Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Or the deceptively simple technique for hand sewing a rolled hem on just about anything.

This technique has eluded me for nearly 2 years. I had tried everything I could think of to no avail. As it turns out, no ONE technique could fully do the trick. No wonder my rolled hems always seemed half done. They were!


1. Cut a nice straight square of fabric with no loose strings. Linen works best for your first project because it will easily hold the roll as you work.

2. Place fabric with the wrong side facing you.

3. Spit on your thumb and index finger. Hey, nobody said sewing was sanitary.


4. Place your fingers under the fabric, with your thumb on top. Use your thumb to gently pull edge towards you into a narrow roll. This is where that little bit of spit comes in handy. The moisture helps the fabric "take" to the roll. If you're lucky the material will hold the roll for it's full length. If not, simply do the thumb roll as you go.


5. Take a straight stitch into the body of the fabric, going towards the outside edge. This helps secure the thread & makes rolling at the edge easier.


6. Next, take a stitch *through* the roll from step 4, going towards the right side of the fabric.


7. Bring your working thread over the roll as you take a straight stitch into the body of the fabric again, this time going towards the far end of the piece.

8. Repeat stitching through the roll & body fabric for 2-3 stitches.


8a. Alternately, you can take both roll & body stitches at once, always ending with a stitch through the body fabric.


9. Gently pull the working thread towards the far end of the piece, holding the near end with your other hand. Do not however, pull to much or you will pucker the resulting hem.


10. Marvel as the hem rolls into itself!

11. Repeat for the full length of your project.

11a. To turn a corner, simply tie off & start the next side in the same way you started the first side. The very end of the first side will get rolled into the second side but that's OK. This gives your corners a neat finish.


12. Find all kinds of places to use a hand rolled hem. This happens to be a nice little handkerchief to keep in my pocket. Very useful for blowing your nose after taking snuff from Sanctuary Traders.


13. Embroider your monogram onto the wrong side of the handkerchief because it was 2AM ad you weren't paying attention.

14. Oh well, make another using your newly mastered hand sewn rolled hem stitching!

Trail of History Recap

Ahh, the Trail of History. Such a beautiful site, with such unpredictable weather!

This year, due to a busy early season & some measure of confusion on everyone's part, we were day tripping rather than camping. L had asked earlier in the season when we were going to attend an event "as the public". At the time I had a good laugh. See, once you've done a few events & started to know as many people as I do, it's not really possible to pretend to be "public".


Entertainment, 18th century style

Day tripping was a good compromise. L was able to sleep comfortably in a bed at my mothers over night and yet we were still able to be dressed & social during the day. Luckily our friends in Brigands Folie, The Amazing Budabi Brothers , and several ONW members were camping. We redily took advantage of their camps to relax through out the day and as a central place to leave things like my always overflowing basket.


A tisket, a tasket, everything in my basket.

We watched the Brother's show, I participated in the servants auction (but didn't win anyone). L enjoyed the horses & ended up spending a great deal of time simply standing near their pens, watching them. I spent time socializing, shopping at the few sutlers, picking up the last little bits for my winter projects and generally trying to keep myself busy without the coffeehouse. I gave up on counting the number of people that asked where we were camped & where the coffeehouse was. I'm guessing that means that next year I'll have to be more alert to registration deadlines!


And always twirling, twirling, twirling

As an added bonus, my dear friend A came out Saturday afternoon with her camera. She was a photography major in college and is one of the best photographers I know. Best of all, because I've known her all her life, I am comfortable enough around her to not do the ugly face freeze like I do with so many other photographers. We're already planning on several more photoshoots of my historic projects. I've needed professional grade pictures for a while. Not sure why it's taken so long for me to ask A to help.


Reenacting with mom.


The widow Black


See you in camp next year!

Belated Event Reviews

Sunrise
Originally uploaded by bartnnick

My apologies for not reviewing the last several events. It's nothing against the events themselves and everything to do with the fact that I can't find the darned cord to upload my photographs! I'm convinced the cats ran off with it. Just when I was remembering to actually take pictures too.

Kohkohmah:

Kohkohmah-Foster Encampment

This is my all time favorite event site. The natural ampitheatre, the wonderful stockade fort, the tree cover. I love that it's so easy to forget about the modern world when on this site. The event itself is well organized which makes it easy to participate & feel involved. This year was a little disappointing at the coffeehouse. Our camp lost it's main road frontage to the French, which limited the number of spectators who came around to my demo. Ideally I need to be set up in a main drag, the more people walk past the coffeehouse, the more people stop to listen to me talk. I was also surprised at how few of my fellow reenactors stopped by for coffee in the mornings (or even during the day). Last year I could barely keep up with the demand, this year I actually had extra! Still it was a good event. L made friends with the French children, played in the creek and on the bridges and dipped her own candle. I barely saw her, which means she was having a good enough time not to want to hang around complaining of being board.

Feast of the Hunters Moon:

Feast of the Hunters Moon 2008

I attended this event at the last minute, playing "shop girl" for J. Henderson Artifacts. When the opportunity came up I simply had to take it! I'd heard from others that Feast is the "biggest dog & pony show around", and they weren't kidding. I was boggled at the sheer number of participants. With an event this size it's expected that not everyone will be of the highest caliber, but there were quite a few fantastic camps to balance it all out. I especially enjoyed working all weekend, strange I know but I felt great having something constructive to do. I also learned that working in the pottery shop is great fun because everyone comes to you to say hello. i don't get many visitors while doing the coffeehouse demo, mostly because people are trying not to interrupt. In the shop however, no one worries about interrupting.

Mississinewa:

Mississinewa 1812

This is our only 1812 event and one of the best for enjoying the river. This year the weather was completely cooperative. Cool at night but not too cool, sunny and warm during the day but not scorching hot. L spent most of the event at the far end of camp playing with the kids in the River Rogues group. The one drawback to this was that "the other side" of camps was close to a mile away. I didn't have the coffeehouse demo with for this event (it's not 19th century appropriate) so I was able to spend most of my time with her, hanging out, painting with watercolors and splashing around in the river. We attended the ball Saturday night and enjoyed watching the dancers, even though we didn't dance ourselves. The Saturday night pirate party was, as always, indescribable, which of course leads to the rather sedate Sunday. I spent the morning working in the pottery shop while L played in camp. The best thing to come from the event though, was that L finally got over her fear of the boat! I'm looking forward to being able to take her out on the water more often now that she actually enjoys it.

Well, that's basically it for the event reviews. Now that the busy season is over I'll be back to regular blogging and sharing the little bits of research that I've managed to sneak in while running from event to event soon.