Coldwater, Veils, and Gettysburg!

It has been a while since I posted last. Somehow now that summer's here I'm busier than ever! Anyhow, the weekend of May 24th-25th, I was planning on going to Greenfield Village. Last minute, I heard of a reenactment in Coldwater and decided to go there instead, seeing as how I'd been to GFV before. I don't have a lot of pictures, but it was a nice reenactment. Certainly smaller than GFV, but there were several interesting things about it, including the mourning talk we went to and the large amount of artillery present for such a small reenactment. If you've never been to it, consider it recommended! :)

Mourning veil

Fashion veil

I finished a veil for my bonnet the night before and tried it out that day. I am pleased to report that it works splendidly! While bonnet veils are most commonly thought of as mourning veils, such as the one on the right, ladies also used fashion veils (left) for modesty and to keep the sun off their faces. They work rather like sunglasses do today. I didn't feel like I was squinting in the sun at any point during the day. Mission accomplished! Plus, it was just fun to wear. I think veils add a bit of mystery and intrigue to the wearer.

While I am hardly an expert on the matter, it is my understanding that mourning veils are thicker and generally opaque from the outside whereas fashion veils are quite see through and often have a decorative lace edge on them. Fashion veils are often semi-circular or crescent shaped while mourning veils are square or rectangular.

The veil in the picture on the left is an original that was being sold on ebay a while back and the one I based my own veil off. I found some dotted tulle at the fabric store and some black lace and carefully basted the two together.

I wasn't sure how sewing the veil to my bonnet would work, and if the veil didn't work well, I wouldn't want it on all day, so I ended up using straight pins to pin in to the brim of my bonnet, which worked well. It's quite fun to wear!

And one more inspiration picture, just because. :)

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In June, my family took a much-awaited trip out to Gettysburg! I have been wanting to go for a few years now, so I was very excited to go! I finished sewing a dress for Mom in the car on the way out (nothing like procrastination! ;) ), so she and I both wore our period clothing while touring the battlefield. It certainly makes the past come alive - to be in the very place where so much conflict and terror took place wearing the same clothes the citizens of Gettysburg would have worn... I highly recommend it!

Some of the lovely painted buildings in town.

That three-story brick building was the one that Abraham Lincoln slept in the night before he gave his famous address in Gettysburg.

To see the sheer number of graves at the Gettysburg National Cemetery was quite sobering. The picture below shows maybe only a twentieth of the graves there.

The above picture was, if I remember correctly, at Little Round Top, somewhere along the left-most flank of the Union Army the second day of the battle. Colonel Chamberlain was in command of the troops.

The view from the top of Little Round Top. 

Looking up towards Little Round Top. Now imagine that you are an infantryman wearing a wool uniform in the summer heat and you have to climb up there to take the hill while carrying your knapsack on your back and your rifle in your hands. And to top it all off, there are men holed up at the top shooting down on you as you climbed.

 Look familiar?

(Not my picture!)

Monument to the Pennsylvanian troops...

...With a great but very windy view up top!

An original oxidized cannon

This picture shows the 'High Water Mark' of the Confederacy. On the third and final day of the battle of Gettysburg, the Union troops held their position behind the stone wall. While the Confederate forces broke over the wall a few times, the Union ultimately held their ground.

The edge of the forest, a mile away, was where the Confederates started their charge.

Mom and myself. Doesn't she look great? :)

Also while we were in Gettysburg, we stopped by the Jennie Wade house. Jennie Wade was the only civilian to be killed during the battle of Gettysburg. Her sister with a recently born daughter, along with their mother and Jennie stayed in this house as the battle raged on outside. One morning Jennie was kneading bread for the soldiers when a bullet passed through two wooden doors and struck her in the heart, killing her instantly. 

There were still bullet holes in the bricks, both inside and outside. In the picture below you can see some in the mantle above the fireplace.

Jennie Wade is on the right in this picture. 

All in all, it was a fun trip. I enjoyed it all, but I think my favorite part was seeing Little Round Top. We watched the movie Gettysburg before we left, so everyone knew what had happened where. Coldwater  is the only reenactment I've been to this year, so I am looking forward to Charlton Park in two more weeks! I'll definitely be there Sunday, not sure about Saturday yet. Until then, dear readers, have a fabulous summer! :)

My Upcoming Projects (And Ones Already Started)

As promised, here is the post with pictures of my fabric.

This was the fabric I originally wanted to make an 1860's day dress out of after seeing it at the fabric store. Unfortunately, it is an out of print fabric, so after searching to the ends of the earth (and then some!) for more fabric than the 4 and 3/4 yards the fabric store had, I gave up. Mom and myself went back up to the fabric store and she ended up using some of what they had to make a work apron for herself. 

I decided to make a work dress for myself out of this fabric:

The picture is pretty close to what it actually looks like. It's kind of an army green, with burnt-orange and black leaves. We tried and tried to find an orange cotton that looked at least somewhat historically-correct for an apron, but ended up going with a black and green print instead. (Yes, it is black, not navy blue)

Don't mind the weird, blue ruler. I was trying (and failed) to get the picture the correct shade. The green of this print matches the green of the previous. 

And then my slat bonnet fabric:

This fabric is a little bit darker in real life. More of a dusty blue-grey. I have already sewn up my slat bonnet and love it! I used the free pattern from the Sewing Compendium's website. The only thing I would change about the pattern is that they said the yardage for a bonnet was 3/4 of a yard. I was able to squeeze out my bonnet with only one piecing, but you are left with only a few square inches of fabric. I had to make my interior ties out of twill tape. I would recommend buying an extra 1/8 of a yard, just to give yourself a little to work with. The pattern was very easy to put together, however, with easy step-by-step instructions and lots of pictures. 

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I found some blue wool for my 1900's swimsuit. I don't have a picture of it to show you, but it's in the middle of a navy blue and a royal blue. I'm still debating if I can wash it in hot water or not... Having felted wool in the past, I know the results when you mix wool with a little bit of soap and a lot of agitation. I would like to be able to go into hot tubs with it, but that may not be an option.

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Right now, I am working on a completely different time period than I usually do. This Halloween, I was going to make myself an entirely new dress, but then I decided being a suffragette was a lot less work, so I went with that. You may remember this teaser I posted a while back: 

Here is a picture of the entire project while I was working on it:

 And my finished costume:

Anyhow, to get back on subject, I am currently sewing a Medieval dress for myself out of Butterick 4827. From my scant week or so of research, I have concluded that it is not very historically correct. Ah well... It will only be a Halloween costume anyways. :) (No, I'm not going to tell who I'm going to be next year!) I picked out some lovely crushed velvet that was on sale. It's so soft. Velvet dresses are so much fun to wear! 

So far, I have the main part of the dress sewn together. It only took me three days, which I think is the fastest I've ever sewn a dress! I just need to attach the sleeves and hem it. I have run across one small dilemma in the process, however. As you may know, velvet can be heavy. When you make a princess-seamed dress out of a stretch velvet, the weight of the skirt pulls the neckline down a good inch or so. *sigh* If I had known that in advance, I would have cut it higher, but as it is, I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing it. Hmm...

I've been looking into different options of fixing it without making it obvious that I've pieced it. I think that I'm going to add a crescent-moon shaped piece of fabric to raise the neckline, then put trim on the old neckline and the new neckline to hid the piecing. We'll see how it turns out. 

I also took in the sleeves a full two inches most of the way up, to make them more form-fitted and period-correct. 

That's about all that's new with me. I miss going to reenactments on the weekends. Oh yes! I almost forgot. Here are my two newest acquisitions:

Sorry for the funny angle. The flash kept wanting to bounce back.

I'm guessing this tintype is late 1880's to early 1890's. You can click on it to make it bigger. I wish I knew who they were. There are no markings on the back aside from a few barely readable numbers scratched into the metal. (16965) He looks like an Olaf to me. Any guesses on what her name might have been?

I like how they were outside for their picture. You can see the folding chair he was sitting on, and the light at the base of the backdrop where it doesn't quite meet the grass. I love his tie and suit and her dress. I thought it looked like she had a scalloped edge on her dress with a ruffle behind it?

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I think this one is my favorite of the two. I wonder who she was? A soldier's sweetheart or wife? A widower's only daughter who moved out of state? Did she have siblings or was she an only child? How old did she live to be? Did she ever marry? What was her favorite season and her favorite dress? Did she have any pets? What was her name? Did she have a nickname? What was her personality like? 

Who was she?

The glass needs to be cleaned (on both layers!), but I'm afraid of damaging it. More research required... Once again, you can click on the picture to make it bigger. The case front was separated when I bought it, but it's the original front. The latch on it still works. 

This one screams "1860's!" to me. I especially like the pattern on her dress. It's a small stripe with some sort of two-color floral or leaf design over top. I would have liked to see the colors. I originally thought the trim was a pleated ribbon trim, but it looks like the middle on it is a thinner, non-pleated strip. I also like the ribbon at her neck (with contrasting ribbons at the end?), her off-center belt, and her asymmetrical hair ribbon. 

I hope you are well, dear reader and enjoying the start of winter. The ground is still bare here. I wish we would get some snow to lighten up the dreary days, though I suppose it will come soon enough!