A Stitch A Day

Dolly Madison saving the painting of Washington before the British came to burn down the White House!
I just watched a documentary on Dolly Madison and she is my new favorite historical heroine!
Not to mention she lived during the Regency (Federal for Americans) period!

I'm not very good when it comes to patience in a project. But some things like hand quilting a queen-size quilt force me into that patience and I just have to take it one day at a time.

As I've slowly ventured into making Regency costume, I've realized that I need to take the same approach. See, I have almost 10 years of Civil War reenacting under my belt, albeit it's been about 7 years since I've done any reenacting. Still, I have all the clothes already. If I want to make another dress I already have the patterns and know-how to put it all together. Starting in a different time period (60 years earlier than the Civil War) is literally starting over. The undergarments were different, the cut of bodice, shoes, and how hair was worn is all different. It's pretty overwhelming! It's not something I can just jump into.

I've been following this lovely blog by a fellow mom/blogger/sewer of historical clothing also named Sarah over at Romantic History. She doesn't know it, but she's been such an inspiration to me! She's embarked on a goal of sewing one Regency clothing garment every month. For October she just finished a wool Spencer jacket. When I discovered her goal, I was so excited! Taking it one month at a time is something I can do. Breaking it up into manageable bits makes the task of building a whole new historical wardrobe not quite as overwhelming.

So! For the next few months I'm going to be focusing on the undergarments. I will also be making another corset - some short stays this time - that should prove fitting dresses while wearing it to be much easier than the long corset. I have this lovely cream and tan striped linen that will be the outside layer of the short stays that I picked up as a remnant at the fabric store. Hooray!

Then, once the undergarments are complete I will make one dress, and then focus like the dickens on getting some 1860s clothing made for my family in anticipation of the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg. It has been a goal of mine to go ever since I went as a 16 year old to the 135th anniversary event and even though I don't reenact anymore, I would always regret it if we didn't go - in costume!