Barossa Goldfields Historical Society Open Day 2013

Yesterday was one of my favourite events of the year, the Barossa Goldfields Historical Society Open Day. Located only 15 minutes from Gawler is Adelaide's own goldfields. Each year at Bowden's Cottage the society holds an open day with demonstrations of steam powered engines, a hand tool wood working display (on previous years also blacksmith displays), damper making, a museum, nature and gold mine bush walks, two person log sawing and gold mining.

This year the invitation was opened up to include the Victoriana Society as well as the Noarlunga Volunteer Rifles/Adelaide Regiment. Nic and Danee were our volunteer riflemen presenting a drill and musket firing display. Unfortunately, our NCO Bob was unable to attend this year due to illness. We all wish him a speedy recovery. Representing the Victoriana Society, Mandi, Jessie and Lynne attended for the first time. Hopefully next year the word will spread and the event will continue to grow. This year they estimated over 200 guests attended the open day, an amazing achievement.

 Jessie enjoying the free damper and tea available to all guests. They make a delicious native berry jam.

 Nic and Danee on parade

 Danee demonstrating the standing firing drill.

 Mandi and Me using a two person saw.

 Nic demonstrating the kneeling firing drill.

 For lunch we went on the nature walk and found a shady spot to have lunch. As we ate, guests walked past to provide entertaining conversations. One of my favourites was a couple that asked what we were reenacting? I responded with 'lunch' and Nic added '150 years ago'. At the completion of lunch we taught Mandi how to play whist.

Early 1860s Leghorn Hat and a Day at Government House

I have been very busy of late working hard on my Honours Literature Review at University. The amount of time and effort required for my studies this semester has left very little time for sewing projects. I have continued with both of my sewing groups, however, one is only two hours a week and the other is an afternoon twice a month. Other than those few hours, I have found little time to sew.

I have also been making a few changes to this blog. After a long discussion with my husband we decided that we not longer liked the name of the blog. We felt that it was simplistic and failed to express our interests and passions in living history. Yes, I used the "L" word. While we are not yet at the standard that we would like to be we do feel that we are no longer just 'costumers'. We live in an 1850s cottage, cook at times on fire (not as much as we would like), we experiment with daily living tasks of the Victorian era and we have a tendency to live in our period clothes. Thankfully, we have very understanding neighbours, who have recently also started bring guests to visit us. Apparently our home looks like a museum. I must say it is strange having people take photos of us in our home. I also hope to add more stories of our experiences and our treasures in this blog.

Anyways, back to sewing. Today we had an event at Government House in Adelaide. As members of the Victoriana Society of SA we are invited to be present at their open days twice a year. It is a nice opportunity to meet and greet both locals and interstate guest. We always have a wonderful, if somewhat tiring day. I had decided to wear my wedding dress, as it was feeling neglected and needed a good airing. Considering how fancy it is, there are not many appropriate events in which to wear it. I wanted to change up the look at little so I decided that I would finally decorate a felt leghorn hat that my husband had purchased for me a while ago. I was delighted to find that I had some wonderful trimmings in my stash that went perfectly with the dress.

 Me wearing it at Government House

As for the event, we decided to have a picnic lunch in style. We took a few of our folding chairs and a folding table to sit under a tree and eat sandwiches and a special cherry pie. It was entertaining having visitors taking photos of us while we enjoyed our repast.

Myself, Lady Dylis Mort, Mrs Ann Lawson and Mrs Sandy DiSessa

 Inside the ballroom

The Challenge 7# Accessorise
Fabric: 100% Wool Felt Hat
Pattern: None - I referred to fashion plates for the trimmings
Year: ca. early 1860s
Notions: pink velvet ribbon, pink flowers, pink silk ribbon, white fabric flowers, wax buds, natural/un-dyed ostrich feather and silk thread to attach the trimmings
How historically accurate is it? About 80%, the velvet ribbon is synthetic and the pink flowers had plastic bases unfortunately
Hours to complete: about 2 hours
First worn: I first wore it today as we were volunteering at the Government House open day, as guests of the Governor.
Total cost: None as the hat was a gift from my loving husband and the notions all came from my stash boxes.
 

Wedding Aniversary, Our Way

This year Nic and I managed to make it to our 2nd year wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, he was away at work on the actual day. To make up for this we decided to have a belated anniversary to remember.

One of the local attractions here in the hills is the historic Steam Ranger, which runs steam train rides from Mount Barker to Victor Harbour. It is a 2 hour ride each way with a 3 hour break at Victor Harbour to enjoy the sea side. Sounded like the perfect way to celebrate and have a picnic. This is a late post as our trip was on the 4th November.

As you can imagine we did draw a crowd when taking our own photos. It was also lovely as a retirement village had booked one of the carriages for their clients to have a day out. So we had people wanting to touch my skirts, ask questions and take photos. Its nice to think we may have added to their enjoyment of the day.

 It wouldn't be a picnic without some champagne.

To finish the day we went for a camel ride, explorer style. I must say it was very tricky in skirts as they did not have a side saddle. It is probably best that there is no photo of me as I was showing quite a lot of ankle. Nic said that it was not as bad as I am married. I think he was just being sweet to make me feel better.

Regency Christmas Picnic

Well today we had our Victoriana Society annual Regency Christmas Picnic. I also finally got some photos of my completed long sleeve dress and linen gloves. We simplified our plans this year as we had way tooo much food the year before. We also found some different Regency picnic food recipes to try including scotch eggs and quail eggs. Very yummy, I now have the intention of trying to convince Nic to let me get some quails for my new avery when I build it in January.

Nic is away, at work in the Perth office, atm. It is amazing how much more difficult it is to attend events without a man. Thankfully, I had some friends to help me prepare and to take the following lovely photos.

 Mandy, Derek, Dave and Wendy

 Group Shot

and finally a photo of the completed dress. Not bad after 2 years of hand sewing on interstate trips. I hope my next dress does not take so long. I do get the feeling wearing it that I should have a few children hanging from my skirts. Maybe one day.

 and my linen gloves, also hand sewn while on interstate drives. Its amazing how much hand sewing can be completed in a car. Thankfully, Nic does the driving to assist with this.

Heritage Ball

I know this blog has been a little silent of late, however, I have been very busy with university studies. I now have four weeks mid year vacation and hope to catch up on my sewing projects and blogging.

To start my holidays I attended a very small heritage ball with some very dear costuming friends. We had a wonderful and exhausting evening.

 

Rui, Jessie and Aaron

 

Chris, Anne and Colin

Myself and Nic

Regency Christmas Picnic

This year for the Regency Christmas Picnic I was lucky enough to have no sewing backlog so that I could start a new upper class dress for the occasion. Two years ago I purchased a few meters of a lovely embroider anglais fabric in an ivory voile. The embroidery went about a meter high so it would be perfect for the bottom of a regency dress. To get ideas I looked at many different dresses and went to the visual expert (my husband) to pick a final dress to copy. His choice was the 1804 dress worn by Elizabeth Patterson in the Met Museum online collection.

 

I had not previously made a Regency dress from that time period so I had to fully draft the pattern toile from scratch. The neckline is lower at the front and the bodice starts higher.Another problem was how to design the back of the dress as I was unable to find any close up images of the back. From the distance image I was able to find a dress that looked similar at a distance, which had a close up view from the same time period. After printing photos out, lots of drawings... I finally came up with a concept of how I could construct it. by using a standard side back and extending the centre back I could create the gathers in the back, which would be held down tight from the weight of the train. The skirt is then attaches straight to the side back and gathered under it, tacked down then stitched straight to the extended centre back. It used 3 strings one top drawstring, one lower and a thicker decorative string to pull the sides in to create the lovely V shape.

The front was far simpler to create, but it did take a few toiles to get it to sit right as it still has a gathered front on the square. The front decorative waist panel also had to be measured to fit in with the design of the fabric and the fit of the dress. I was also a little more modest in the fabric used...  Im not overly keen on exposing too much front.

The sleeves also created an issue with their double ruff. In the end I created a short puffy sleeve and taked on a gathered tube. This created the desired affect very nicely. 

The completed dress.

The dress was mainly hand sewen, all but the long seams that I machined sewed. This is quite an achievement for me and I am very proud as I had not drafted a dress from an image before. Its really nice to hit another milestone in my sewing journey.

The picnic itself was wonderful. The weather was lovely and warm and the food was devine. Our small group allocated dishes to each couple to prepare that were all Regency appropriate. We also took a tea set, rugs and cushions to enjoy the day in style.

Wendy laying out the table with Derrek's assistance.

Nic preparing himself for lunch with a light refreshment of port.

Full view of our dining and reclining area.

Nic and myself after the picnic.

The back of my dress in fully glory.

And the front.