Tiger Lily's Threads

I wanted to try my hand at making a pair of authentic victorian drawers. When I say authentic, I mean drawers you can wear underneath your mid to late 19th century gowns without any use of elastic.  Oh! And did I mention these were split drawers? Front and Backside of split drawers At first, I wasn't too sure about using the Simplicity pattern in the event that the underpinnings were more for costume and not for practical use, but after reading the instructions and working on the pattern, I really was surprised to discover that these were in fact historically accurate as they were split drawers and required a button in the back for fastening.  My favorite aspect of course was the cute little pleats on the bottom. I made at least 3 or 4 pleats as directed in the instructions and used some lace trim I recycled from a costume I had once upon a time. I wanted to add on eyelet trim where I could weave ribbon in between, but I figured that'll come when I make anot...

My friend Kelly gifted me with a wonderful regimental style riding habit. Coincidentally it is the same colors as my Royal Artillery unit's uniforms (comparing the two do get confusing). Anyway, the riding habit did not come with a riding shirt or cravat; I wanted to have the shirt made right before my trips to Fort Frederick's market fair and Mount Vernon the following weekend. So, after strenuous amounts of research on pinterest, costume blogs and reference books, I was ready to take on this challenge: 1780's Redingote and Riding habit examples Lady Worsley's famous British riding habit While riding shirts of this time period normally required the use of lightweight linen fabric, I did not have any in my inventory so, I substituted with cotton muslin instead (trust me, this will not ruin the silhouette of the outfit, and you'll still be comfortable). I used the pattern from my go-to source and immediately started working on the easier pieces:...

Mount Vernon this past weekend was fun, but also like walking into a sauna during mid summer. On Saturday it was partly cloudy; 80 F with 70% humidity. . . wearing anything other than shorts and a cotton T shirt was mightily uncomfortable. On the plus side, the reenactment went off without a hitch. From what I could observe, there were at least 7,000 people total who came to visit the estate plus over 300 reenactors who were participating. Definitely a successful turnout this year. Stephanie and I reprised our roles as acting quarter-mistresses for the British Royal Artillery. Our story goes that the original Quartermaster disappeared from his post under "mysterious circumstances" (probably went AWOL), so we volunteered to fill in and find a reputable vendor to form a contract with.  The previous year we were just the vendor as we did not bring any furniture or displays to set up for our interpretation.  This year, we decided to combine the two thus upping the an...