Winter Birthday Gifts For My Men

Knowing that we would be in Iowa with my entire immediate family for Christmas, I wanted to be sure to have birthday gifts as well as Christmas gifts for all of the winter birthdays.  In my family that includes three men - my dad's birthday is in late November, my brother-in-law Nick's birthday is in early December, and my brother Aaron's birthday is in mid-February.  I decided that I would make them all monogrammed handkerchiefs, as they are all men of taste and, to varying degrees, enjoy old-fashioned things. 

I hand-hemmed 12" squares of soft white cotton, and chose fonts and colors based on each recipient's individual style.  Brian the Engineer was consulted for his opinion on these matters, as well.  (His birthday is in August, and I was already planning on making him a monogrammed handkerchief.  It just won't be a surprise.) 

I played around with fonts on my computer, finding many that I liked:  

And we chose the ones we thought looked best for those particular initials.

I hadn't quite finished working on this project before we left Virginia, so I ended up borrowing an embroidery hoop from my mom in order to finish up.

I hadn't used this style of hoop in the past, but I rather like it!  The metal ring does all the work of stretching the fabric taut so I didn't have to adjust it at all.

Here are the completed handkerchiefs, washed and ironed and ready to present:

I gave them to all of the guys after dinner on Christmas Eve, just before we started getting ready to go to church for the candlelight service.  Nick decided to wear his as a pocket square:

So after we came home from church, the other two followed suit and I got fun pictures:

It was a really fun project!  I like doing hand embroidery, but I have learned that I do not enjoy doing satin stitch on straight lines.  :p  The curvy lines are much more forgiving, in my experience. 

Completed Project - Embroidered Shawl

Remember my Yellow Shawl from ages ago?  I finally finished embroidering it, and although I have already worn it out and about shared pictures of it here and on facebook, I never shared the in-progress pictures I took. 

I started on the embroidery well over a year ago, in June 2014.  I had gotten an awesome light box as a birthday gift from my parents that March, and it came in very handy for tracing my embroidery pattern: 

I used one of the embroidery templates from the La Mode Bagatelle pattern:

Tracing:  

 Fully traced: 

First motif embroidered:

This is a cell phone pic from my OLD (dumb) phone, so I apologize for the quality.

I worked on it at one RSV event, last September's duel and picnic: 

Then I forgot about it for several months, and finally pulled it out and finished it just in time for the port call of L'Hermione at Yorktown (which I still need to blog about) this past June: 

 

And I wore it again with my new Yellow Sprigged Dress at the RSV Ladies' Retreat:

And again for the dedication of the War of 1812 marker at the Cape Henry Lighthouse in August:   

And once again for the second annual Trafalgar Ball last weekend:

The Wedding of Pocahontas

It was a beautiful day at Jamestowne Island - perfect weather for the wedding of John Rolfe and Pocahontas.  The World of Pocahontas put on a beautiful commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the marriage, and I was fortunate enough to attend the morning ceremony.  

Caution:  This is a picture-intensive post!

Pocahontas Wedding Jacket Embroidery

This week I had a unique and incredible opportunity.  For those of you who may not know, Historic Jamestowne is putting on a reenactment of the wedding of Pocahontas and John Rolfe on April 5 - the 400th anniversary of the actual event.  The Costume Design Center of Colonial Williamsburg (where I work as a tailor) has partnered up with Jamestowne to create the bride's wedding ensemble.  This includes an intricately embroidered 17th Century sleeved waistcoat, on which volunteers have been busily stitching away since mid-January.  On Wednesday I had a chance to work on the embroidery myself!  For one hour, I got to be part of history.  It was very cool.

All of the pieces are traced onto white linen stretched tightly onto wooden frames.  The full jacket will be assembled after all the embroidery is finished.

This is the back, which is the only piece yet to be finished.  

I chose to work on the upper left corner of the back.  

Here is the section I worked on - before I did any stitching.  

Same section after my hour was up.  I only finished one flower, but I can still say I contributed!  

Want to see more pictures?  I thought you might.

The original paper pattern pieces are kept handy for reference. 

 I can't wait to see the finished garment!

A Pocket And A Petticoat

I have finished two more costuming projects!  I'm on a roll for this month.  :)  First is my embroidered pocket:

I finally learned how to do French Knots!  

And second (although actually finished first :p) is my new brick-red petticoat:

Pay no attention to my messy room - or the cat.  

Pocket Progress and Pillowcases

I've always heard that the French Knot was a difficult embroidery stitch to master - and now I believe it!  I can't seem to be able to stop it from unraveling as I pull it through.  Nevertheless, I have made some progress on my embroidered pocket sampler:

A Completely Hand-Sewn Pocket

I know I haven't been updating lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on costumes!  I just haven't had time to blog about them recently.  I am having a lot of fun with my latest project, though, and I wanted to get in a quick post about it.

This is my new Historical Sew Fortnightly Embellish project.  I still haven't decided how I want to embroider the yellow shawl, and I need to figure that out before I go buy gobs of embroidery floss.  However, I do have a small stash of lots of random colors, and I also need to learn some embroidery stitches and techniques before I tackle such an extensive project.  What better way to hone my skills and use up miscellaneous colors of floss than to make a sampler?  I already had the perfect candidate for such a job:

An 18th Century pocket!  Shown here nearly completed. 

How Shall I Embroider My Yellow Shawl?

Edit - I originally unknowingly used a slur in this blog post, and I have since removed it. Over Thanksgiving I went back to Iowa to visit my parents, who were in the process of moving to a new house after almost 30 years.  Not surprisingly, I came back with many long-forgotten treasures from my childhood, and random fabric sources.  One such treasure was this 18 x 90" strip of yellow cotton:

I used this piece of fabric as a shawl, and it became a vital part of my dress-up wardrobe when I wanted to play "G******" with my younger sisters.  (The Hunchback of Notre Dame came out when I was 11, and I was fascinated by Esmerelda.)  It was never hemmed, just had a short fringe from where it had been torn along the grain to create the rectangle.

I have decided to incorporate this unassuming yellow shawl into my grown-up costume wardrobe, as well.  First it needs to be washed, as in the intervening years it has developed a few stains and acquired several black animal hairs - both from my old dog, Chewie, and my current cat, Jazz.

Maybe I shouldn't let her use a box of fabrics as a bed...

To prepare the fabric for washing, I have hemmed it by hand to prevent further fraying of the edges.  This has given me a chance to hone my hand-sewing skills, and I also think it gives a nicer edge than machine-sewing.

This photo - without flash - shows the truest color. 

Next I plan to hone my embroidery skills!  I want to make this shawl my Embellish project for the Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge.  The deadline for this project is February 25, and I wanted to get a head start since embroidery is very time-consuming.  But first I need to decide what color(s) to embroider!

I was originally thinking a floral pattern similar to this, in red and green:

But now I'm leaning more towards all black embroidery for a more dramatic effect.  Maybe some leafy vines like this:

My plan is to focus the majority of the design along both short ends, with a smaller border running along one long edge.  I'm thinking it'll look something like this when I'm finished:

What do you think, oh blogosphere?  What color(s) and design should I choose?  Leave me a comment with your suggestions!