Tiger Lily's Threads

A few months ago, I decided that I needed a new bum pad that would best work with my 1780's and early 1790's gowns; this is mostly because the bum rolls I had just wasn't cutting it anymore. While they do at times give me a nice silhouette for the skirts in the back, it just seemed a bit blocky around the front of my hips. So I wanted to change that.   When American Duchess came out with their underpinnings pattern (half boned stays, with flounced shift and bum pad) I figured this was a good place to start. And boy am I glad I followed through. While this is my first time using AD patterns, I was a little nervous at first (Simplicity sometimes can be a bit hard for me to follow), but to my surprise, I found Lauren and Abby's instructions very easy to follow and it came out looking like it did in the sampler photo (phew!) I also made one for my friend Stephanie to use for her ball gowns and also augmented it just a little bit to match her impres

This Thursday, my friend Stephanie and I went the Ft. Fred Market Fair in Big Pool, MD. In the past we have gone for at least 3 years together and usually come ready with market bags, baskets, etc. to carry the combined haul. We saw friends and colleagues and made new acquaintances, and even the weather was cooperative (no snow or excruciating temps this year). Definitely planning to go back again next year. The front end of the Market Fair !Twins!  I kid you not though, we had not planned on wearing the same print or the same petticoat color! It was awesome and we had fun with it!  Love that mountain view! My small stash from the fair: A Yd. each of sheer kerchief fabric from Burnley & Trowbridge and 96 District Fabrics, and some lacing tapes for my new stays.  Well that's it for now. Now to prepare for the Rev. War Weekend reenactment at George Washington's Mount Vernon next weekend. Stay tuned! 

It has been a wonderful and yet busy last few weeks for me. From the 11th-13th I spent a few days in Colonial Williamsburg doing research on behalf of the Historic Londontown & Gardens museum in Edgewater Maryland, on how to best implement African American Interpretation into their regular programming.  As soon as I arrived, I immediately hit the streets of Duke of Gloucester in search for answers. I was given lots of helpful advice from the museum educators, Nation Builders, and actor interpreters. I was even given opportunity to shadow one of nation builders to get an idea of how to best talk about slavery (which in itself is a very difficult subject), by showing me how he spoke with groups of visitors who were coming into the Raleigh Tavern; he'd introduced himself as "Benjamin" for each group of people that came in, and start off with an ice breaker about what their favorite type of drink was, then he'd flip it around and say that due to the lack of inve