Doors Open a la COVID

Doors Open Winnipeg is usually held in May but COVID messed that up a bit. But we did have it in September with some major alterations to our usual procedures.

I helped out at the jail again. Only instead of playing a role of a person connected to the jail, I ended up being the hand sanitizer and list keeper (for contact tracing).

I wore a mish-mash of costume pieces.

1909 Olive’s hat, 1895 Walking suit shirtwaist, 1900 Widows Weeds cape, 1903 trumpet skirt, and modern mask. We made the masks work by pretending it was during the Spanish flu.

We even made the news.

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/doors-open-winnipeg-finds-a-way-through-covid-19-1.5102907

Year in Review: outings

This hasn’t been the greatest year for outings.  A lot has been happening in my little groups’ lives: work, school, health, family…and that has definitely slowed us down.

But we did get out a little bit. And I did my best to wear things that didn’t get used in the past while.

In May we got out to the old fort.

And I helped out at the old Jail.

In July, Lottie and I made it out for some tea.

Then nothing until October.  Lottie and I took our annual train ride.

And I was Queen Victoria for Halloween.

And finally, the girls and I got together for a Christmas party.

Shirley wound a skein of wool into a ball.

Lottie added a few more rows to her Canadian Cloud.

Perhaps after our winter break, things will pick up again.  I sure hope so!  But even though our outings were few and far between, they were still quite fun!

Tea time Edwardian style

Lottie and I went out for tea this past weekend (we missed you Shirley!)  We went to MacDonald House in Stonewall.

The house is an Edwardian house with the claim to fame of being the home of one of our war heroes.

We had a lovely tea and quiche meal.

Isn’t Lottie’s hat great!

She made it herself!

After tea, we wandered around through the tea house’s gift shop.  We found a mirror where we could photograph ourselves together.

After that we went across the street to a second hand store.  It was a pleasant day pretending to be ladies out for tea and shopping.

Year in Review: Dresses worn this year

When you make these dresses, you sure hope you get some use out of them.  Because of some cancelled outings, I didn’t wear as many as I would have liked but some did get used.

In May, my 1861 Senora dress went to the old fort.

And 1845 Atessa went to Kildonan Cemetary and Church.

My 1903 skirt and blousewaist went to Dalnavert Museum at the end of May.

In July, my medieval costume was worn at the Cook’s Creek Medieval Festival.

1909 Olive made an appearance as a movie extra in August.

And the last outing was in October for the annual train robbery.  I wore an 1895 walking outfit.

6 out of 20 worn this year.  Hopefully, next year, there wont be so many cancelled trips so more of my children can get out and play.

 

Sunday at Doors Open: Dalnavert

During the Doors Open event in the last weekend of May, I had two costumes out.  The 1845 paisley “Atessa” dress and on the Sunday the 1903 Battenburg blousewaist (formally known as a table cloth) and the 1903 black trumpet skirt made an appearance.  I also added the Battenburg apron I found at a flea market which gave me a good “house keeper” kind of look.  This was ideal as I was doing some volunteer work at Dalnavert House.

This was my first stint volunteering at the house and I really enjoyed it.  My volunteer roll for this event was primarily floating, giving rests to people who had assigned spots.  It gave me the chance to really get to know parts of the house.

After a busy day volunteering, I really was thirsty so a can of coke was like ambrosia!

As I drank it, I remembered all kinds of Coke ads and memorabilia I have seen over the years so I “went with it”!

The modern hall attached to Dalnavert housed the Costume Museum’s display so I got to see the things I helped prepare.

Next post: more of the Costume Museum’s display!

Year in review: costumes that got out of the closet

I really thought more of my costumes got out of the closet this year but I guess not.  I think it was because there were no events like the Dicken’s Festival or Coco where multiple costumes get worn. Here are the ones that did get out.

The dummy behind the counter had a similar shirtwaist on as the dummy in front of the counter!

Seven in total.  Eight if you count the time I played a hooker at the old jail and stood in my undies for the audience.

I’m hoping, this new year, my costuming buddies and I will make it out to the Dicken’s Festival in Saskatchewan.  That will increase the number of dresses that get worn!  I also hope that I will have the opportunity to wear the ones that didn’t get used this year.  I don’t like the idea of dresses languishing in the closet too long.  But perhaps that may encourage me to part with the ones that no longer thrill me.  The ones that have flaws that now seem glaringly obvious.

PS.  I hope you folks had a good New Year’s celebration and you enjoy this new one.  May your troubles be few and your joys be many!

 

Completed projects: year in review

I like these posts.  I’m always surprised at how much I’ve actually done in a year!  So lets see if this year holds true-in spite of the extra stresses and giving up on Historical Sew Monthly.

Lets start with the non wearable items: rock painting.

Next up: modern sewing projects.

Modern knitting and crochet.  There were quite a few of these, including one where I spun the wool myself.

Gads! The wrinkles!

There were a few historical knitting projects.

There were not as many historical sewing projects as in years past but more than I thought!

The total is 25 which works about to be about 2 a month.  Not to shabby!  I’m happy with that.

I hope for myself another productive year and I wish it for you readers as well.  I also wish happiness and peace!

 

Goin’ out Edwardian style

I had my first event in Edwardian Fashions.  I finished the Trumpet Skirt I was working on and paired it with my shirtwaist made from a table cloth and wore it to the Urban Gallery display at the Museum of Man and Nature.  Lottie was also in Edwardian fashions and Shirley came in modern clothes and played “photographer”.  Here are some of the highlights…

You can almost see the authentic Edwardian belt buckle in this photo.  You can’t see the pin stripes in the skirt at all!

In a lot of my photos, my shirtwaist was riding up under my left arm and my hat had slipped WAAAAY back.  Sigh.  And I looked in the mirror before we started!

The dummy behind the counter had a similar shirtwaist on as the dummy in front of the counter!

Lookin’ for the laudanum and found the laxatives instead.

Lottie’s hat is the best! She took apart 3 hats to make this baby!

Time to play the harlot!

Then it was time to go home and play with the photographs.

Progress Report: Race against time

I have a costume event next Sunday and I hope to have a functional Edwardian outfit for it.  I just need a skirt to make it wearable.  I am doing Truly Victorian’s Trumpet Skirt in a black pin stripe.

For those of you haven’t made this skirt, you should know there is a lining under the fashion fabric.  This lining is 2 inches shorter than the skirt itself and it has a ruffle attached to it.

The job of this ruffle is to hold the bottom of the skirt out in the trumpet shape.  It is the lining and ruffle that seems to be the most labor intensive and time consuming part of the whole skirt.  This lining and ruffle gives you two more HUGE hems to do and I find gathering and attaching ruffles fiddly.

There are two hems because you don’t just attach the ruffle to the bottom of the lining.  you attach it so the bottom edge of the ruffle is even with the bottom edge of the lining.

My theory on why it is assembled this way is that the ruffle supports the skirt and the lining supports the ruffle.

As you can see, in the interest of saving time, I machine sewed the hems.  My thinking is that you wont be able to see it when I wear the skirt so it wont matter.  I will hand sew the actual fashion fabric hem.  If ever I get more keen on authenticity and “how it was really done” or if I decide to enter a contest, I can go back and re do those hems.  But for my “fun larking about” the machine hems will do.

I have the placket, waist band, hooks and hem left to do so that it is wearable.  There is a final step of adding some stiffening to the skirt hem to help hold it out that likely wont happen on time for the event.

I am running out of time!  I need to retire!  Work is getting in the way of my sewing!

Edwardian progress

I love long seams.  They take so little time and effort to do and yet you get big results! 

Of course, now comes the fiddly bits that take SO long!  There is a crap load of hemming to do and ruffles to attach to the lining (the ruffles hold the skirt hem out in a flare)…. Will I get it done on time?  I may cheat and machine sew the hem on the lining and the ruffles. No one will see those.