Hot off the sewing needle!

Christmas present for my father-in-law this year. It’s made of royal blue silk broadcloth with white silk taffeta letters and state seal. Each letter and the seal are backed with white cotton to prevent the blue background from coming through. The motto is from an original Florida state flag. All of the white was hand-appliqued. The state seal was embroidered prior to being sewn onto the ground. Everything is hand-sewn except for the fly strip. The “S” are a little off, but those were really hard! I’m sure he’ll love it!

Switchel

Today’s meager post is about an upcoming experiment in which I attempt to poison my unit as they reenact this coming weekend at Spangler’s Springs in Gettysburg. ..

Just Kidding! I’ve been assigned to bring “gatorade” to contribute to the groups’ food that weekend. Instead, I will be bringing a concentrate used during the 1860’s instead of gatorade. It contains less sugar, has ginger to calm stomach cramps from heat, and still replenishes all the electrolytes of gatorade with none of the toxic non-natural un-pronounceable ingredients or nasty flavor. The mystery drink is:

SWITCHEL!!

Here’s the recipe I’ll be trying. I think I’ll enjoy the added lemon flavor. I’ll be taking it down minus the water so it can be added to water when it needs to be mixed.

1/4 C minced ginger, boiled in small quantity of water and strained

1/2 C honey

1/4 C molasses

3/4 C lemon juice

1/4 C apple cider vinegar

Mix together and keep until needed, then add to gallon of water.

I think it also might be good with a nip of peach brandy…..

New kitty

Meet Miss Cleo. She’s the cat of Anna Worden, who has moved down south for a while. She’s finally fitting in!

Mumford Civil War Weekend

This year was set to be our best yet. The museum was trying alot of new things, like allowing the civilians to inhabit the buildings and do scenarios, and of course, I was not sure if I could go due to work. But we managed to make it saturday at least.

We met up with Bill, Elyse, Becky, and Katherine and attempted to fly kites before the storm front moved in. It was less than successful. The bowl shape of the natural amphitheater made for uneven wind currents.

Ms. Topping joined us in watching the boys attempt to fly the tissue paper and sticks. Chris and I decided to go farm-class for the event, with him in a sack coat and me in a modest homespun sheer with straw bonnet.

I test drove my new white silk veil. It looks pretty, and is good for indicating wind direction, but it actually increases sun glare. Wish I had brought my black one!

Ms. Topping looks on as Bill achieves flight with the dangerous Yellow Kite of Dislocation!!

Chris flying the docile red kite. Later on, Elyse and I flew the kites with much success during a windy speech by Lincoln. After the speech, Chris joined us. He was having great success, but then the kite’s line came off the reel. In order to prevent injury by kite to an unsuspecting spectator, he nobly dove for the line. He got it, but dislocated his shoulder in the process, causing a mad rush to the Batavia ER and much drugs and pain. He’s on the mend, but we missed all of the evening scenarios and events! So much for the day off….

Katherine and her new sheer plaid dress. It’s a little long for the new cage. Here she is attempting to fly the Yellow Kite of Dislocation while avoiding horse pies and tripping over her hem.

We enjoyed a lunch of homegrown cherries, jam and lemonade by Bill, wheat bread loaves and sharp cheddar cheese, and good conversation on the porch of the insurance agency. There was banjo music nearby and people stopping to say hi. It was relaxing!

My honey relaxing with some lemonade.

Fort Niagra French and Indian War

So this year, Mom and I were much better dressed for this era than last year. I made her a robe Anglaise out of a blue and white striped heavy cotton and myself, a robe Angalise with wing sleeves from a linen I had dyed with tea. The dye took unevenly, so it looked already worn in!! My hat might be a bit too big, but we received many complements!

I wish I had taken a few more pictures. There were MANY reenactors there! And ships, even! We missed the fireworks, though.

1812 weekend at GCVM

So, this past weekend Mom and I finally got to go to the War of 1812 event at Genesee Country Museum. We had been wanting to go for several years,  but this year our schedules finally lined up, AND, the English Country Dancers (same as put on the Jane Austin Ball) were asked to do a demonstration and teach the public a little social dancing. We also were invited to hang out for the evening dance with the reenactors.

We were shocked to find only about a dozen reenactors in each camp. I think the dancers out-populated them all. And even more surprised to find out that we were the best dressed women there! I didn’t think the sewing very difficult for this time period, and neither is wearing the dresses, since a corset isn’t mandatory (though does help the cleavage!)

Well, I have a penchant for making things and then sticking them in the closet, then when I need them, they come out. The dress and spencer are two such items I got to wear for the first time this weekend. I had made the bonnet specially for the event, and even altered a pair of ballet flats (adding silk ribbons) to wear in case it was dusty.

I’m especially proud of my new silk bonnet. I did extensive research and experimenting to come up with the shape, which was seen as early as the 1770’s. The silk was white silk taffeta that I dyed yellow using a weed from the backyard that bleed yellow goo when the stem is broken. Brown silk taffeta fabric was used for the ribbons.

Mom wore her cute little dress I made for the ball:

There was a fantastic exhibit in the gallery there of paintings and clothing for men’s sporting activities through the 19th century. I was allowed to take as many photos as I could before my camera died.  I especially liked the highly ornemented smocks on display since they have American provenence. The garments were from the collections of Susan Greene, and the Rochester Historical Society. They’re on my facebook, but I don’t have rights to put them up here.

It was a plesent day, listening to the music of Mitzie Collins, Jim Kimball, and Dick Bolt, and wandering the houses (we never get to on the CW weekend, too busy) in fine weather! No wonder people are drawn this time period!

For Sale!

For Sale!!!!                                                  For Sale!!!

Sheer  and semi-sheer cotton corded sunbonnets seen here:

Each one is already starched to be ready to wear right out of the box! $60 each plus shipping. Very light. No “mailbox” vision or sound distortion! Easy to wash. Good sun protection even though light and airy. You won’t suffocate under this bonnet!

Four new dresses sent to Abraham’s Lady! Be sure to check that page for more info!

Please contact me at:

bevin@missmacraes.com

for more information regarding anything!

Business rethinking

So I met with my small business consultant yesterday. It appears I’m at a turning point. I can either choose to make this a viable, full-time, bill-paying business, or I can choose to let it be something that merely supports my hobby while I take a part time job elsewhere. Unfortunately, this decision is mostly up to the part-time employers I applied to and not me, but if I should go all out on the business, I have been doing some market research and now, for the first time ever, are solid price lists!!!! YAY!!!! You will see that I fall somewhere in the middle of Robin Stokes and Anna Allen, and Kay and Abraham’s Lady.

I survived the Island (and had fun,too!)

I regret I don’t have any pictures of the great weekend I spent at New Market this past weekend. Others have them up on Facebook though! It rained and was muddy, and a bit cold at times, but the humor and camaraderie of friends made it one of the best years at New Market ever.

After this event, Kate Engler, Allision Goddart, and Maeve Hogan and I developed a female counterpart to the “Rowdy boys”. The Mudhens!

You are a Mudhen if:

You don’t mind wearing working attire for a whole event and NOT looking “pretty”.

You don’t mind cutting and stacking hay with the boys in the field.

You can’t stand sitting “in camp” on your butt all weekend!

You’d rather be out there firing the rifle than watching the boys.

A little mud never hurt anybody!

You can start a fire and cook something without any help or fancy implements.

Hiking and canoeing in period garb makes it more fun.

You don’t come to events to catch up on sleep, but to stay up all night meeting new people.

Getting a totally period feel for an event or portion of it is totally worth it, even if the feeling you might get is a so-called negative such as “misery, uselessness, dejection, loneliness,” or “fear”. If our counterparts experienced it, and we got to a little, it was a good experience.

The use of period correct tobacco and alcohol is tolerated!

Flying a kite in a rainstorm before a battle is FUN!

Business closing?

Thank you to all who have supported me over the past three years, but, due to some financial strain with my husband’s job, etc, I will no longer be opperating Miss MacRae’s as a fulltime business. I will still be taking orders, and hoping to get them done in a timely fashion despite having to go back into the minumum wage workforce fulltime. I find it very ironic that my skills, including my Bachelor’s degree,  only amount to about $7 per hour of worth!  But please be patient as I may not be able to meet short deadlines or be able to meet with you at any hour of the day as I have been able to before. This also means I can no longer offer my assistance with “sewing days” for new people entering the hobby. I guess I should have been less generous with my time and started charging for those free “lessons”? Well, have a great summer everyone, and cross your fingers that my dear Husband can get a job soon!