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Living History at Dalnavert House Museum
May. 28th, 2016 10:42 pmYou may remember this outfit as the one I made to present at a conference last month. Well, I made a hat to go with it (which I ended up changing the design for AGAIN) and wore it for the Doors Open event this weekend, which is an event where many places are open for tours to the public. Our living history group was at Dalnavert House Museum, the place that I made this outfit to be contemporaneous with. And I got pictures of me in my 1895 outfit in the 1895 house!
On the veranda, where we were set up with some displays:
And in the house itself:
Close-up of the hat, plus now my hair is long enough to make a respectable bun:
I really love this ensemble. It's comfortable and allows me to be fairly mobile. I also feel like it looks more like clothes and less like costume than a lot of my other outfits. My only real qualms are that the waist tie on the shirtwaist is too high in the back so it shows above the skirt and that the skirt's placket doesn't stay closed. I'm going to remove the waist tie and (eventually) add the proper hooks to the placket (right now there are none). No problem!
I'm also in love with my new hat! It's my second hat ever. I deconstructed one of those craft straw hats and sewed this together by hand. It has a fairly shallow crown and a sort of medium-ish brim. The front tilts down a bit and the back tilts up to accomodate my bun. I shaped it by spraying the hat with water and propped it up the way I wanted and left it to dry overnight. (I also used a book wrapped in a plastic bag to get the top of the crown flat.) The "ribbon" is actually the same silk fabric as the bow tie. It's double-sided silk, one side gold taffeta, the other side orange-y satin. I turned the edges over and sewed them so that it looks like a striped ribbon, then made fun loops and bows. The tallest loop is a bit droopy at times, but overall they are pretty perky loops.
My shirtwaist and petticoats are all starched, but I found that after ironing they were less stiff and starchy. Anyone know if that is normal? I was hoping for a bit more starchiness, especially to keep my sleeves and collar supported. Maybe I just need to use starch more heavily.
It was a fun day. We had some Votes For Women signs that were popular (it's the 100th anniversary of Manitoba women getting the vote) and people like seeing us around. Lots of people wanted pictures taken with us. Good stuff!
On the veranda, where we were set up with some displays:
And in the house itself:
Close-up of the hat, plus now my hair is long enough to make a respectable bun:
I really love this ensemble. It's comfortable and allows me to be fairly mobile. I also feel like it looks more like clothes and less like costume than a lot of my other outfits. My only real qualms are that the waist tie on the shirtwaist is too high in the back so it shows above the skirt and that the skirt's placket doesn't stay closed. I'm going to remove the waist tie and (eventually) add the proper hooks to the placket (right now there are none). No problem!
I'm also in love with my new hat! It's my second hat ever. I deconstructed one of those craft straw hats and sewed this together by hand. It has a fairly shallow crown and a sort of medium-ish brim. The front tilts down a bit and the back tilts up to accomodate my bun. I shaped it by spraying the hat with water and propped it up the way I wanted and left it to dry overnight. (I also used a book wrapped in a plastic bag to get the top of the crown flat.) The "ribbon" is actually the same silk fabric as the bow tie. It's double-sided silk, one side gold taffeta, the other side orange-y satin. I turned the edges over and sewed them so that it looks like a striped ribbon, then made fun loops and bows. The tallest loop is a bit droopy at times, but overall they are pretty perky loops.
My shirtwaist and petticoats are all starched, but I found that after ironing they were less stiff and starchy. Anyone know if that is normal? I was hoping for a bit more starchiness, especially to keep my sleeves and collar supported. Maybe I just need to use starch more heavily.
It was a fun day. We had some Votes For Women signs that were popular (it's the 100th anniversary of Manitoba women getting the vote) and people like seeing us around. Lots of people wanted pictures taken with us. Good stuff!
