What We’re Up To
Digital Downloads Now Available
After quite a bit of agony deep-diving into the programming on the site, we’ve fixed the secure shopping cart for digital downloads in the doll section!
You can now get instant delivery of the Little Cloth Girl pattern, the Doll’s Dressmaker, or the Shapely China Doll pattern (which also includes dress-form instructions, so you can create a miniature wardrobe without needing a china doll in hand!)
With the digital downloads, you’ll be able to purchase instantly, save the files to your chosen device, view with any PDF reader, and print fresh templates or instruction pages whenever you need them. And if you lose your device contents? We can resend the links for a new copy for you.
Next up: Great Auntie Maude’s Favorite Cloth Doll in digital-download purchase format, and then, on to making the children’s patterns available for digital purchase and at-home printing!
Click through to get your digital download copy of the current doll resources!
Setting Goals for 2022
Oh, Look! I do have an actual face! And a Long Pointy Nose! Me at the Kirkpatrick Cabin at the history site where I volunteer, just before our Old Fashioned Christmas at the Park events at the end of November and early December. SO MUCH FUN!
It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster the last while, hasn’t it?
2022 is here, and I’d love to encourage you each to make a list of some personal historical goals for the year, plus a plan to meet that goal!
What will you read to increase your understanding of the world of the mid-19th century? Will it be novels, new, science, politics?
Will you find out where your own relatives were during the mid-century, and what they were up to? Were they settled in, or settling new regions? What work did they do?
Will you be investigating your town, county, or region’s history to bring new facets to long-enjoyed topics?
What wardrobe maintenance do you need? Does everything fit? Is it in good order?
Will you add accessories, or refresh your undergarment inventory, or finally make a few nice collars (I’m teaching a workshop on just that for Corsets & Cravats in the summer, and will have the workbook available for independent purchase after, as well!)? Is it time to refit your favorite dress, reset some petticoat waists, or upgrade your shoes and stockings?
Will you be mastering one or two nice period hairstyles that give you Just The Right Look?
Will you investigate and add to your housewares and home goods, to fill out the visuals in any display or impression?
What new skills will you add to assist you this year? Will you learn some hymns or popular songs? Will you learn to dance, or play an instrument?
Will you host or organize some small, focused, historical activities that could grow into events in coming years? Will you upgrade your interpretive efforts at public events or historic sites? Will you strengthen a relationship with your local historical sites, museums, and community?
I have my own list:
- New corset to suit my figure realities
- Remake a favorite dress to remove damage from leather dye (oh, tragedy! I admit I was gutted about that!)
- Make a few nice new collars and some 1840s and 1850s daycaps (the collar I’m wearing is a favorite, and I need more!)
- undergarment inventory updates (seriously tragic situation with a dismal lack of decent chemises and drawers)
- Dressing offspring and grand-offspring
- Doing more public interpretive work at the little historical site where we volunteer
- Helping with an immersion event in Washington State
- Teaching (zoom and in person!)
- Releasing some exciting new things here on the website! (Yes, older boy stuff. FINALLY. I know. It’s been coming forever. And you still have to wait. But I’m getting CLOSE. And some new Compendium things. And more things for infants and girls for the 1840s & 1850s… I am stinking busy!!)
Stay tuned, and let me know how I can help you meet your own goals!
Heading Toward Autumn
… Even though it’s still in the 90s here in the Rocky Mountains, I’m determined that we’re nearly to Autumn, my favorite season of the year!
There is still time to get in on the August 28 Zoom workshop, Playing Dress-up. You can request your seat by clicking through the digital workshop page. Everyone who registers will get the live session, a PDF resource packet, and a replay link after the session.
We’ll have new options in September, and I’m teaching on-line workshops for a few other organizations later this fall, as well.
I’ve been shifting some projects around; I know folks are needing some good options for older boys, and outerwear for children, so keep an eye out here for some cool additions you can purchase for digital download, as well as some updates to the Compendium. I’ve been patterning the sweetest infant dress as well, and am looking forward to releasing that this fall. I’m also ramping up to some video tutorials (I KNOW. Growth and change are possible, even for the exceedingly vain!) on mid-century sewing techniques you’ll appreciate having in your bag of tricks.
In short: WHOO. BUSY DAYS. Keep your eye out here, and on Facebook, to see what’s up!
August Zoom Workshops with The Sewing Academy
We have some fresh topics and dates for August, as well as replay options for those who missed sessions earlier this year! Click through to see everything, and sign up for the workshops that suit your needs. (Please remember, each workshop registration spot is for an individual participant.)
If you have a scheduling conflict, no worries! Each session is recorded and a link sent out for post-session viewing, so you won’t miss a thing.
Click Through to register today! We have limited spots for each session. Registrations will switch from Livestream to Replay option 24 hours before each session begins.
Simply submit the contact form, and you’ll receive an email link to a customized, secure e-invoice through PayPal that you can complete with your PayPal account or any debit/credit card you prefer!
July 2021 Zoom Workshops Now Open
I’m delighted to finally schedule and open a set of workshops… click through and reserve your seat in one, two, three, or all four, and join me live, or with the post-presentation viewing link! Dressing children, exploring the used clothing trades and domestic living arrangements, and the expansion of the publishing world in the mid-century… this is some fun stuff to add rich context to your living history exploits!
Hunt Hill WI Retreat Registration!
Two years ago, we partnered with the Living History Society of Minnesota (LHSMN) to bring about a wonderful working weekend at Hunt Hill, Wisconsin. This year, we’re doing it again! You’ll find all the details and registration links by clicking through.
Renewal, Restoration, & Research!
Just a quick note to say HELLO to all the lovely Sewing Academy readers, and give you a peek at my project stack for the coming months!
Lilly Martin Spencer; The Little Navigator
I’ll be dressing my own daughters (and baby grandson, thanks to that old-married Eldest girl of mine!) for the upcoming season’s history tours at the small regional history park where we volunteer, so look for some sew-alongs and tutorials related to dressing infants, pre-teens, teens, and young adult women.
Sewing Academy member P. Thacker, of the Pacific Northwest Contingent, has sent in some great process photos for fitting and completing a lovely corset for a young lady, and that’ll be coming up soon, too.
I have permissions in hand for not one, not two, but THREE amazing and totally bog-common mid-century sunbonnets from private and site collections, to add as project sheets in the Compendium! These will all be for personal use only (courtesy to the owners who have been awfully gracious in allowing us to share them!), and are not to be used for items that will be sold. I’m excited to see what gorgeous sun protection you’ll all make with the project sheets–corded and slatted variations included. They each have features to delight the maker and the wearer.
We’re in the planning stages for workshop weekends in Minnesota and the Pacific Coast in the early fall of 2018, and talking about some fun options in Arkansas or Ohio for 2019.
Great Auntie Maude’s Favorite Cloth Doll will be coming out as a digital-download very soon! The fun everyone is having with instant gratification and the Cloth Girl pattern is encouraging, so we’ll be making more published items available that way.
I’m even working on a digital version of The Dressmaker’s Guide, so it’ll be easier than ever to get hold of your copy, whether you’re US or overseas.
Tiny, Tidy Things (a fun set of pointlessly decorative items from US publications in the early 1860s, including full-size templates, original text, and illustrated instructions for replication) will be available very soon as both a workshop option (we had so much fun with that in Gettysburg!) and as a stand-alone project book in print and digital download.
We’ll be doing a large-scale revamp of The Sewing Academy @ Home forum, with an eye toward making it far more mobile-device-friendly, and will be rolling out some fun group research “dogpiles” and other virtual activities you’ll want to read.
Basically: 2018 promises to be a busy year of renewal, restoration, and fresh research to enhance our appreciation of the mid-19th century! I’m glad you’re along for the ride, and can’t wait to see what we all do together!
Settling In All Cozy
If I could share a sound clip of the wind wuthering through my front porch, you’d be transported to whatever lonely moor or peak you care to name… it’s a blustery start to November for us here in the Rockies! We’ve had two minor snow storms so far (both melted fairly quickly), but the season is definitely turning, and I’m reading to snuggle into it and get to work!
Here in our cottage, the start of November signals a busy window of time. We perform Christmas shows (bagpipes, drums, dancing, vocals, guitar, mandolin, upright bass, and the like) around the area all through November and well into December, and we’re preparing for our annual Burns’ Night at the end of January.
There are Christmas gifts to prepare (more on that in a moment), and this year, the arrival of our first grandchild (courtesy of our “young curmudgeon” eldest daughter and her husband) sometime near the beginning of December. Hatchlings have very little consideration for Gran’s sewing schedule. (Yes, I’m grown-up enough to be a Gran. No, I didn’t have babies in my teens. Yes, my Eldest is old enough to hatch a baby. No, I don’t yet own proper Gran Wrinkles, or any lovely silver hairs. I’m assured I still get to “level up” to Gran.)
And of course, I’m prepping workshops and classes for 2018! Hit the Workshops page to see where you’ll find me in the first quarter of the year, and get your registrations in (we’re quite limited on seats, and I don’t want you to miss yours!). (Download the PDF2018 Sewing Academy Planner and email me to select dates for a weekend in your own area!)
I promised just above to give you more on the topic of Christmas Gifts… and I could go on about this for quite some time, so perhaps we’ll break this up into a few posts?
I wanted to link everyone over to the author of Fanciful Utility, Anna Worden Bauersmith–even if you don’t have history people to make gifts for, you can use your historic skills to make some pretty keen things. For instance:
If gift cards are the thing in your circle, what about a spiffing gift card receptacle that can see second life as a spot to tuck ID or other necessities for a night out? Pocket-sized, charming, multi-use! Check out the free templates that work with your copy of Fanciful Utility to make a sweet little card case!
You’ll also find some additional free templates to use with Fanciful Utility in the Compendium; use these good historic techniques with modern fabrics for personal niceties to delight your favorite quilter or needleworker.
While it might seem a bit utilitarian to give a loved one new drawers, chemises, petticoats, or aprons for Christmas, you might find yourself on the Permanent Nice List for just such giving! (And don’t forget to make yourself a fresh set or two for the New Year.)
If you need a portable, no-sewing-required gift, what about fringing a large square of soft wool to make a cozy shawl? (You’ll find helps for all of these in the Compendium, or in our Dressmaker’s Guide and children’s patterns.
Definitely time to settle in and start to work…
Perhaps the most classic Christmas gift is a new doll, made by loving hands and dressed in the small scraps left over from the new Doll-Mother’s own wardrobe. We’ve just released the sweet new downloadable pattern for a little cloth girl, and from the responses so far, there are going to be some very happy doll-makers and Doll-Mothers this holiday season!
To round out this week of gusts and breezes, I’m working on a kilt, a wedding veil for a dear young friend, and converting the original Great Auntie Maude’s Favorite Cloth Doll pattern for PDF download, as well… it’s a proven fact I am never, ever bored!
What’s on your list to start this season?
Gatekeepers, “The Voice”, and Other Antiquated Notions
1860 Image of Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, LoC
Recent events have me thinking a lot about the nature of collaborative historical research and application, living in the 21st century (Hello, George Jetson!), and a whole lot of other tangled stuff that may or may not be useful to readers.
But when has that ever stopped me sharing an opinion? Or this, a loving and loquacious look back at where we’ve been, where we are, and where we could go. (Oh, what a nicely-paved road! Why are we in this handbasket?)
Pre-reading Apology To Those Reading On Mobile Devices: this, like so many of my posts, will be an endlessly-scrolling Wall O’ Text that every coherent internet writer is told to Never Ever Do. I added capricious line breaks. But its still Many Words. So I put up a pretty and historic image of the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, so the Lords of the Internet won’t show up at my cottage doorstep and beat me with ethernet cables.
Let us Proceed With The Novella, after the jump. Continue reading
Model Citizens Wanted
As we get 2017 underway, my project list is fairly ridiculous. One item on the list requires some outside aid, and you, Dear Reader, could be that aid!
If you are pleased with the historical accuracy of your overall silhouette and foundation, please consider being part of a Modeling Project for The Sewing Academy.
Models can be male or female, of any age and build! Your foundational impression may be from anywhere on the economic spectrum, from any portion of the focus era (1835-1865).
To participate, please email me directly with some details of your target years, accompanied by digital images of yourself in your period clothing (taken as straight-on as possible against a high-contrast background) from the front, side, and back, as well as in a “period fashionable” pose if desired.
Your participation will make the Modeling Project possible–and the Modeling Project has the potential to be of great utility to living history enthusiasts, educators, artists, writers, and more, all over the globe!
Sacramento Wrapped Up!
Thanks to all who came out for the Old Sacramento Sewing Academy series this last weekend! We had a total of 32 people for the three days, got a lot of good work done, and shared the excitement of living history in the West with friends old and new. Sponsored by the Sacramento History Museum and Old Sacramento Living History program, we were in a great space in the heart of Old Sacramento, with lovely staff and volunteers who made sure arrangements and all were easy, and as comfortable as can be.
I really do think that history people are just the *best* people. Thanks, all, for making it possible to associate with you, and to share with you!
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be updating the Sewing Academy Planner for 2017—if you know you’d like to have workshops in your local area, look for that update, get a wishlist together with your interested core, and let’s make it happen!
Watch the site as we work through November… we have some *very* exciting things going on right now, and will have nifty announcements as we reach Thanksgiving!
I’m a FanU Fan, Too!
Ever since Fanciful Utility debuted three years ago, I’ve been making up items from its pages to give away at Sewing Academy workshops, where they’ve been received with delight. But, as with cobbler’s children going barefoot, my own sewing supplies were kept in a series of battered plastic ziploc baggies!
Finally, at the Montana Sewing Academy Retreat in spring 2015, I determined to end that sad habit, and make something for MyOwnSelf! 
My Little Case… Click to embiggen!
I decided to make my case to finish out at about 2″ wide and deep, and 4″ long. I knew I wanted a tool box and pin-cushion, a scissor sheath and a bit of wool for a needle-keep. And inside Fanciful Utility, I found all the bits and pieces to make my project both consistent with historical examples, and My Very Own.
My challenge to myself: use more than one fabric. I have a… thing… about visual coherence. I really, really need for colors to have compatible tones and shade. It’s hard for me to mix patterns, particularly across fabric print collections. Scrap quilting is Not My Thing. I’m in awe of people who can put together items that have loads of different prints!
I also have a history of challenging myself to do odd things. Like the time at university when I made myself do the city newspaper crossword every day for a week, to see if I avoided crosswords because I was bad at them (in which case, it was a character flaw, and I just needed to learn to do them well), or whether I was good at them, but just didn’t like them (in which case I gave myself permission to never do another one in my life.) (I’ve never done another one in my life.)
Inside the Case… full-size, in all its glory!
So, this case has not one, not two… but SIX different cotton prints! There are two on the exterior: the main blue print, with a narrow piping of a red coral-branch-type print where I flipped the blue print around so it would be “right side up” when the case was closed.
Another branching print forms the base of the interior. A tiny red floral is the inside of the toolbox, with a striped print used on the box dividing wall and removable pincushion (which is filled with wool roving).
I used a brown-based print for the scissor sheath, and a bit of white wool felt for the needle-keep.
The asymetrical featherstitch on the needle-keep was put on first, then the blue buttonhole stitch to finish the edge; a blue thread hinge anchors it to the interior. The scissor sheath has a full lining, and was felled securely to the interior, then I worked a backstitch in little mounds around the edge to tie it visually to the blue used elsewhere in the case.
The toolbox is large enough to hold my thimble, wax, a seam ripper (modern), and about six slender spools of Gutterman’s cotton, or truly loads of thread winders when I get those lacquered and in there.
The case closes with three little hooks and three little blue thread eyes on the outside. It stays shut very well!
I made the case entirely by hand (as is historically appropriate), in short and random moments of down-time during a multi-day sewing retreat, in which I was everyone’s minion. It was a great retreat, and my own sense of accomplishment as I loaded my tools and supplies into this compact little case at the end of the weekend was such a great feeling! The whole process of making the case and each component was a relaxing, enjoyable thing. I love these kinds of projects, don’t you?
Making your own case? You’ll want your copy of Fanciful Utility, of course! Here’s a previous post about getting your case set up, too!
Don’t forget to pop over to author Anna Worden Bauersmith’s blog today–look at the great resources she’s making available!
A Nifty Project
We received a fun letter this past week, from a participant in the Sewing Academy workshops held recently in Montana. Debrah was taking a non-history art workshop at the same time, and used techniques from the Sewing Academy workshops in the creation of a piece of “mail art”–an embellished envelope with a themed insert holding artwork.
Fashion doll, outfit, and the embellished envelope.
The doll and outfit tucked into their pocket.
Even the back of the envelope becomes art!
Who knew a welt pocket would be so nifty in paper? And the paper doll and outfit, styled for the late 1800s, is a delightful touch.
Thanks so much for sharing this with us! It’s always a treat to see what our friends are up to.
Fanciful Utility: The Newest Book from Anna Worden Bauersmith!
Are you ready?
Are you a fan of historic sewing and particularly, historic sewing accessories?
Would you like to be able to make gorgeous, functional, accurate pieces for yourself? For gifts? As educational tools? As something just generally nifty to own?
Then you’ll want to order your own copy of Anna Worden Bauersmith’s
The SA and National Geographic!
Some time ago, a writer for the Education section of National Geographic’s site contacted me about participating in an article on Civil War reenactment… and of course, being a life-long reader of the magazine (and a home-schooling-Mom user of the site!) I said yes. The article was published today. Pop on over and take a peek!
