Oh boy, a blog award!

Nothing like a blog award to get a girl to post, eh? ;-)  Thanks, Samantha of http://couturecourtesan.blogspot.com !!!

The goal of the award is to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers. The rules of the award are:
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have fun! 


My picks are.... *honorary cannon fire* 

• http://happyvirtue.blogspot.com/ (the sundry adventures of a young & artistic mom!)
• http://dougheroftheword.blogspot.com/ (the sundry adventures of a young & artistic teacher)
• http://pinewoodcastle.typepad.com/my_weblog/ (I'm not actually sure how big a following these guys have, but it's a fantastic look at homeschooled family life)
• http://pickwick12.xanga.com/ (wise reflections from an old friend of mine)
• http://brookslampe.tumblr.com/ (pleasantly odd poetry from an old schoolmate of mine)

The Ball Gown Epic - A Journey in Pictures

My OCD cutting-out process

A lovely - and surpisingly easy to understand - Kay Fig bodice pattern

Sami helped me fit the lining to my body, then we cut the fabric from there.  I pieced it on the machine that night.

I was amazed at the difference fitting it to one's corseted form makes.

Back seams and boning channels.

Car-sewing the piping on during my Great Midwest Adventure.

And ever-more piping! Took FOREVER.

Didn't use a pattern for the skirt - Sami showed me how to do respectable knife-pleats.  Per period photos I looked at, I pleated toward the middle-front in the front, box-pleats on the side, then towards the middle-back in the back.  I had pleated one whole side before I realized I had pleated in the wrong direction and had to start over . . .

Wish I had a picture of working on the sleeves. . . It took me a couple tries.  Everything is pinned together in this pic but it was starting to come together!

Spent the day of the SDI ball at Sami's house, frantically finishing eyelets & trim, + attaching the darn thing to the skirt.

When sombody at the ball asked where I "ordered" it, I knew I'd done something right.

Wish I'd had time to add some matching pink trim to the skirt - oh well.  There's always other balls ;-D  An Epic Journey, one wherein I continually surprised myself.  Couldn't have done it without Sami, though!  

Amazing Trim in 3 Easy Steps!

As an addendum to the pics I will soon post of my (FINISHED!) ball gown, I thought I'd take the time to recommend a book: The Complete Photo Guide to Ribbon Crafts. There are literally hundreds of photos and instructions for everything a reenactor (and member of the public) could ever want to do with ribbon: rosettes, flowers, embroidery, trim, etc. etc. etc.

Who knew there were so many ways one could gather a ribbon?  Here's how I did mine:

1. Go find a ribbon ;-) If you're a stitch-nazi freak like me, you'll go find some genuine silk ribbon from a place like Piecemakers in Huntington Beach (but note: silk ribbon does tend to fray around the edges, especially if dragged across 5 states in a purse like mine was.  I'm willing to trade a worn look for historical accuracy's sake, but nobody has to!)

2. Measure ribbon width and mark this amount of inches down the ribbon's length, staggering the marks on each side.  Sew a gathering thread in a zig-zag from mark to mark, wrapping around the ribbon each time to change direction:

3. Pull gather thread and adjust for desired "wave-width!"

Tack onto bodice/skirt/bonnet of your choice!

I promise, a post is coming!

My apologies for being so far-behind in my posting schedule!  Coming-up: the epic of a ball-gown, miniactment planning, and being (quite-randomly) cast in a play!

4:30 a.m. Eastern Time - April 12th, 2011

To the 600,000.  *clink*

(A lovely French Chardonnay imbibed in honor of P.G.T. Beauregard, and a some Sea-Salt chips munched in honor of Major Anderson's gallant defense of his island fort)

Introducing . . .

The Winchester Canon  - postings from the Copeland/Ridenour papers, dated 1860-1865.  :-) Join Adah and I as we travel through time and write as our characters, contemplating the joys and tragedies of ordinary women who lived through exceptional times.


Letters dated late-1860 now posted.

The Winchester Canon

Reenacting has brought many amazing people into my life.  One of them is my partner in hardcore crime, the Sunny Seamstress (who blogs here and here), who's just as crazy as I am when it comes to de-farbing camp, eating period-correct food, and obsessing over tiny details of historical accuracy in our costume choices.  We also find that reenacting in "first-person" really helps inspire our research and adds an extra edge of challenge and fun to events.

One of the brilliant ideas Sunny, or "Adah" as I more-often call her, came up with was that we would write letters back and forth in character, tracing our respective journeys from the election of 1860 'til (God willin' and the creek don't rise...) the end of the war.  Adah insisted that we write them all out in our best Spencerian ("Spencerian?  What, like, swirly-letters?" said I . . .), with pen-and-ink, if possible.  After a few tries, this letter writing has turned into quite a project:

Being the Literature Major/Author that I am, I came up with 2-3 pages of back-story for my character, Margaret-Ellen Hamilton Copeland of Hillsborough, VA (near where I used to live in Purcellville).  Adah came up with about as much, and right now we are writing as long-separated childhood friends from Hillsborough & Alexandria, respectively.  We will both eventually end up in Winchester, VA - just in time for the mid-days of the war and the muster of our unit, the 18th VA Cavalry, in 1863.  We call our character-world "The Winchester Canon," a title which will remain ironic until Spring 1862 or so, when my character will move to Winchester for reasons which will be revealed in the future.

Thus, in order to write my letters, I bring out "Beleaguered Winchester,"  (a book on civilians in Frederick County during the War) for help with character atmosphere, "The Recollections and Letters of Robert E. Lee" for style reference, "The Civil War Almanac" to keep my timeline straight, and the original 1828 Webster Dictionary for vocab. help.  This in addition to the several web-pages I keep open on my iPhone: 1860s farming research, an 1861 calendar, and an example of Spencerian penmanship.

I told you I was crazy.

I write out everything long-hand in a journal before I commit it to ink-and-paper, so I can craft a good letter w/o having to worry about the handwriting, as well as have a good copy of my letter once the finished product has been mailed.  I've been getting better at the Spencerian (practice makes perfect), and am really enjoying getting to know both of our characters in depth.  

Which is why we've figured that maybe it's time to share the wealth.  Beginning this week (if all goes according to plan), I will begin transcribing our existing letters onto their very own blogspot.  We hope that the rest of you will enjoy reading about the Adventures of Adah and Margaret-Ellen as much as we have enjoyed writing them.  I will post new letters as they become available.  Check-back in a couple days to begin the journey through time.