nothing regarding the hezi in it, so I'm at a bit of a loss when it comes to documentation. The silk brocades I  brought back from Taipei are too heavy. And I need to put work into on overall concept and colours before I move forward.  The Asian color aesthetic is difficult to get my head around.  Or perhaps I'm just justifying the need to watch more gorgeous Chinese costume dramas like The Empress of China...  either way, I do not have a current need in 2015 for a Tang dynasty outfit, so its been moved to the back burner.

I've also decided not to push to do the Historical Sew Monthly this year.  I was wildly creative doing the half year I did of it in 2014 but it was an epic fail in coming up with costume pieces that were useful for my costuming closet.  So I am going to enjoy watching the gorgeousness from the sidelines with popcorn this year.

In lieu of that, I have set myself the following goals.  I am woefully poor when it comes to follow through on projects.  Combine this with limited time to devote to costuming (an uninterrupted three hour stretch in the sewing room is a miracle) and I am trying to lower the bar a bit and set some more manageable objectives.

The first step was to clean up the sewing room.  It was full to bursting, hadn't really been used since last spring and was definitely in need to some attention.  Once I gave it some organizational love, it was amazing how much higher my will to sew was.

Introducing the new and improved sewing room:

 Part I of the stash wall

 Part II of the stash wall and Lucy my vintage 1914 dummy

 My research library

 My idea/miscellany boards and Mimi, my modern dummy

Where I actually sew

The big win was moving my pattern collection down to the cutting room in the basement and everything is now organized by time period. I am lucky enough to have two rooms to spread out in. *happy dance*

Based on the amount of fabric and number of patterns I have, 

clearly I need to do more actual sewing!

Goal #1 for 2015:
Clean Up My UFO pile

My completion rate is pretty good, but I do have some projects that have been in the UFO pile for a number of years).

So far I've managed to finish off the hand sewing on the 1880s bloomers I submitted for last year's HSF #8. (ironically, the UFO challenge) and finally added the second row of trim on the 1890s capelet I submitted for my very first HSF challenge in 2013. (I said some of them had been sitting for a while *blush*).  Which leaves half a dozen projects left to tackle this year including finishing my 1880s hat, taking a first mockup of a 1940s dress to completion as well as  a mockup of the TV 1880s corset.  Any bets on how far I will get by December 31?

Goal #2 for 2015
Ren Faire Outfits for Jay and I

The  Georgia Renaissance Festival runs April 18 through June 7.  Jay and I are planning on going Mother's Day weekend.  I have various pieces currently in progress for both of us and will blog more on those separately once they are closer to complete.

 Sam supervising my cutting out the waistband for Jay's breeches

Goal #3 for 2015

Steampunk Alice in Wonderland outfits for The Great Canadian Steampunk Exposition

The theme for the Great Canadian Steampunk Exposition this year is Alice in Wonderland.  The event is in a cool historical fort in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario in late September.  The moment I heard the theme, I had ideas dancing through my head.  We're adults with decent jobs, so flying out for it isn't completely crazy. (Flying with multiple costumes may be, though!)

Right now we are thinking of doing the Queen of Hearts/White Rabbit at the Trial

And I also have a crazy vision of Jay in a fez and a smoking jacket (I've been dying for a reason to make him a smoking jacket!) as the caterpillar, walking around the event, asking people: Whoooooo. Arrrrrrrre. Yooooooooooou?

More details post Ren Faire, once I start actually get past the pintrest idea of this project.  But this is going to be something fun to spend the summer on!

Goal #4 for 2015

Blog on a semi regular schedule

I am  bad at finishing projects and taking progress pictures, so I am going to try to start doing shorter posts as the inspiration hit rather than large scale "project start to finish" posts.  We will see how successful I am at this.

Anyway, the lights are on in the sewing room again and I hope to share more about my sewing adventures (and misadventures) soon!

Serendipity Strikes

So I've been debating about whether I was going to try the Historical Sew Fortnightly this year, especially since its one project a month, rather than two.  But it's already almost halfway through January, so I needed to make a decision soon.

But I also wanted to pursue the Tang Dynasty project and the January HSF challenge was foundations. I am still waiting for 5000 Years of Asian Costume to arrive, so I googled "Tang Dynasty Undergarments" on a lark.

And I found the most amazing blog: Dressed Up Dreams.  It is alas, mostly dormant now, but was a wealth of research on Tang Dynasty costumes.  (The blogger seems to be from Singapore and fluent in Chinese and English, and used sources from the original Chinese, which is absolutely invaluable, since my Chinese is verbal only and limited to simple phrases like: "thank you" and "no more thank you, I'm full")

In a nutshell, this lovely blogger has done all the research I need to not only get started on the Tang project,but also start work on the first HSF challenge!  The strapless part of a Tang noble lady's ensemble is called a Hezi and it was first worn by Imperial Consort Yang, when she used a piece of embroidered cloth to cover scratches her lover had made.  Other court ladies adopted the look and by the later part of the Tang Dynasty, the hezi was a standard garment.  Don't you love trend setters!

(pictures are from Dressed Up Dreams research.  The link to the original article in Chinese did not appear to be working.  I am unable to provide more accurate  attribution to the original source, but will be happy to do so if someone can direct me to it)

Now I just need to work on drafting a pattern based on Dressed's research, getting it to fit *wince* and then deciding what fabric to use and making the Hezi,

Much more to come in the coming days, but I am delighted to have "completed" my research for the project in one fell swoop.  I am off to bed to have Chinese brocade dreams.!

New Year's Inspirations

I know this blog has been dark for 6 months, but I am happy to say I think I am inspired again!  I am still bothered a bit by the tendinitis, but am feeling the urge to play with fabrics once more.

I have been reading Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars and am thinking about (pseudo) historical Asian costuming again.  A couple of years ago, I spent time playing with Heian era Japanese clothing, (precursors of what we think of as kimono today)..  This time I think I'll be playing in China. I've had a Tang dynasty outfit in the back of my head since the first time I watched Curse of the Golden Flower. Better still, I still have much of the silk brocade that came home from our 2011 trip to Taipei in my stash.

I am anxiously awaiting a copy of 5000 Years of Chinese Costume that I bought from Amazon with a gift card I got for Christmas in hopes that it will help me understand the whole strapless undergown thing, whose construction details elude me despite repeated watching of CotGL and pouring over pictures of the costumes in an exhibit.  

As to Western costuming, my Christmas present to myself was a Victorian and an Titanic era corset during Redthreaded's pre-order for her plus sized  historical corset line.  Since I failed in making myself a corset despite two separate classes in 2014,  I am hoping that this will get me over my roadblock and onto some late Victorian/1910s costuming this year.  (and there is still the 1860s-esque ball gown for the King and I cosplay that Jay and I have been talking about for Dragon-Con one year...  who knows, maybe this is the year!)  I have heard nothing but good things about Redthreaded's work and am excitedly waiting for my package to arrive.

I also bought Jay an 1830s frock coat and pants from RecontructingHistory's closet sale.  Both pieces will take a little alteration to fit him, but the measurements were close enough that it seemed a serendipitous addition to his costume closet. Neither of us have much interest in the 1830s specific (it's actually a period of women's clothing that I especially dislike) but I am hoping that it can pass as late regency, which is an era we have some vague interest in.  (and will require yet another style of corset for me..  )

And so, gentle readers, the light in the sewing room has been turned on again and I am hoping 2015 will be a creative and productive year for me.  Watch this space!

HFF #3: Today in History - Saturday Morning Spam

This challenge was serendipity.  Knowing I had a long weekend over the 4th of July, I thought that July 5 would be a good day for me to cook for the challenge. So I started googling historical events for July 5 and the very first site told me that on July 5, 1937, Hormel introduced Spam.  It couldn't get much better than that.

However, finding a Spam recipe was more difficult than I first anticipated.  For health reasons, we are a no gluten/grain, no processed sugar household.  And the recipe had to not make me gag when I thought about actually eating it.  (Ok, I am wimping out here, but when I say I am fascinated and horrified by 1950s recipes. Spam falls solidly on the side of "horrified")

This immediately ruled out recipes like Peachy Spam Dinner Loaf

midcenturymenu.com actually made this and my hat is off to them.They are a braver pair than I!

However, I found  pictures from a 1948 Spam cookbook on midcenturymenu.com that included a recipe of something that met my criteria for the challenge:  Grilled Spam slices and stuffed eggs.

No processed, no gluten  -the only deal breaker was the white sauce (contains flour) or cream of mushroom (I'm allergic to mushrooms) soup they call for as a topping.  But substituting hollandaise sauce didn't feel like a deviation from the spirit of the recipe.

Shopping for Spam was an eye opening experience. Who knew there were so many kinds!

Jalapeno Spam, classic Spam, Spam lite, Low Sodium Spam...the mind boggles!

The amount of sodium in classic Spam was absolutely insane, especially since there were 6 servings in a can, so I went with low sodium.  Still more sodium than we eat in an entire day, but sacrifices must be made for the sake of historical research, eh?

Nutritional data for classic Spam

I must confess I cheated a bit on the stuffed eggs.  I bought pre-peeled, hard boiled eggs.  There are few things in cooking I dislike more than peeling hard boiled eggs (although I love eating them).  But, it was a "convenience food" and the 1950s were all about convenience foods, so it still seemed in keeping with the challenge.

The stuffed eggs part of the recipe was essentially a sort of bland deviled egg recipe and that went together easily enough.  Now that I know how easy deviled eggs are with pre-peeled eggs, I suspect there will be a lot more deviled eggs around our house.

I used Alton Brown's Hollandaise sauce which worked well.  (I used coconut sugar, since it was all we had in the house and it didn't seem to make a difference in the finished product)

Then it was time to actually open the can of Spam.  It certainly didn't win any points for appealing straight out of the can. in fact, it was rather disgusting looking.

Despite the recipe title being "Grilled Spam slices" the recipe said to broil the spam. I went with doing it in the skillet in hopes it would crisp up a bit.  Which it did nicely after about 7 minutes on each side. I also sliced it into sixths not fourths, which might have helped.

About two minutes after I put the Spam on, Jay said:  "what is that smell?  Is something burning?"  Spam cooking does not have a terribly enticing smell.  It's a little like burning rubber.  Definitely not tantalizing to the taste buds.

However, the end product was more edible than I expected , if ridiculous in the amount of fat and sodium.

The Challenge: #3 Today in History
The Recipe: Grilled Spam Slices with Stuffed Eggs
The Date/Region: 1948 
Total time: About an hour of solid work
Total cost: $2.69 for a can of Spam and $5 or so for the pre-hardboiled eggs
How successful was it?   It's not something I would make again, but it didn't have to force myself to eat it.

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #2, Take 2: Fig sauce

My failure at tomato mustard bothered me. And I had 2 pounds of fresh figs that I had bought at the bargain price of $2.99 for the lot at our Asian market this weekend.  The plan was to make goat cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped figs for a get together with friends last weekend, but I had made blueberry cobbler instead.

So it seemed to me I should take a second shot at Challenge #2.  Searching vintagerecipes.net I found a recipe for fig sauce from the 1919 International Jewish Cookbook.

Stew figs slowly for two hours until soft; sweeten with loaf sugar, about two tablespoons to a pound of fruit.  Add a glass pf port or other wine and a little lemon juice.  Serve when cold.

It seemed easy enough and I had the ingredients on hand, so without further ado, I diced the figs and got them on the stove. Two hours seemed a much more reasonable amount of time to cook than the thirty minutes in the tomato mustard recipe, plus the fig pieces were significantly smaller to begin with, so they cooked down faster.

After thirty minutes, the figs were already well on their way to breaking down.

Trying to decide what to put the fig sauce over was a bit of a challenge, because after my last physical, I am gluten-free.  But since, technically speaking, the challenge entry was the sauce, I decided on a paleo shortcake recipe from Confessions of an Overworked Mom.  Jay was skeptical because neither of us are a fan of commercial gluten free bread, but I decided to give it a try anyway on the reasoning that shortcake is supposed to be a bit crumbly to begin with.

The dough seemed a little off to me..  both a bit moist and a bit crumbly.

But I got eight reasonably round shortcakes made and popped them in the oven.

At that point, the stewing figs were smelling pretty heavenly.  I ended up adding half the sugar to the raw figs. realized my mistake and decided to add the rest in at the end, as per the recipe.  But when I make this recipe again, I think I will keep my precedent -stewing with a little sugar was mighty tasty.  I added the port wine and the remaining sugar and it was so delicious at that point, I forgot the lemon juice.

The fig sauce might not look terribly appealing but boy was it delicious!

The shortcakes came out of the oven looking  suitably shortcake-y and I regretted not being able to make some whipped cream as a topping.

Still, even without the whipped cream, Jay approved whole-heartedly.  The shortcake absorbed the sauce deliciously and the almond flour made for a rich taste, especially combined with the figs and port.

I am going to call the fig sauce an unqualified success and put the recipe in my standard repertoire.

The Challenge: #2 Soups, Sauces and Gravies
The Recipe: Fig Sauce from International Jewish Cookbook
The Date/Region: 1919   
Total time: 3.5 hours largely unattended
Total cost: $2.99 for fresh figs.  Everything else was on hand
How successful was it?  Totally.  It was delicious!