Preparation for the Selkirk Settler Parade

It seems that the impossible task I set out for myself has been accomplished, aside from some minor hemming.  Yesterday afternoon I ventured out to visit the head of the historical society to go fabric shopping in her basement.  This woman quite literally has a fabric store in her basement stocked with every possible historically accurate fabric anyone in the society could ever want!  All you need to do is pick a colour.  While K seems to be sticking with neutral tones, I am always more expressive in the colours I wear.  (Some readers may even remember my completely lime green phase when I was 12.)  That is part of the reason I reenact Métis, because the variety of colours I can wear is so great.  I picked out the most beautiful orange material with a red leaf pattern on it for my bed jacket.  

A black twin bed sheet from a local thrift store for a skirt and some cream muslin material from my Mom for the apron and my fichu, and some scraps from a white bed sheet for a day cap and I was all set to begin my project.

After I got home yesterday I cut out the bed jacket and got it entirely assembled and hemmed, except for the bottom.  It was quite late when I finally finished that and decided to tackle the rest of the costume today.  A good friend of mine from University, who is also in the society, JM offered his services to help me complete my costume.  He does a lot of historical costuming and is amazing when it comes to sewing.  He dropped by this afternoon and we quickly got to work.

We cut out the fichu, apron and measured where to put the casing for the drawstring on the skirt.  He even managed to get an action shot of me making the skirt.  Once it was finished, it was time to try on the outfit so far to get an idea of where things were headed.  Here is a lovely front and back shot of the costume

It was now time to get the apron done so that I would have a waist line again and to complete the costume.  JM quickly began cutting and ironing strips of muslin cloth.  He showed me a very interesting technique for not only creating the ties on the apron, but for making the pleats as well.  On K's skirt and apron we made knife pleats, but JM showed me an easier and more professional way using cartridge pleats.  Definitely something I will have to try again when K needs something new.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon and evening and I now have a complete Selkirk Settler costume for the Parade on Saturday.  I hope I will have some good pictures of it.  I am going to be a flag bearer which should prove to be interesting.  And now, what you have all been waiting for...the final project!

The pattern for this outfit can be purchased through our historical society.  You can contact them through the website at www.manitobalivinghistory.com. 

Now I'm off to attach the strings to my day cap and finish up the last little bit of hemming.  Have a good night everyone!

Historical crafting at the Métis Harvest Celebration

Today was a fun and relaxing day with my girl K at one of our history events.  It was the Métis Harvest Celebration at Louis Riel house.  We spend the day with other members of the society each working on our project for the day.  K did some hemming on her cloak and I tried my hand at some more beading.  K reenacts Selkirk Settler and I portray Métis, so there are quite a few differences in our costumes and the skills that we need to know.

This is what I managed to come up today.  I took a few tips and techniques from one of the young ladies in the society.  Her and her mother both portray Métis/aboriginal and has been in the society a lot longer than I have.  I'm slowly working at decorating a deer hide purse that two very good friends of mine gave to me.  After trimming away the felt from the bead work, and attaching it to the purse, I think it's looking quite neat!  I'll let the rest of you be the judge of my work.

I'm very pleased with how it looks and I'm excited to research out more beading ideas to finish my bag.  I need to find myself some white and yellow beads to continue this and decorate my dress.

I will be making myself a second strap dress (the first picture gives an example of a fully beaded/decorated wool example) out of some very nice blue wool I found at a local thrift store.  The one I currently have is burgundy and made out of an old blanket.  Because it was cut out of a completed blanket, it is fraying more than the wool melton cloth does.  There are also a couple holes in the dress at the back, likely from sparks from a bonfire back in it's blanket days.  Here is a picture of K and I with two other girls in the society.  I'm on the far right and K is next to me.  There are three very good examples of Selkirk Settler costumes and my ever fancy strap dress.  This picture was taken at an event in July of this year celebrating Cuthbert Grant, an equally important but lesser known person in Manitoba's history.

Just another rainy lazy day

I absolutely love challenging myself with new projects that force me to learn something.  There are days, however, where you just need something simple and mindless.  Today is one of those days.  It's rainy, windy and chilly here and I'm babysitting my two youngest cousins.  They're full on pizza and lemonade and now relaxing watching G-Force.  I had limited bag space and decided to bring along my quick stash busting knitting project.  

It's nothing fancy, just a simple two ball garter stitch scarf, but the yarn is yummy.It's Sean Sheep's Wooloomooloo 51% Wool 49% Acrylic blend (75g 90m/98yd per ball) and it resembles a hand spun yarn with its irregularities.  I'm knitting it up 25 sts wide on US10/6.5mm aluminum Boye needles.  Very nice to work with and not bad as far as Walmart yarn goes.  I picked it up at least two years ago and has been sitting in the large box under my bed since.

So here is a picture of my half scarf for all of you to marvel at.  At the rate its knitting up, the weather outside, and the hours I have left babysitting these monsters cousins of mine I should be done soon!  I can't wait to see  how it turns out!  The wheels in my head are already turning on how to finish this.  Maybe add some fleece to one side to make it super cozy and a little more wind proof for those chilly fall days we all know are closer than we'd like.

No introduction needed

I don't feel like an introductory post is accurate because for me this is the middle of everything.  I suppose the nutshell version is the best way to bring everyone up to speed.

I am a nerd, always have been and always will be.  I am the typical computer nerd who is the go to person for all family members when something mysteriously breaks and the recluse in her basement apartment playing World of Warcraft.  I am the history nerd who studied interesting topics in her own time.  It led to majoring in history for my arts degree and finally has required me to join the local historical reenactment society just to get my fix of history.  I am the craft nerd who watched her mother sew and her grandmother knit and desperately needed to learn how to do both.  These are some of the things that make up me and my life.  These things are what I intend to blog about.  The projects I'm working on, the events I go to, and the life in general of the crafting crazy history nut.

So, on to bigger and better (and hopefully more interesting) things.  After having made four dresses, a skirt, two bed jackets, a pair of leggings, an apron, a chemise, a purse, a pair of curtains, a quilted table topper and a secret Christmas gift for one of my two best girlfriends, I decided that I was not done sewing for the year!  While I have a full Scottish settler outfit planned for myself, which I hope I can have done by the 11th, I needed a modern sewing project as well.  Having made only one full size quilt before in my life, and cheating at that because it ended up a tied quilt, that seemed like the best project for the fall.  Winters here are very long and bitterly cold.  The best way to make it through is to have something nice to cozy up in, be it an over sized sweater, a bulky scarf or your favorite blanket.  I wanted something interesting to look at but easy to construct so I will have it done in time for the winter.  It was just the other week I stumbled upon this wonderful design.  That day it was off to the fabric store to use my gift certificate I received from two very dear friends for my birthday back in April.  Lo and behold they were having a sale on fat quarters!  I quickly picked up 9 of them, and a meter of the cutest material with kittens on it.

I've already begun cutting out the pieces and I hope to start constructing it this weekend.  I'm not sure if I will be successful as I do have an entire outfit that needs to be done in a week and a half.  My friend K and I are part of a society that does historical interpretation in costume.  Everyone makes their own and with my hectic schedule of crafting and cats and K's schedule with her daughter, we usually end up making everything last minute.  With a week and a half of notice, I should be just fine!

That should be enough for tonight.  I'm going to watch a half hour of mindless television and do a little mindless knitting before bed.  Tomorrow is a full day of babysitting my younger cousins, and it will be an interesting day with two very active boys stuck in the house due to the weather!  Wish me luck!