Time warp - 1863 - Delicates

I have been so inspired lately from reading the testimonials of others' trials and tribulations of historical costuming that I feel a duty, and a touch of pride as well, towards my most recent efforts.

Firstly, I'm horribly practical and though there are many laboriously perfected patterns available from online shops as well as short cuts and modern time savers which I do sometimes give into, this being practical (and frugal to boot) has really dug under my skin this time. I have begun production on a series of garments for when Husband and I are state-side for Civil War re-enactments. The big anniversary is coming up and I think we may need to extend our wardrobe just in case ;-)

I have made a conscious decision to use only articles from magazines and the patent office for patterns, advice and instruction for creating these. I have great misgivings about my ability to follow anyones directions: modern, diagrammed or explained at the level of a 5-year-old.

Hopeless. Truly.

That is why I absolutely love this method. It's more of a suggestion, an artistic explanation of how to make clothing. Like impressionist painting. I dig that. The spirit of individual creativity, accident and misunderstanding rolled into such an enticing and charming presentation.

Here is my first attempt. Starting with a basics.

"Delicates" for the right support and silhouette

Support is fairly important and if you have ever tried enacting an impression from any period which requires a corset you will know, and probably still feel to this day, the discomfort of getting it wrong. I have an earlier model reproduction from 1860 but the description of comfort was irresistible. It does bear merit though my intention was to make a cotton "prototype" before using the final fabric (white linen). I ended up finishing the whole thing and decided it was good enough to use for now.

I highly recommend this model for women with larger hip/bust to waist ratio.  I used a bit of extra padding in the hips to soften the stress.  I am often irritated by the end of the corset digging into me when I bend or twist at the waist frequently so this helped.

Royal Frog family

The King of Lilypond
Frederick Cederic  Longfoot

Duchess of Lilypond
Mirea Ann Longfoot

Crown Prince
Frederick Frondle Moss Longfoot II

Archbishop
Silton Cragstone

Lord
Frick Weeden

Vice Admiral
Jack Moss

Lord
Thallus Pickerel Bulrush

Duke of Bogmoor
Sir Wort T. Longfoot

Lady of Rushton
Calla Jane Fenmoor

Earrings for heat

The building I rent my studio from has been in need of improvements and as winter is fast approaching we decided on a wood stove to help heat the massive hallway.  To help pay for the materials we held a support party which went great.  Super fun and everyone pitched in with the details and running the bar and entertainment.  

Meanwhile, the girls and I have been making some fun wearable sell-ables in hopes of generating some income for other improvements needed.  Caroline, My, Laura and I sat for weeks sorting through multi-colored bags of plastic beads and coming up with cute and cool motifs that we either thought might sell or that we just had to do for the fun of it.  

I found that the beads come in teeny-tiny size and decided to make it my trademark style. Also, couldn't see myself wearing the large and loud ones the other girls are so good at pulling off. So, a bit more discreet and petite for me.

Later on I decided that it needed some proper packaging to give it a finished look, better sell-ability and to give credit to our cause.

Little package boxes in 4 different colors that are cute to hold and easy to pack.  On the bottom of the package is a little blurb about our building and the historical area we are in.

and for a personal touch, each pair of earrings says who handmade them.

There is a larger package for the girls' and I'll put photos of that up next along with the display case I still need to make as we now have a shop in town that wants to carry them!  

YAY:-)

Love for the old soul - Part 2

Luckily I have a fairly stocked studio and found most of what I needed.

• Wallpaper paste
• Paint scraper
• Plastic bowls
• Q-tips
• Sponges
• Caustic soda
• Gloves
• Brushes
• Fine sandpaper
• Linseed oil
• Insanity

First step: Off with the metal bits.  Not good to expose it to acid if I don't really know what kind of metal it is.  Most bits looked brass. Loads of screws and a few nails as well and a lock (sadly no key).

Second step: Remove paint.

By mixing the wallpaper paste with the caustic soda, the paint softening acid sits where you want it to and doesn't drip.  You can coat several sides at once and let it do the work while you make some coffee.  It took several soaks and washes.  Apply goo, let it sit, scrap it off.  Rinse.  Repeat.  After a few times I rinsed it in water and let the wood dry a few days.  I worked on one part (Lid or base ) at a time.  When the box was as dry as I could wait, I used Q-tips to take off the remaining paint in hard to reach corners and such.  Occasionally I had to use a wood chisel to ever so gently scrape a fine layer of paint infused wood away.  After which I sanded everything smooth again.

I kinda wish I would have taken more photos of the steps I took but I think the work was mostly meditative  and I didn't think of it.

I did the same with the tin trays and brass fittings, screws 'n everything metal; Acid, rinse, sand.  I did this and not much else for 7 days.  One part dried while I worked on the other.   Then both needed to dry and I worked on the metal.

For the finish and health of the wood, I coated it 3 times with linseed oil.  Every week or so I still do that to keep it from getting thirsty.  I need to find a key for it as well.  Maybe the German silversmith across the hall with make one for me.

• Aprox. cost of box: 3 dollars
• Aprox. cost of restoration: 10 dollars
• Estimated value: 150 - 200 dollars

I know this is a heck of a build up.  "How does it look?" you ask...

Absolutely gorgeous. 

Front cut from single piece as you can see in the wood grain.

Yup, Mahogany 

Yup, Brass fittings

Mid 1800's Mahogany travel paintbox

Love for the old soul - Part 1

Husband and I and a car-full of people from Riggersloftet all took a drive to The Blue Hall, a local flea market.  Great building of room after room of Antiques, bits and bobs, junk and jems.. you never know what great stuff you'll trip over.  This trip I picked me up a few things for what I would consider a real steal.

After not finding much to my interest or of interest to my wallet, a rather nice fella let me have a handful of old gramophone records and this old paint box for 35 kr. The box itself was only 15, around 3 U.S. dollars.

Here are some photos of what it looked like when I bought it.  

Side view where you can see the tarnished brass buttons where a leather strap would fasten to tote your paintbox around. (Brass? Really? Nice feature to a beat up 'ol box)

Here if you look closely you can see the dovetail joints.  If you could look real close you can see that they are hand carved.  And where the paint has chipped off, you can tell it's a decent hard wood. (Hmm, hard wood can always be mended.. so it's a solid box)

The inside of the box with 2 trays for paints and brushes.  (I paint, heavy solid box, has some brass bits..Interesting enough to me, and this is why I bought it.)

When the box was covered in enamel paint, it looks as though the drying process was either disturbed or very poorly done as there are peaks of paint that stand up from the surface 1-2 millimeters... and then painted over again.  The paint is yellowed from age I suspect.

With some tugging I discovered that the trays are removable and made of zinc.  After finding one similar box online, though a deluxe model, I am inclined to think the trays were added at a later date. 

I had found my next project. :-D

Circus foot stool

One of the girls in my building is a circus performer and co-owner of Tin Can Company.  Really fantastic woman.  She donated a a small piece for me to reupholster  as I was looking for a project so I could procrastinate on a current project.  Took 2 days, a few coats of paint, clear lacquer, fabric and foam, and brass tacks.

Here are the results.

BEFORE

AFTER

Cheers, K

Studio Production- Dad's carepackage

Lots has been happening in the studio these past months.  I've had some time off to immerse myself again and I'd like to share some progress that I'm proud of.

Dad's birthday care package was a great deal of fun.  I had long decided that it would be civil war themed and after seeing some obvious jealousy over brother Brian's red linen shirt I knew what had to be done.

I had to make him one.  

So, confederate grey linen was chosen and I hand stitched everything.  My first ever hand stitched piece of clothing and I think only a few people can really appreciate the effort in detail.  I can confidently label myself a "stitch-counter", a term used for re-enactors that have a high standard of authenticity some may call excessive. :-)

The package contained:

1 hand stitched, civil-war period shirt

1 pair hand knitted socks

1 hand written, civil-war period letter 

several boxes of matches

1 slate board and graphite 

Wrapped with tea and coffee stained paper, bound with hemp twine

SHIRT- Handmade custom pattern, Mid-thigh length, Long sleeve, Wooden buttons.

LETTER- Authentic "letter from home" hand written, cursive-style script.  I used bottled ink and pen,  closed with sealing wax and personal seal emblem.

Cheers, K

Studio life- Bread day

Carolina, who works at a bakery brings home all the good that are marked for disposal and we go down to the pier and feed the birds by the flock-load. Very fat birds out there.

The view of the harbour cafe out by the studio and gorging seagulls.

Subi loves bread and puts on her gull impersonation.

Studio production- Blue 1930-40 armchair

This chair is an old soul and I'm quite attached to the whole experience.

Now I wish I had taken before photos to show the extent of the repair but I think you can see that the result is rather good anyhow.

I found this chair discarded and had to adopt it. The original covering was leather fixed with brass upholstery tacks. The leather, so old, it had ripped like cardboard paper on all sides and the tacks were green with oxidation. I thought it a hearty solid chair and it still had some life left as well as the original springs and under structure in place so I grabbed it.

I have a favorite fabric store that is stocked with warehouse leftovers and has the most reasonable prices. I got the fabric and trim for this chair for around 200 kr. which is roughly 36.00 U.S. dollars.

I made plenty of mistakes and wasted too much fabric but it's my first ever upholstery project and I'm proud of it. By the way, give me some input on how old you think it is :-)

When I had taken off the old covering there were 2 old black and white passport photos stuck between the layers. I also used these to help date the chair.

Trans Atlantic Travels

Were I to have taken a steamer over the pond I would have arrived only recently.. if at all. I can then, by retrospective excuse pardon my procrastination. *insert guileless smile*

My favorite cools things I did on holiday visit:

It snowed a bunch

And I couldn't help myself. I was dragged off several times as other things were planned but I HAD to make a snow sculpture. The only figure that made sense to me at the time when considering all the snow activities possible was a Snow Bunny. Of course.

I had to get the bulk of the snow gathered while it was still sticky snow. I didn't have enough time before dark and I knew the temperatures would be too cold and unfortunately freezing the mass solid overnight. So the result is from carving the frozen packed snow. I used a water bottle with a spray nozzle as my glue. Temperatures were brutal, averaging around -12 Fahrenheit. The ice carving doesn't lend too well to detail but I was proud and satisfied. In the end I used coal for the eyes and broom bristles for the whiskers and colored water for pink cheeks and paws and a green star burst grass-like ground (though the colors faded as they froze)

It surprised and flattered me how many people stopped to look at it- neighbors dog walkers, the garbage collectors and mail man, passers by... I was delighted every time I saw it. One morning I woke to find it decapitated by the degenerates that live across the street. That's really when I found out how Mr. S. Bunny had affected people.

The presents I made were a hit

I made 5 fabric kræmmerhus with goodies inside for mom. Kræmmerhus is a danish Christmas decoration which is very similar to our American stockings hung by the fire... only they hang them on the tree and stash goodies in them. Very old world feeling shape to them.

I made Brian 2 shirts for his Civil War re-enactment wardrobe. Both with hand stitched button holes and wooden buttons based on a pattern from the 1800's. One long night shirt made from muslin and one regular shirt, made from red linen flax and also featured a lined front pocket. I have never seen my dad look so envious. A real treat to see it fit! And he liked it.

I sculpted a troll figurine out of fimo clay and hand stitched clothes for the fella. He turned out so well I was inspired to make a tree for him to live in. The doll was so popular it lost a finger in the first 24hours and was shipped to dads shop for repair. Jason loved it.

XOXO-Kyr