Gowns, flowers, and a 500 year tour: Colonial Williamsburg
Joining friends for a merry day wearing proper attire in the historic area, we inspired many guests to take pictures of the five of us, yet we forgot our own.
Historical Sewing and Time Travels
Joining friends for a merry day wearing proper attire in the historic area, we inspired many guests to take pictures of the five of us, yet we forgot our own.
The sage green ribbon will work nicely with my gown sewn with Colonial Williamsburg floral-vined reproduction fabric, and the yellow and white striped gown.
Finally, I have completed an 18th century cloak for myself. To keep me warm, it has a vest like one of the cloaks in the CW collection has.
Since my son wanted some wool breeches and waistcoat to go with his Lafayette coat, I thought I’d whip some up before Grand Illumination!
In the manner of sewing 18th century gowns, I’m impressed with how little was cut, then draped with tucks and pleats which brought definition and beauty.
My frustrated son showed me his breeches with a huge 6″ rip across the top of the knee, with 2 dangling buttons, one of which he fixed with a straight pin.
Now that I have a set of stays to wear, I fiddled with adjustments for a second set of stays for my dress form, and hopefully attain a better fit.
Completely hand sewn, I even hand stitched as quickly as I could on the Duke of Gloucester Street in Colonial Williamsburg last spring to wear the next day.
My daughter thanked me profusely, while she daintily touched and admired it she repeated, “It’s so pretty. The colors are nice. They all go so nicely together.”
When we purchased the fabric from Colonial Williamsburg’s Mary Dickenson store last March for her birthday, she wasn’t too certain of this 18th century print.