Pictures from Paynetown

Pirates of Paynetown was last weekend. I got to be on the cannon crew, thumb stalling & setting it off. I also got to fire T's fancy gun. For the Sat battle I borrowed a collection of "boys" clothes, slops a vest & a hat. Looks like slops and a coat are going to make it onto my list for next season. Running the cannon was fun & moved me from recruit to able seaman. Plus I kept everyone in coffee, fresh cinnamon bread (which I've been asked to bring from now on) and fresh butter. Actually I didn't make the butter. I coralled the kids that made the butter, just like I said I would when T gave me the churn.

Defending our position.







Captain, Master Gunner & myself doing a cannon demo on Sunday. too bad the camera settings weren't right for the sun.





After the 100* weather I'm really glad that I made that mix & match short gown. I ended up wearing it all weekend and sleeping in my ugly bed jacket. I also got an extra pair of light weight cotton stockings so I won't have to borrow L's for hot events any longer. I also loaned A my red skirt on Saturday. Proof that clothing is adjustable. A is about 5 ft tall & at most 90 lbs (she's 15 after all) but the skirt fit her just fine.

Next up:

Frenchman's Frolic next weekend & finding buckles for my shoes.

Ugly Bed Jacket

For lack of anything else to call this. I finally figured out the shawl collar on the Garsalt pattern. Of course this ugly striped linen/rayon blend doesn't help and the pattern was a little too big. I also worked on flat felled seams, although for the life of me I can't figure out how to handle the underarm gussets. It doesn't help that I really don't like those things even without fancy seam treatments. I'm guessing I'll pass this along to someone else as soon as I make one out of 100% linen, which I'll get to as soon as I have a moment.




It's just ugly and doesn't look any better being worn. Oh well. It's only meant to get me through the super hot weekend at Paynetown tomorrow. Then I can worry about something more attractive.

Catching up

This will be a randomly jumbled post because I realized today just how long it's been since I updated. So much has happened and changed in the last month or so. Where to start?

I'm now an official member of the Great Lakes River Pirates. My first event with them officially was last weekends Pike River Rendezvous. I'm still working out the of moving from a 1690's English focus, to either a French Habitante or frontier in 1750 focus. I do know that I'm running an 18th century style coffeehouse which is especailly loved by the coffee drinking crew. W says that I should be in the Ohio valley, which is urban enough at the time for the coffeehouse but still regional. Meanwhile, he's quickly becoming a French Dr. with a gambling problem (finally someone that will play cards with me!) That leads to my benches and tables.

Benches

Tables are currently disassembled in the garage waiting to be repacked for this weekends event, Pirates of Paynetown. I'll try to get a good shot of them this weekend to share. J did a wonderful job and they came in super handy.

In other news, I made L a generic "urchin" dress to wear. I knew it was going to be hot and that her usual jumps/skirts combo would be to many layers. So I looked at the standard back lacing dress that everyone seems to have their kids in and thought, hey that looks just like a Kwik Sew pattern, but with the back laced. So I made one and it worked. The skirt needs to be longer and maybe the sleeves but otherwise it worked really well. Because it was so quick to put together I didn't mind that L promptly got it covered in sand and mud. Even after washing it's not "clean".

Other than that I made W's SIL J a bright red bed jacket, ruffled cap and apron. She looked super cute. W is also making me a list of clothes that he wants, new breeches for the Colonial Ball in Nov, a waistcoat with the lacing in the back. I'm also currently researching for a round gown to wear to the ball myself. I have this super soft, light, purple flannel that I'm considering. Although I would also love to do something in green, since it's my favorite color. I'm also making a quick ugly bed jacket today, as soon as I finish blogging of course. Also, because the GLRP does a lot with the boats, I need to have a back up set of slops, jacket and shirt. It's not an issue of "looking like a man" because when you're out on the water, it's impossible to tell. Meanwhile it's impossible to be useful on a boat in a skirt & stays.

My tent is great, I need a fly but for now am borrowing one from the LT. I've got a big piece of canvas that I'm going to paint as a floor cloth. Just as nice as a rug but lighter and cheaper. I also have to work on a long term sign for the Widow Black's Coffeehouse. I whipped on up the night before Pike River out of a scrap of fabric and my fabric marker. I "pirated" the three jugs on the sign from J&T since I was in a rush but it worked and looked good. I'm not sure what the long term image will be. For now I have to come up with a better way to get the sign to hang for Paynetown.

Anyway, that's the long winded, random updating. Keep a weather eye out for more frequent updates as I sew some new clothes.