Wow, I am a bloggin' maniac today.
I have a shameful confession.
I used to do Civil War and Texas Republic reenacting. Yes, stickler for authenticity and all that stuff.
I don't have time to do it any more, but I still play occasionally with a small acoustic music . . . group, I guess. We're not a club and we're not a band, really; we're just a bunch of people who have been playing together for years and get together a couple of times a year to play for a couple of small local events. These events usually ask us to wear "pioneer clothes". Whatever that means.
Two of the events at least make an effort to be "pioneer"-y, and they get better at it each year. Still a lot of laced bodices and mob-caps in 1850's Texas (??) but not as many as there were when the events were new. The other event or two wants us to look pioneer-y but then puts surrounds us with hot-dog and ice-cream trucks, electrified country bands, and Yankee Candle vendors. Yeah.
Anyway, I have two dresses. One is a brown plaid flannel one that Mom faked for me 20 years ago--literally--before we had any idea where even to look for period-correct mid-19th century patterns. (This was years pre-Internet for us.) It's totally not correct but it's dark and plain and at least is not conspicuous. But it's old, and heavy, and it shrunk in the wash so the sleeves are too short.
The other one is Past Patterns 806 (1992), the Lowell Mill Girl Dress, which is a miracle of pattern-drafting--I still have never encountered a pattern that went together better, despite neither Mom nor I having any experience at all with period-correct assembly methods--and results in a painfully beautiful dress. But it's mostly hand-sewn so I can't throw it in the washing machine when I come home reeking of barbecue smoke, perspiration, and Deep Woods Off!.
Anyway . . . I need a new dress.
I did a lot of alteration on McCall's M4548 (2004) and will, I'm sure, eventually get around to finishing it, but one of these events is coming up in three weeks and I can already tell I don't have the want-to to do it by then. That, and Mom needs the sewing machine, too, so I can't monopolize it to finish a big dress.
Part of me wants to be at least a bit of a stickler for period-correctness.
Another part of me wants to dash of something stupidly fast, easy, and washable. And probably hideously Seventies. (It would be camouflaged at least a little by an apron and slat bonnet, right?)
Is that so wrong of me?
I have a shameful confession.
I used to do Civil War and Texas Republic reenacting. Yes, stickler for authenticity and all that stuff.
I don't have time to do it any more, but I still play occasionally with a small acoustic music . . . group, I guess. We're not a club and we're not a band, really; we're just a bunch of people who have been playing together for years and get together a couple of times a year to play for a couple of small local events. These events usually ask us to wear "pioneer clothes". Whatever that means.
Two of the events at least make an effort to be "pioneer"-y, and they get better at it each year. Still a lot of laced bodices and mob-caps in 1850's Texas (??) but not as many as there were when the events were new. The other event or two wants us to look pioneer-y but then puts surrounds us with hot-dog and ice-cream trucks, electrified country bands, and Yankee Candle vendors. Yeah.
Anyway, I have two dresses. One is a brown plaid flannel one that Mom faked for me 20 years ago--literally--before we had any idea where even to look for period-correct mid-19th century patterns. (This was years pre-Internet for us.) It's totally not correct but it's dark and plain and at least is not conspicuous. But it's old, and heavy, and it shrunk in the wash so the sleeves are too short.
The other one is Past Patterns 806 (1992), the Lowell Mill Girl Dress, which is a miracle of pattern-drafting--I still have never encountered a pattern that went together better, despite neither Mom nor I having any experience at all with period-correct assembly methods--and results in a painfully beautiful dress. But it's mostly hand-sewn so I can't throw it in the washing machine when I come home reeking of barbecue smoke, perspiration, and Deep Woods Off!.
Anyway . . . I need a new dress.
I did a lot of alteration on McCall's M4548 (2004) and will, I'm sure, eventually get around to finishing it, but one of these events is coming up in three weeks and I can already tell I don't have the want-to to do it by then. That, and Mom needs the sewing machine, too, so I can't monopolize it to finish a big dress.
Part of me wants to be at least a bit of a stickler for period-correctness.
Another part of me wants to dash of something stupidly fast, easy, and washable. And probably hideously Seventies. (It would be camouflaged at least a little by an apron and slat bonnet, right?)
Is that so wrong of me?
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