My Sister in Law's Green Dress

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/53.225.5/

My sister in law saw the dress above in the Dangerous Liaisons Met book and had to have it. I had asked her to pick out a dress so she could go to the Francaise dinner with me. The dress she choose, she loved the color and the look so...I had to make her everything for it - the stays, the smock, the pockets, petticoat, and the dress.

I ended up using a lighter colored silk - it looked dark on the monitor but it was the same price as the stuff in the store so... I'm actually really glad I bought the silk on the internet. The color was off but my sister in law still loved it. She said she liked the lighter olive much more than the darker green we originally saw. The fabric itself though was a dream to work with. It was more like a silk taffeta than a dupioni and no one could really see the slubs (there were a few but they weren't obvious). For $12 a yard, it really was a great buy.

I thought I had taken a picture of all the underlayers, but apparently not. The smock was a basic a line tunic with short sleeves out of a linen cotton blend I got at Joanns. If you can find their linen/cotton blend (with no unnatural fibers) at your Joanns, get it. It's fabulous stuff. It's cheap (particularly with the 50% off coupons I get all the time) and it is correct for most periods. I use it all the time in my renaissance and medieval chemises.

The stays I used gray linen from Ikea. Ikea has the heavy, course linen in very drab colors. However, it's great for making stays or using as an inner lining. I machine sewed the channels with a green thread and used green bias tape along the top of the stays. The eyelets were also green - as it is my sister in laws favorite color. They are front opening stays using a spiral lace. I used a mix of cable and duct ties for the boning.

The pockets:

This was before I sewed it all together but after I completely the embroidery on one. I had a large piece of purple linen in the scrap pile. Although I know my sister in law loves green, I thought the purple linen with green embroidery would work well - turns out, it's her favorite color combo. :-) I drew out the embroidery design using the Frixion markers the dreamstress spoke about a few weeks ago. I love the markers. They are perfect for everything. Need to mark a seam? Eyelet placement? Buttonhole placement? Mark out your embroidery pattern? They work on everything. For this particular project, I used the yellow marker on the dark purple background. I learned that if you leave it out overnight to dry, the marker will get brighter. This was insanely useful as I would draw the pattern I wanted at night and finish it the next morning.

Once you are done with the embroidery, just iron over the project. The lines really do disappear. I've so far found the black marker is a bit harder to iron out than the rest but I bought all the colors so it's not a big deal at all.

Photo courtesy of In the Long Run Designs

Courtesy of Mom :-)

The final dress! And my sister in law with her camera strap. :-) I was going to do her hair in a hedgehog but when the curls fell out like that, I just put a big green ribbon in her hair and called it done. The curls were too cute to play with. I sewed together the same trim I used to make my Elizabethan Ruff a couple of years ago to make the cuffs on my sister in law's dress. Despite it being a different color, I wanted it to match the original dress as much as possible. Once I sewed the raw edges of the trim together, I half pleated/ half gathered it to the cuff of the dress.

The final verdict: My sister in loves her entire outfit so much, she's been wearing it when her friends come over now to show of her "favorite" sister in law's work. :-) Okay, so I'm her only sister in law but still! She loved the dinner, loved talking to everyone, and is super excited now to go to Fort Fred. I'm going to teach her how to make her own petticoat since she wants to learn how to sew. However, I do need to make her her own jacket. :-)

Historical Sew Monthly Challenge: Tucks and Pleating

The Challenge:  Tucks & Pleating – make a garment that features tucks and pleating for the shape or decoration

Material:  Silk Taffeta

Pattern:   My own, I think.  I don't quite remember as I cut it out two years ago and never sewed it together.  

Year:   1760's

Notions:  The gold trim and the purple cording I got at Jomar's many years ago now.  The metal findings I got at Hobby Lobby and Michael's.

How historically accurate is it?  The dress itself is entirely handsewn.  The petticoat I made when I cut out the dress and it's machine sewn.  The stomacher is a mix of both - all the "showy" stuff is handsewn but the inside channel and the inside seams along the edges are machine sewn.  

Hours to complete:  Two years?  So, I cut this out in 2013 and just never, ever got to it.  I had to recut it a bit since I've lost weight since then.  Really, it took maybe a couple of weeks to get this done.

First worn:  Francaise Dinner 2016

Total cost:  I remember paying about $120 for the silk taffeta, I think.  I got it in New York.  I think the cording was only $3 for the entire 48 yards and the other trim was about 50 cents a yard - I used three for the project.   The bodice is lined in linen and I used scrap fabric for the inner lining of the stomacher (a small piece of fabric that was once part of a huge bolt of about 25 yards that I got for $5 for the bolt at the thrift store so I doubt it would even be considered to be more than a couple of pennies).  The metal findings were about $20 or a little over that. 

Inspiration:

For the trim inspriation, I was heavily influenced by styles like this:

Royal Ontario Museum

Notice skirt opening is lined in one trim and the wavy lines are outside of that to the sides.

Palais Galleria

This one from the same time period (1750's) has one trim to the inside and a larger self trim to the outside.  The self trim is edged in what looks like may be the same trim to the inside.

Using these any many more images as my inspiration, I did the metallic trim to the inside of the dress and the self trim to the outside and up the robings.

The pleated self trim is to the outside, lined in a wisteria colored cording.  The metallic trim also has some of that wisteria color in it.   Neither are natural materials but that look good on the dress.

I continued the self trim up the robings as well.  In this picture, I tried on the dress before adding the sleeves to make sure it fit.  

For the stomacher, my inspiration were the extant metallic stomachers like this:

Or the drawings of them like this:

http://images.collection.cooperhewitt.org/38880_2bef664bc0f73522_b.jpg

I wanted something that would match the necklace I would end up wearing with the dress so I used a lot of "gold" findings.

Some images of the final dress thanks to Angela!

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge 5: Roasts

A day late but it's done! Since it's Lent, I did a Salmon Roast based on several 15th Century English recipes.

samon Rostyd In Sause
This is an excerpt from Gentyll manly Cokere (MS Pepys 1047)
(England, ca. 1500)
The original source can be found at James L. Matterer's website
Samon rostyd in sause. Cutte thy samon in Rownde pecys and roste hit on a roste Yre take wyne and powder of cannell and draw hem throwgh a streynner. Do ther to onyons mynsed small boyle hit well take vynegyr or verius and pouder of gynger and salt do ther to lay the samon In dyshys and pore the syrrppe ther on and serue forth.

samon Roste In Sauce
This is an excerpt from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books
(England, 1430)
The original source can be found at the University of Michigan's "Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse"

Samon roste in Sauce. Take a Salmond, and cut him rounde, chyne and all, and roste the peces on a gredire; And take wyne, and pouder of Canell, and drawe it thorgh a streynour; And take smale myced oynons, and caste there-to, and lete hem boyle; And then take vynegre, or vergeous, and pouder ginger, and cast there-to; And then ley the samon in a dissh, and cast the sirip theron al hote, and serue it forth.

To Mail samon Rost In Sauce
This is an excerpt from A Noble Boke off Cookry
(England, 1468)
The original source can be found at MedievalCookery.com

To mak samon rost in sauce tak a samon and cutt hym in round peces and rost hym on a gredirne and tak wyn and pouder of canelle and draw them throughe a stren and mynce onyans smalle and do ther to and boile them then tak vergius pouder of peper and guinger and salt and do ther to then lay the samon in a disshe and pour on the ceripe and serue it.


My translation of all three (since they really don't differ much):

To make a salmon roast in sauce, take a salmon and cut it in round pieces. Roast the pieces on a grill (or a roaster in the 1500 one). Take wine and cinnamon powder, passing them both through a strainer. Mince onions and boil them in the wine and cinnamon. Take vinegar or verjuice, ginger powder, and salt as well. Lay the salmon in a dish and pore the syrup over it. Serve forth!


The only difference really is that the recipe from 1468 calls for pepper as well. After tasting it, I think it's perfectly fine without the pepper - which would have been long pepper most likely at this point and not black pepper.

My Recipe:

1 cup white cooking wine
1~tablespoon of ground cinnamon
1 small onion, minced - I ended up with about 1/4 cup of onion
1 tablespoon of Sicilian Lemon Balsamic Vinegar (I buy it at Under the Olive Tree for any other DC locals. There is a similar store in OBX as well at mile marker 6)
1 teaspoon powder Ginger
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 flank of salmon

I got my salmon frozen at IKEA. Yes, they have salmon in their grocery store. It was on sale for $8 for four flanks in a package so I cooked one of the pieces for this recipe.

I didn't cut it up into round pieces for a couple of reasons: I couldn't think of a logical reason to do so; I'm not sure if they really meant round or if them just meant to clean it. Since it was already clean and cutting it into round pieces seemed more a chef Ramsey thing than actually necessary, I just left it. I preheated the oven to 390F since that's what I've cooked other salmon dishes at. I put the salmon piece into one of those tin foil bread things you get for $1 at the grocery store. Once the oven was preheated, I threw in the salmon and got to work on the sauce.

I minced the onions and ground up the cinnamon. I did start to use the mortar and pestle but it was too messy (chunks of cinnamon bark kept falling to the floor because I was smashing it) so I did use the modern blender - which got the job done in a few seconds. I put the cinnamon in the strainer and poured the cup of cooking wine over it. I then threw the onions in and let them boil.

Once the onions started to boil, I put in the Vinegar, ginger, and salt. At the ten minute mark for the oven, I took the salmon only partially out and poured the still quite liquid wine/vinegar/onion mix over the salmon. I let it cook for another ten minutes.

Final verdict: It was quite tasty! I served it on a bed of wild and brown rice (that I heated up in the microwave) which they probably would have done in the 15th Century.  The bed of rice, not the heating up in the microwave.  I'm not a fan of onions - I love cooking with them to get the taste but I tend to avoid actually eating them. However, I did eat a few of these with the salmon and rice and it works. It's sort of a sweet and sour dish. The final calorie count for this one ended up being just over 500 calories - which is excellent if you are on a diet like me. I think I might have it again next week because it's not a hard recipe at all and it's actually pretty modern in taste really. It really took maybe a total of 25 minutes for the prep and the cooking.

As far as cost:

Salmon	$2.00
Onion	$1
Cinnamon Sticks	25 ¢
Ginger	??On hand
Cooking Wine	$1.50 for the amount used
Vinegar	$2.00 for the amount used
Salt	On hand

For one dish, it was probably about $6 once you figure out the cost of the salt, ginger, and the rice.

New Modern Dress

I used Simplicity pattern 1733.   I needed a new black dress for a funeral I'm going to because the ones I have don't fit anymore.   I cut out size 10 and used panne black velvet since it was the only fabric that was winter appropriate, a knit, and I had enough of to make the dress.

I didn't follow all the directions but that was partially because it simply makes more sense to use hem facing around the neckline than to cut out a separate piece and use that only along the back.  I had some grey lace hem facing that I used for both the hem and the neckline.

The twist is tricky but not impossible.   It makes sense - amazingly- in the directions.  Basically, the bodice front is long and you make a tube out of part of it.  On the left side, you sew the end of the tube to the underarm edge after gathering the end of the tube.   On the right side, you take the right side tube, pass it through the left side loop, and attach the right side tube end to the right side underarm.  It sounds way more complex than it is and the pictures help to make it make sense.  

It took about two hours to cut it out and make the dress.   My only complaint really is that the gathers in the middle front of the skirt add too much emphasis to the stomach area.  When I do this pattern again, I'll push the gathers off to the sides instead.  

Historical Food Fortnightly: Sweets for the Sweet

The Challenge:4. Sweets for the Sweet (February 12 - February 25) It’s sugar, and maybe spice, and definitely everything nice. Test out a historic recipe for sweets, sweetmeats and candies - but don’t let them spoil your appetite!


The Recipe: (where did you find it, link to it if possible) Take one hundred cocoa beans, two chillies, a handful of anise seed and two of vanilla (two pulverized Alexandria roses can be substituted), two drams of cinnamon, one dozen almonds and the same amount of hazelnuts, half a pound of white sugar and enough annatto to give some color. And there you have the king of chocolates from What's Cooking America?  You can read some of the book it is from here.

The Date/Year and Region: 1631, Spain

How Did You Make It: (a brief synopsis of the process of creation) I obviously didn't use the amounts the original author indicated. Half a pound of sugar is a bit much. Also, I don't like hazelnuts.

• 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
• 1 heaping tablespoon of sugar
• 1 cup of vanilla flavored almond milk
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• a pinch of anise

I mixed this together and I had hot chocolate!

Time to Complete: A couple of minutes
Total Cost: I had everything on hand

How Successful Was It?: (How did it taste? How did it look? Did it turn out like you thought it would?) The chili powder really changed the taste. However, the rest of it isn't too terribly different from how I make modern hot chocolate so....I loved it!   It's spicy because of the chili powder I used but it's really quite good if you like a rich chocolate taste.

How Accurate Is It?: (fess up to your modifications and make-dos here) I used store bought almond milk and store bought  ground ingredients. I also used the microwave. ;-)  I used almond milk rather than almond flour because, once you add water to the almond flour, the only real difference is that the almond flour would make the drink slightly more thick.   Since the kind of almond milk I buy already had vanilla in it, it makes sense to use that rather than crushing up a bunch of almonds and using vanilla extract (or the vanilla beans I have on hand that are not cheap!).

No Medieval Lenten Diet this year

Although I spoke about doing the medieval Lent thing again this year, I finally gave up today.  The biggest reason was very simple - I could either enjoy medieval food that was typically served during Lent or I could keep to my diet.  There was no way I could do both.

I'm calorie counting and have been since mid November.  It's been working and I'd like to keep it up.   However, even in a snack in the middle ages could easily be well over 500 calories.   I'm trying hard to stick to around 1300 calories a day - give or take 100 calories.   If just a snack - 1/4 cup of raisins, 1/4 cup of walnuts, and a 1/4 of almonds is 500, imagine what some of the dishes are like.   A cup of cooked rice is normally between 200 and 300 calories.  Adding and average serving of salmon to that adds another 400 calories.  This is before veggies and spices.  It came down to having just one meal every day and a snack or giving up and going to modern foods, calorie counting those, and just going to daily mass for Lent instead.   I'm not good on starvation, so daily mass it is.  Because, as anyone who has ever had Chinese take out knows, rice does not fill you up.  

I'm upset with myself a bit because I do love the medieval Lenten foods (I'll be teaching a class on them this year at Pennsic!) but it's not practical if you want to lose weight.  All the foods (And I do mean all!) are very high in calories which probably was great if you went out to work in the fields or had to walk everywhere but not when you have a car, computer, and want to get to a certain weight by Easter.

For the Historically Food Fortnightly, I'll still be making Lenten foods until after Easter - it's just fun and I'll still get an excuse to make some of my favorite dishes.  But as an everyday thing, I just can't pull it off this year.

New 18th Century Stays

18th Century Stays at the MET

I've looked at the above stays for a while. I really, really like them and wanted to make a similar pair for at least a couple of years. Once my beat up old ones finally became completely unwearable and popped a seam, I got off my duff to make ones similar to the above.

Front of my new stays

Side View

Back View

Mine aren't perfect by a long stretch but I'm really happy with them.  First, the fit.  The dress dummy they are on is a size 8.  I used a cotton twill flocked with black velvet I got at Joanns fr the fashion fabric.  The bias tape is black silk taffeta scraps I had lying around in the scrap pile.  I used linen for the lining and cotton duck from Ikea for the inner lining.  The boning is a combo of both cable and duct ties - some of the channels were too thin for the larger duct ties so I doubled up the cable ties instead.

My point on the stays is much broader than the extant pair.  The front upper edge is curved - it's just hard to tell on this dress dummy.   Like the original, I spiral laced the back.

I wore the stays this past weekend - although I hadn't finished binding the bottom edge fully- and they fit!   I just really, really need to go get longer laces!