Friday, February 19, 2010

clothes for the children

My husband and I don't have any children yet, however we have several friends with kids and grandkids. Since they don't belong to me I will refrain from using their names. I'm going to try to opt for using initials of some sort. So far I have three girls and two boys to dress. Ages vary from 1.5 years up to 8. I'm very excited and have been sketching and studying period images to come up with the best options for them.

For AK's better dress, I'm thinking of using a semi sheer pink plaid along with some white voile.
This will also be her first time wearing skirt supports and corded stays.















For her younger brother, DM, who isn't yet potty trained. I'm really liking the skirt with a separate waist and matching jacket. Even though this would be his best dress option, I might still make the waist out of something a bit more hardy than voile.


















I have talked things over with their family, and we've decided to go with matching colors for their everyday clothes. I think it will be easier to keep an eye on them while they're running around camp, or playing with other children. I have quite a bit of a green and white check that I might turn into matching frocks. The former will get a set of pink calico pinafores and the latter a set of red calico smocks.

CW is going to be two and a half when the season opens and is very nearly breached. I've talked with his mother and we've decided on tunics for this year. I'm very excited to try this option out!
His 'Sunday' outfit will possibly be a linen tunic, but I haven't decided yet. His everyday outfit will be a short sleeved cotton tunic, and linen short pants. I really like the wide style that are cuffed at the bottom. He's got a wool hat, but I'd like to make him a linen cap for his best outfit.




















Our eldest, LP, is an 8 year old girl. So far I've decided she is going to get a new set of underpinnings, including stays and a hoop. Last time I asked her favorite colors were purple and red. I'm thinking of making her a purple sheer dress. She's a total doll, and I know would take good care of it. She also needs another everyday dress. Something with a jewel neckline and long sleeves for the colder events. She's also going to get a set of pinafores. Hopefully 2 cotton calico ones, and I'd love to make her a nice white one to go over her sheer dress. She'd look just like an Alice in Wonderland!














All the kids are in need of coats for the cold months, sleepwear, new underpinnings, and something to keep their heads warm in the cold, and cool in the heat. This equates to 6 chemises, 2 undershirts, 8 pair drawers, 2 night shirts, 2 nightgowns, 2 pair stays, 2 hoops, 8 petticoats, 4 corded bonnets, 2 quilted hoods, 2 quilted caps, 4 sack coats, on top of the tunics, gowns, and frocks! I'm so very excited!

BTW, all of these images are from La Mode magazine and are available online. Please contact me for links.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

and the reason i read blogs...photos!

This is Brat working hard on some fake hair rats for Julie

The backs of our heads showing off our loverly hair!!

Aaron pointing out just how cool I am, or something.

My favorite dance partner of all times, Killer!

Harvest Ball weekend

So many things have been happening, and I'm going to try desperately to catch up on everything. Let's see, back when I was updating on a semi-regular basis I left off with promising to tell you all about the Harvest Ball. I've tried once to post about this and it became very long and drawn out. This is my second try.
The Harvest Ball was back in November, on Veteran's day weekend. That day I flew from Orlando, Florida to the Moline, Illinois. From there I drove to Dubuque, Iowa to pick up my friend Katie. We are a couple of shoppers so we made a quick detour to one of my favorite western wear stores.
From there we drove to Kathy's just outside of Madison, WI. I was picking up a sewing machine from her to bring with to lend to yet another friend. After a quick chat about dresses and battles we were off to meet Amanda and swing by a Joann's. We missed Amanda's exit so she was on her own to catch up with us at Joann's. After running through Joann's and being utterly annoyed by their lack of selection we were off to meet up with the rest of the gang for the ceili dance.
There was tons of confusion about where we were meeting, and how to get there but we made it through Milwaukee's ghetto without anything bad happening, and ended up running in to the Irish Cultural Heritage Center, just as the instructions ended.
It was a flurry of hugs and giggles. After all the dancing and talking to the wonderful band, Frogwater, we all headed to our hotel in Racine. We had several cars in our party, and each one of them managed to get lost on the way!
The next morning we were desperate for good coffee. The concierge told us we were only 4 blocks from a Starbucks. After walking close to a mile we stumbled upon a dunken donuts. It was a lovely fall afternoon, the temperature far above normal. So the long walk didn't really matter except some of us still needed to finish our gowns that we were going to be wearing in just a few hours!
I had finished mine the year before, but this year I had added more trim to it. However, the white voile I had made for my sister wasn't yet hemmed. Katie also needed help with some finishing touches on her pink and purple plaid lawn. Amanda needed her sheer white overskirt pinned up. Killer had her own group of girls she had brought down from Appleton, and several h and everyone took a wrong turn somewhere along the way!of them had tweaks they needed done. She, herself needed to use Kathy's machine to stitch the eyelets on her ballgown. Everyone was dressed and their hair done up. We had somewhere around 15 girls in our party by the time we were all done. We got to the ball a bit late as usual. The time there was a blur, I don't remember too much from the actual ball, but it was fun! Afterward we all went out for a late meal and crashed! I'm going to do a seperate post of some photos from the weekend because this one is already so long!