Tiger Lily's Threads

Recently, I had been revisited by one of my older sewing challenges: An 18th century men's waistcoat. I have always wanted to make one at some point, but never had the courage or a simplistic pattern to get started... this is where Dr. Benjamin Franklin comes in. A Ben Franklin impersonator approached me with a preposition to make him a waistcoat for an upcoming event. I saw this as an opportunity to tackle the challenge from a couple of years ago. All of the materials were provided and being my 1st ever sewing comission, I tried to be very careful to measure and cut everything; measure twice and cut once is an old seamstress proverb I'm told. The pattern was from Butterick's historical series. When I started the project, I was anxious. Not only was this my first sewing commission but ths was my first time making this waistcoat from start to finish. A few years ago I made an attempt at this project for my husband and I had so much trouble with it that i had to ask ...

This past weekend my friend Stephanie and I visited our favorite place on Earth, Colonial Williamsburg, for the 2017 George Washington Ball. With spring already in full swing, we surprisingly didn't have to dress like we were going to the north pole, but still decided to wear our cloaks and mitts to knock off some of the chill (it was 50 degrees after all).  We walked around and ran into friends we hadn't seen since the holidays, and also visited the Milliner's to see what they were working on: a beautiful silk goldenrod gown for one of their acting interpreters, who portrays Martha Custis. I think I asked so many questions about working with silk, that I could have taken notes. lol.  Around noon, we met up with a friend of ours who lived around the corner from the historic district and had lunch at the King's Arms Tavern. This was my very first time there, and I will say that it won't be my last. I really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere, maybe a little...

Spring has arrived early this year!  For this 1780's English gown, I decided to try another bold color : a very bright "tomato" red.   The pattern I used again was J.P.Ryan's Anglaise gown pattern. As far as the fabric itself, I decided to use a durable cotton quilting fabric from JoAnn's (About 4 yards of it). Here's a timelapse of the dress's construction