The Mom Chronicles, Part I
Jan. 5th, 2009 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miss_philomenaMy mom is a big Poe fan, and passed that on to me when I was fairly young. Back in October when I told her about the Bicentennial events at the end of this month, she said she wanted to go as well. My response was that she had to dress up as well, and she waffled about it until Saturday, when ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bauhausfrau put out a call for numbers.
I told her I'd help her with an outfit, which really translates into I'll make the whole outfit. We decided on the early 1840s bodice(Diagram XLIV) in The Cut of Women's Clothes with a plain skirt. I'd just bought a charcoal grey wool blend with fushia and cream plaid stripes which we'll use for her. She doesn't want to wear a corset, so instead I talked her into lightly boned stays instead. I'm using Past Patterns' Wedding Stays for her. I did up a muslin yesterday and today I cut out the fabric. She picked an olive twill for the face and an olive/cream check for the lining and binding. Tomorrow I'll sew up as much as I can. The pattern only calls for a wooden busk and cording around the bust gussets and at the center back, but I plan to add a few channels of spiral boning for support. I'm out of grommets, so finishing the stays will have to wait until after we go up to Grannd Companies Friday, because I refuse to pay $10 in shipping when it's only a 45 minute drive away. Especially since a gross of 00 grommets only costs $8.40.
More to come as I work.
bauhausfrau put out a call for numbers.I told her I'd help her with an outfit, which really translates into I'll make the whole outfit. We decided on the early 1840s bodice(Diagram XLIV) in The Cut of Women's Clothes with a plain skirt. I'd just bought a charcoal grey wool blend with fushia and cream plaid stripes which we'll use for her. She doesn't want to wear a corset, so instead I talked her into lightly boned stays instead. I'm using Past Patterns' Wedding Stays for her. I did up a muslin yesterday and today I cut out the fabric. She picked an olive twill for the face and an olive/cream check for the lining and binding. Tomorrow I'll sew up as much as I can. The pattern only calls for a wooden busk and cording around the bust gussets and at the center back, but I plan to add a few channels of spiral boning for support. I'm out of grommets, so finishing the stays will have to wait until after we go up to Grannd Companies Friday, because I refuse to pay $10 in shipping when it's only a 45 minute drive away. Especially since a gross of 00 grommets only costs $8.40.
More to come as I work.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-06 05:31 am (UTC)I wish that I could get a friend of mine into a Victorian corset. She has a large hourglass figure & would look spectacular corsetted, but insists that it would be "uncomfortable" & refuses even to try one on. Congrats on getting your mom into a costume & a corset!
A.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-06 01:04 pm (UTC)My own mom is actually thinking of doing a few reenacting events w/me in the spring(health permiting;she's 67 and has numerous health problems and rhumatoid arthritis). My mom also instilled historical love in me( her period was more the ACW,as we've an ancestor who fought it it,but it was from her book collection that I started reading) and has always felt she was "born in the wrong century".
I'm looking @ starting her with easy one-day events that are fairly local.
A member of my unit approximately her size has offered to lend her clothes till I get more experienced @ sewing. the only modification she might have to make is to forgo the stays, since she has a lot of back problems(though the supportive stays might actually be good for her).
It sounds like a wonderful time; be sure to take pics!
Maggie