Time Travel

When my husband and I decided to celebrate our 25th Anniversary by participating in War of 1812 living history, we really didn't know what to expect. We thought perhaps we'd go out for weekend events, sleep in our canvas tent, meet new people, help out in camp and on the battlefield. What we didn't expect was how much fun we would have, even getting dirty, and cold, and doing hours of research to better understand and portray the people's lives we were reenacting. We're almost at the 2nd anniversary of starting our adventure, and I've had an epiphany! 

In July we made a family pilgrimage to my parents' homeland, Malta. While we were there we learned a lot about our family's history, including events that happened during WWII. A few of the more pleasant aspects of that time during the war include my parents getting married, my sister Miriam being born (in a bomb shelter that my dad and uncle dug out), and best of all and lucky for the rest of us, they survived. 

My parents on their 1942 wedding day.     

   

My sister Miriam in front of the bomb shelter she was born in.

Not only that, but when the UK asked Canada to accept Maltese who wanted to leave the horribly bombed out island, my parents took a huge leap of faith and left behind family and friends to come to a country they knew nothing about.

While we were in Malta, we went to the National War Museum. Their section on WWII is outstanding, and they have a lot about the civilians and how much they were involved in the fight. There is one film that included, I swear, my dad and another gentleman wandering in the rubble. There is also a woman's dress that really stuck with me. It made me think about how much our family was involved in the war, and it made me want to learn more about the 1940s, especially here in Canada.

My first attempt at a 1940s outfit.

I'm slowly convincing my husband that we could surely do 1940s living history. He could portray home guard, and I could do anything that needed doing at that time. I've even put together my first outfit to encourage him.  

I think our Anniversary Adventure may have 

created a historical monster. More soon!

All the best, your GG

Upping My Historical Game

Welcome to my first post on my new personal blog. While I geek about a lot of different things, this post will pretty much show how much of a history geek I am.

Last year for my husband's and my 25th Anniversary, we started participating in 1812 living history (reenacting). Before we started, I spent a few months gathering goods, including a couple of dresses. One that was made by a local seamstress and the other made with the help of my daughter and her sewing machine.

  

  

After a great season wearing both dresses and talking to a number of lovely people about common folks and their attire, I decided I wanted to make something that would be not only more practical for summer events, but also as historically correct as possible for my station (a trooper's wife), my duties as a camp follower, and the fact that I have to dress myself in the morning. 

After much discussion and research, I decided on a front stomacher dress. It's period correct, it's easy to get on by yourself, and it's practical for every day use. A wonderful group of expert historical wear makers led me to a great Laughing Moon pattern. 

I will be very honest. I was terrified at the prospect of doing this project. I have never in my life made a whole outfit. My plan was also to do it entirely historically correct, so that meant sewing the whole dress by hand. That wasn't the most terrifying part, as I've hand sewn a number of smaller projects and I'm pretty comfortable with that skill. No, it was the idea of cutting out the pattern. I have never done anything with a pattern before. 

It made me sweaty with anxiety just thinking about it. I ended up waiting for my daughter Miranda to be home to help. And I'm glad I did. While the Laughing Moon patterns are brilliant and have lots of detail and information, I had no clue what a lot of it meant. My anxiety went away having her around to say "Mom you just do this". That's all I needed. 

 

Material, and all cut up ready to make a dress.

Again I have to thank Laughing Moon. The book of instructions that came with the pattern has lots of images, and that helped me tremendously. I learn much better seeing how something is done than by reading about it. The whole process was very slow going, as I read and looked, and did it again before I started stitching anything. 

Eventually, I got the first part done and started to feel a little more confident.  

                                   

  Bodice with lining

Then, I did the next big step - attaching the sleeves. It's probably good that I haven't used a pattern before, because the seams for this period dress sit in very different positions than on a modern pattern. But I did it, and I was so excited I took a photo of me with the top part of my project all done.

Next part - the skirt. You would think it was all long seams, so just time consuming, but then there came The Pleats! My daughter and I went back and forth on how they should be done. Again, I had to consult with my favourite group of historical sewers to get their perspective. Eventually I went with my original plan and got it done with no blood, sweat or tears.

This is one half of the back and side.

Afterward, it was a case of attaching the two back pieces, and the sides to the front. The pattern simply wanted the seams cut down and pressed flat, but as I wasn't going to be lining the skirt, I ended up stitching down all the seams so it looked neater. 

Should make it more durable too.

After that it was time to attach the back to the bodice. I practically did a little dance when I got them together. 

I was getting pretty excited at this point.

The last big part to putting this together was to attach the front pieces, create and attach the straps, work out where to attach the buttons and make button loops (I'd never done this before either). 

My very first ever button loop.

I finished my dress yesterday - Mother's Day - in remembrance of my mom. She was a brilliant seamstress and I think she'd be mighty proud. 

I'm really looking forward to events this summer. Here's hoping my hand stitched dress will hold up to everything I put it through. 

Cheers, Lee