From: owner-h-costume-digest (H-Costume Digest) To: h-costume-digest@lunch.engr.sgi.com Subject: H-Costume Digest V3 #232 Reply-To: h-costume Errors-To: owner-h-costume-digest@lunch.engr.sgi.com Precedence: bulk H-Costume Digest Thursday, October 19 1995 Volume 3, Number 232 Compilation copyright (C) 1995 Diane Barlow Close and Gretchen Miller Use in whole prohibited. Individual articles are the property of the author. Seek permission from that author before reprinting or quoting elsewhere. Important Addresses: Send submissions to: h-costume@lunch.engr.sgi.com (or reply to this message). Adds/drops/archives: majordomo@lunch.engr.sgi.com Real, live person: h-costume-request@andrew.cmu.edu Topics: Help - first time silk user... re: seamless garment Re: Help - first time silk u Re: Help - first time silk user... Re: Musketeer's rapiers Dicken's Costumes Doreen Yarwood RE: Straw Embroidery civil war question Circular needles Sally go naked shirt Re[2]: Help - first time silk user... Sally-go-naked shirt Victorian shoes. Bronze Boots. Re: Re[2]: Help - first time silk user... Re: Dicken's Costumes Robin Hood hats Paris-Prague dance weeks -- what to pack? Unusual books for your reference shelf ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 08:54:04 +1000 From: M.DEVOGEL@student.anu.edu.au (Miesje de Vogel) Subject: Help - first time silk user... Dear All, While I erealise this may have been covered before, has anyone some advice on using silk? I've bought in a lucky scoop eight metres of blood red dupion (real expensive out here - especially for a student), to make a dress for a friends (SCA) wedding. I want to make a late sixteeeenth century French garment out of it, but want to make sure that it is washable, the colour doesn't bleed, etc... Thanks, Miesje ___________ Adopt silly accent: Ho noh! Eets ze Spanish Armida! ______________ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 17:22:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Kimberly Smay Subject: re: seamless garment I know this is kind of a whacky tangent, but did looms capable of doubleweave exist in Christ's time. Several people have advanced theories as to what christ's seamless garment might have been. It is possible to weave a tube an a modern horizontal loom(jack loom). I believe most looms at the time of Christ would have been vertical looms. Can you weave double weave on a vertical loom? Kimberly Smay ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 1995 18:20:43 U From: "Carole Newson-Smith" Subject: Re: Help - first time silk u Reply to: RE>Help - first time silk user... Didn't the fabric store have any care instructions to give you? Don't be too shy to go back and ask them. Dupion is too nice to ruin - on anyone's budget. Silk can be dyed with many things, and different countries have different standards. It's hard to guess what you've got from here. Cordelia ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 19:47:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Gwen Carnegi Subject: Re: Help - first time silk user... Basic rule of thumb- if you are going to wash it after you make it, wash it before you make it (dry-cleaning is the exception). I have a coathardie which is made from the same stuff which is flat-lined with muslin (calico to those overseas). I wash it cold water and air dry it and it hangs great. If your design is depending on the crispness of the dupioni, flat-line it and dry-clean it only. I haven't had any bleeding problems but I only wash it with other reds. Also, some of the shine will go away if you wash it regularily. Ta! Gwyndolynn Anne the Obscure Gwyn Carnegie ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 01:34:22 -0400 From: margritt@mindspring.com (Margritte) Subject: Re: Musketeer's rapiers At 10:36 AM 10/18/95, Sharon L. Nelson wrote: >I believe Museum Replicas in GA. may have what you are looking for, >although I can't vouch for the 'reasonable' price. My fiance got a >'shivona' (sp?) there with a lovely hilt but it was ca. $400. (He's a >stickler for 17th c. authenticity so I'm sure the design was good.) I >don't have their address as I'm at work, but should no one else reply w. >it, please let me know & I'll see if we still have a catalog from them >around home somewhere. I have a catalog handy! The address is: Museum Replicas Limited A Division of the Atlanta Cutlery Corp. 2143 Gees Mill Road Box 840 Conyers, GA 30207 1-800-883-8838 Hope this helps. I have no connection with them, and I've never ordered from them. But it's a fun catalog to look through. - -Margritte - ------------------------------------------------------------ Gryphon's Moon - Request our free catalog of Celtic jewelry. email margritt@mindspring.com or check out our web page at http://www.mindspring.com/~maclain/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 03:01:30 -0400 From: Christy546@aol.com Subject: Dicken's Costumes Hi All, 'Nother question for you. I am co-ordinating a group of volunteers to work at a booth for the American Museum of Straw Arts at the Dicken's fair in San Francisco. Most of them will only be working for one weekend. I need to be able to give them information for simple to put together costumes. They also need to be low cost. These people are giving of their time and I want to ask as little else of them as possible. I have never actually been to the fair myself, but I'm the type who does the costume from the inside out. If anyone can pass along costume hints for be to give the volunteers, I'd appreciate it. Does anyone have hints for thrift store finds and how to make them over. The volunteeres are mostly 30 - 40 years old and will be working a game booth. The costumes don't have to be too fancy. Thanks for your help. It is so nice to have such a lot of helpful people right at your fingertips. Christy ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 07:51:02 +0000 From: "Jennifer Kubenka" Subject: Doreen Yarwood Hi all, Does anyone know if Doreen Yarwood, author of many costuming ref books, is still alive? I have had abysmal luck trying to trace down a secondary or primary source for a line drawing of the Frankish women's clothing ca. 850, that I found in her _European Costume: 4000 years of fashion_, on p. 36. SO-- I thought maybe if she were still alive, I would try to track down an address for her, and ask her directly. Thanks, Jennifer D. Kubenka ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 07:55:28 +0000 From: "Jennifer Kubenka" Subject: RE: Straw Embroidery Seems to me that I saw a reference to this technique in the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needework, published in 1979, and subsequently re-published in 1981 and 1983. There was a small section on straw embroidery, I think; I was looking at it at my mother's house about a month ago, and it has been nagging at me ever since I saw the original posting about straw embroidery. The ISBN for the 1979 original edition, which was the one I am sure I was perusing, is 0895770598. Hope this can be of use, Jennifer D. Kubenka ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 10:04:08 -0500 (CDT) From: P_SHERYL@KCPL.LIB.MO.US Subject: civil war question I got the following question on one of my other mailing lists. My area of interest is the Renaissance so I can't answer it. But I thought that all of the sharp civil war re-enactors on this list could come up with an answer for her. If you have any information, post it to the list or send it to me & I'll forward it along! TIA! Sheryl J. Nance Kansas City MO Public Library p_sheryl@kcpl.lib.mo.us >Hi all! I have a patron who is looking for information on a 'Sally go >naked shirt'. It has something to do with the Civil War. She thinks it >might have been worn then. We don't know its use for sure. Any help >would be appreciated. > >Patty Curthoys >Chattauqua-Cattaraugus Library System ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Oct 95 22:55:11 EDT From: Maryann Subject: Circular needles Does anyone know when circular needles were invented and when they came into common use? Was There some sort of for runner? Thanks, Maryann ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 10:34:29 -0500 (CDT) From: VICKI@lib.uttyl.edu Subject: Sally go naked shirt "'Sally-go-naked' was the name of the rough cloth for the field hands [slaves] made of flax fibers. It had to be beated o a wooden block before it could be cut and sewn."--Hulbert Footner, _Rivers of the Eastern Shore_, 1944, p. 265, as quoted in _A Dictionary of Americanisms_. Vicki Betts vicki@lib.uttyl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 95 10:20:59 PST From: "Gail DeCamp" Subject: Re[2]: Help - first time silk user... Wait! Wait! If you are going to dry-clean it after you make it, dry-clean it before you make it. I've seen the dry cleaner shrink some finished garments. If you want to be absolutely paranoid, send it through the dry cleaner TWICE. The Textile Reproductions catalog's introduction says that most fibers labeled "dry clean only" can be washed in water, but that it may cause alterations to the texture and/or color of the fabric which, quote, might be distressing to you, endquote. The proprietor says that before she makes a garment, she cleans the fabric more harshly than she intends to clean the finished garment (ie if she plans to machine wash the garment in warm water and hang it to dry, she will machine wash the fabric in hot water and tumble it dry.) If I were you, I'd cut off a little bit of the fabric and try hand washing it and drip drying it, and see what happens to it (and to the wash water...) If you don't like the result, I'd take it to the dry cleaner. Cheerio, Gail DeCamp decampg@ngc.com - --snip-- Basic rule of thumb- if you are going to wash it after you make it, wash it before you make it (dry-cleaning is the exception). On Thu, 19 Oct 1995, Miesje de Vogel wrote: > I've bought in a lucky scoop eight metres of blood red dupion (real > expensive out here - especially for a student), to make a dress for a > friends (SCA) wedding. I want to make a late sixteeeenth century French > garment out of it, but want to make sure that it is washable, the colour > doesn't bleed, etc... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 14:07:23 -0500 (CDT) From: P_SHERYL@KCPL.LIB.MO.US Subject: Sally-go-naked shirt Much thanks to Vicki Betts for answering my reference question so quickly. I forwarded the answer to the person who asked it on my other mailing list & she was very appreciative. Thanks again. Sheryl J. Nance Kansas City MO Public Library p_sheryl@kcpl.lib.mo.us ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 95 14:58:40 PST From: "Gail DeCamp" Subject: Victorian shoes. Bronze Boots. Hi, everyone. I have two questions about Victorian shoes, namely: a) I've heard that a company called Gohn Brothers sells Victorian shoes for about $85-$100. (I believe they also supply Amazon with shoes.) Does anyone have their address or phone number, or know the state and city where they are located? b) In one of the Louisa May Alcott books (don't recall which one; it's the one where the poor country cousin goes to stay with her wealthy city relatives), the heroine is going to a ball and buys some bronze boots to dance at the ball. Does anyone know what the "bronze boots" were? Were they bronze leather? Actual bronze? Metallic colored? I'm also very surprised to hear that boots were acceptable footwear for dancing. Can anyone comment? Thanks Gail DeCamp decampg@ngc.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 16:36:15 -0700 From: Linda.McAllister@Eng.Sun.COM (Linda McAllister) Subject: Re: Re[2]: Help - first time silk user... > The Textile Reproductions catalog's introduction says that most fibers > labeled "dry clean only" can be washed in water, but that it may cause > alterations to the texture and/or color of the fabric which, quote, might > be distressing to you, endquote. The proprietor says that before she makes > a garment, she cleans the fabric more harshly than she intends to clean > the finished garment (ie if she plans to machine wash the garment in warm > water and hang it to dry, she will machine wash the fabric in hot water > and tumble it dry.) The key word here is *most*. I've had fair success with modern silks, if I was them by hand, using shampoo (well, it *was* designed for use on animal fibers!). I've had some running, especially with dark reds and blacks. Haven't tried washing wools. The worst offenders in my experience have been acetates: they shrink, even in cold water. linda ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 16:12:56 -0700 (PDT) From: "Sarah E. Goodman" Subject: Re: Dicken's Costumes In general Faire standards for "boothies" are less strict than for actors. However, I'd talk to your Faire contact and get the current minimal rules. Last time I looked they were going for any vaugely period blouse and a full skirt with a couple of petticoats and shoes that weren't dreadful. (However, IF the shoes doen't show I'd not necessarily make people stick to the shoes that were approved--if your on your feet all day there is something to be said for modern athletic shoes.) Covering one's head is a must, but if you are "indoors" you can get away with crocheted doilies pinned on. (Honest!) There are generally a range of colors and patterns that they find acceptable; these do not neceessarily map to the patterns and colors that were used at the time and can include the personal prejudices of the person making the decision as to what "looks" old-fashioned. (When they were doing the Old San Francisco Faire I rather painstakingly researched period jeans, and got told that they KNEW they were period but people think of them as modern so they were a no-no.) I have a pattern I designed for something else entirely for a boned belt that (which goes up to a high point in front and down to a mild one, and is about three inches wide from the sides back and laces up the back) that made them EXCEEDINGLY happy with some thrown together costumes, but it's really much more 1890s so they might change their minds again. The problem with Faire is that there are usually several people involved in setting the standards and they have different backgrounds and concerns (and hobby-horses) and the only way to find out what the mix is any given year is to ask, Ask, ASK (and then hope that someone doesn't change her mind mid stream). *************************************************************************** Sarah E. Goodman goodston@well.sf.ca.us goodston@netcom.com goodston@river.org Senior Designer & Chief Cat Herder, Wee Cottage, Daly City, California, USA *************************************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 95 15:49:11 PDT From: julie_adams@corp.Cubic.COM Subject: Robin Hood hats Ok, this is going to sound really anal: I was figuring out what to make my 2 yr old for halloween, and thought: Hmmm, I could make him Robin Hood, or an Elf. Hmmm, if I do this right, I can reuse the costume...So I can't help myself thinking, gee, are the folded-crown Robin Hood hats period? So I cracked my books. While I could find numerous round-crowned Robin Hood type hats, no fold-over pointy-toward-the-back ones. Ok has anyone seen primary documentation of one? I think they are really cute on kids, and I will probably make a halloween one. But even so, I will probably cut down a felt round-crowned felt hat blank for a living history hat for him. --julie adams ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 18:41:51 -0700 From: cynthia@caere.com Subject: Paris-Prague dance weeks -- what to pack? FYI, anyone going to the Paris-Prague dance weeks, July 96, might be interested in this: Joan Walton, one of the teachers at this event had this to say: All I know about a syllabus or schedule, is that I am requested to teach early 20th century dances. Nothing more specific. I understood that in Paris, more of the dances would have a western European origin, and in Prague they would be more eastern-influenced. (?) But it is indeed 19th and 20th century, so good luck packing. I just received a copy of a book on Prague fashions, volume II (1870-1914), called "From the Waltz to the Tango." It has loads of pictures of dancing outfits for both men and women. It's this summer's exhibit catalog published by the Dec Arts Museum in Prague. There is an ISBN. --cin Cynthia Barnes Sr. Software Engr Caere Corporation 100 Cooper Court Los Gatos CA 95030 408.395.5148 x2224 internet: Cynthia@caere.com "Sorry I haven't been around much. I'm easily distracted by shiny objects." --The Tick ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 18:52:38 -0700 From: cynthia@caere.com Subject: Unusual books for your reference shelf For all those who made suggestions about museums of Spain & Greece many thanks! Much loot was admired, garments gawked at and books were purchased and mailed. It's like Hannuka or Christmas every day. I highly recommend _The Prado_ for museum catalogs; it has high quality pictures on every page. Better print values than the Met and excellent color matching to the original paintings. For anyone interested in ancient Greece, especially Macedonia in the 4th c BC, the books _Greek Civilization_ and _Vergina_, both available from the Archeological Museum in Thessaloniki are excellent. _Vergina_ was written by Dr. M. Andronicous, the principle archeologist for the 15 year dig. Thessaloniki has the oldest pieces of decorative cloth that I have ever seen. (I'm not counting mummy wrappings.) They were found in the neighboring tomb to the one called "Philip of Macedon's Tomb". They are 2 (formerly) matching wool and gold tabby weave sections in the shape of a trapezoid. (May be jacquard, but I couldnt look at the reverse side to find out.) The pattern is quite complex and the dye is surprisingly rich. It's a very deep purple, and no, I dont know what dyestuff was used. Cocineal? (Lets call it Crayola Violet.) Anyway, the pieces were apparently part of a the dead woman's funeral offerings and were probably even placed on the pyre for a short time. Her bones were then placed in a gold coffer, covered by the cloth of gold, the gold box was placed in an elaborate sarcophagus and the tomb sealed. I just cant gush enough about the Thessaloniki Archeological. Greece has done a fantastic job opening this new museum. The exhibit presentations are very high quality. (Makes the older parts of the Smithsonian look dowdy.) Highly recommended! --cin Cynthia Barnes Sr. Software Engr Caere Corporation 100 Cooper Court Los Gatos CA 95030 408.395.5148 x2224 internet: Cynthia@caere.com "Sorry I haven't been around much. I'm easily distracted by shiny objects." --The Tick ------------------------------ End of H-Costume Digest V3 #232 ******************************* A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, send the command lines: unsubscribe h-costume-digest subscribe h-costume end in the body of a message to majordomo@lunch.engr.sgi.com. Thanks and enjoy the list!