*is a dork*

[ktlovely]

So, I must really love Mike much more than I think I do. I've made him a housewife. It's more of a needle book, really, since I have yet to find documentation of "housewives," like those that Civil War reenactors carry these days. Beth Gilgun says in Tidings from the 18th Century that her husband carries one while reenacting F&I, but she has no citation for it and I haven't had much luck with finding any extant artifacts of the kind. As far as I can tell, they're a reenactorism--fairly widely used, but not cited anywhere I've found yet.

HOWEVER, 18th Century Embroidery Techniques says, "Needles were kept in a cylindrical needlecase or a needle book with wool flannel leaves..." (Marsh 15). Okay, so a needle book is slightly more documentable. grace_poppy made me think of it when she asked about Mike's waistcoat pockets at the Regency Exhibition Ball; he owns that book, so if he (of all people!) quibbles about the documentation, I can point him at his own book! There's also a quote a page farther on, mentioning a similar object that seems to be a whole sewing-kit; it has scissors, bodkin, etc. That one was far more elegant than mine; silk and spangles, lined in satin...but by the description of its function, it sounds similar to what I've come up with. People weren't stupid then; logic and functionality haven't really changed all that much over a couple hundred years.

Congratulations if you read all that. If not, that's all right, too. Basically, you need to understand that I am a TOTAL DORK and have been searching for this kind of documentation for months now. And I'm totally geeked that I've found it. And I will of course be including it in the little package for Mike, because if he's gonna work at the fort, he's gonna be a history nerd. Period. Anyway, pictures. Because that's really what people want to see!


Here's the inside of the cover and the first "page." I'm really hoping I've remembered Mike's initials correctly. I believe he's Michael Richards McCarty, but I plan on finding out for sure before I wrap it. Also, I had to knit up that little pad of wool and felt it on my own because all the wools I own (aside from those I've set aside for the French regimental) are blends and refused to felt satisfactorily. So I busted out some chopsticks (don't laugh!) to knit up a little rectangle, since I gave all my knitting needles away a few months ago, and made my own little wool felt pad. It's blanket-stitched onto the page with more of the same wool yarn. I've been told the needles should be stored in wool because the lanolin keeps them from rusting.


The middle pages; the pockets are for thread winders and maybe buttons. The main thought behind all this was that Tyler spent a heck of a lot of time at the water gate last summer, sewing buttons on various pieces of everybody's uniforms. The new regimental coats had buttons that weren't really sewn on so much as knotted with two strands of button-thread. They popped off at regular intervals and people almost always lost buttons of their whites when they washed them.


The back cover inside, complete with nifty little purchased scissors. Those are debatably farby, but they're small and unobnoxious...and I had a coupon plus my employee discount at work to put towards them.

The scissors were my only expense for this project. Everything else came from my scrap pile. The cover is fabric left over from my first polonaise and all the other fabrics are from my senior project. The whole thing is just a little bigger than the palm of my hand, small enough to be stashed in a waistcoat pocket or cartridge box. It's going to get horribly dirty, too, being handled by a redcoat (yay, black powder soot!), but that's life, right? It'll add a little authenticity, maybe.

In other news, I finished Post Captain and have started HMS Surprise. I was trying to hold off; that lasted all of maybe three hours.


Welcome to the rest of my summer!


I was wondering where I would be able to keep them, since my bookshelf is pretty much full at the moment. My mom turned up with this little stand-alone thing and I was delighted to find that my twenty volumes fit perfectly! :)

Comments

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Isn't there mention in Emma of something called a "huswife"? Is that the same thing as what you just made? (which is utterly delightful btw. I've been thinking of making something similar myself)

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Oh, and you don't have #21 there. ^-^ PoB died writing another book and they've published the fragment I believe. ;-)

[ktlovely.livejournal.com]

I don't know about a mention in Emma, having never read the book. I'd really like to find an actual artifact for evidence, but I've yet to see one from that long ago. I'm guessing that if they existed, they got used until they fell apart, got lost, etc.

I know I'm minus #21, but it wasn't included in the ebay lot I purchased (neither was the first one!), and for some reason the "Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey" seems...sad.

[earendilgrey.livejournal.com]

I have been looking for all the volumes of that. I have found a few used around town, but wish I could find them all.

[ktlovely.livejournal.com]

Ebay! I found a lot of 19 for cheap, and bought the first (missing) volume off Amazon Marketplace.

well done

[(Anonymous)]

thanks much, man

Re: well done

[ktlovely.livejournal.com]

I'd say much obliged, if I knew who you were.