Meanwhile, Back in the Sewing Room

It has been a very productive week, sewing-wise. I've cut out and completed several 18th century bedgowns.

Despite the name of the garment, these were actually day-wear, a form of "undress" that you would wear until you put on more formal clothing for evening engagements and such. (I've seen around 4:00 PM in some historical documentation.)

A traditional English floral print bedgown. As Lisa pointed out, this is very reminiscent of the historical clothing my mother always wore. She loved blue and she loved flowers.

Lisa and Jessica at a historical event with their Granny Slash. (Called so because she signed her cards and letters, "Love, Fern/Mom/Grandma/Great Grandma.)

Bedgowns fit loosely and are either pinned closed or worn with an apron to keep them shut. This is one of my favorite block prints and I've made several bedgowns from it.

A customer in Kalamazoo wearing one I'd made and using an apron closure. (I love her red stripes and waistband as well as the red earrings and fichu accents.)

Me wearing the one I made myself and using a straight pin closure. 

This block print has elephants and cheetahs on it. In the 18th century, block printed fabrics were heavily imported from India where these animals were indigenous. So, it wasn't uncommon to find them on fabrics from that time period. 

I was lucky and discovered that one of Leslie's block print fabric suppliers was also offering a set of blocks for printing to his customers. 

The raised white edges feel like they are covered in rubber (which makes sense; that will keep the ink from permanently staining the edges.)

The depth of the block gives a good handhold for the person using it to print.

A close up of the elephant block.

A close up of one of the elephants on the bedgown fabric. That looks like an early 20th century football helmet on its head to me!

See what I mean? LOL

While I really like the elephant, my favorite block is the peacock.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these wood blocks, but I'm thinking that I might do a block printing project of some sort with the Pony Pals and Cowpokes during the holidays. We shall see.

Finally, I made a linen bedgown this past week. I have several pieces of linen fabric but I've hesitated to use them. Linen wrinkles easily and because it also frays badly, the seams need to be finished, a time consuming process.

This simple looking bedgown turned out to be a fight to make, all because of the linen fabric. 

Stay 'tooned for more on that.

Collections within My Collection: Drainboard Woodgrains

As I did some research about the woodgrains in my collection, I came across a post I'd written when I was discussing drainboard patterns on older Breyers. Rather than post a link to it within another blog post, here it is in its entirety.

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More Drainboarders - Woodgrains!  11/6/23

I spent some time this weekend taking my woodgrains off the shelves and checking their hooves for drainboarding. Unlike the realistically painted models with the drainboard pattern on their hooves, the woodgrains have patterns that are harder to discern. The reason? 

 

The  black painted hooves that most of them have. This early woodgrain race horse has nicely painted hooves

but the black paint has done some puddling under them. You can just barely see the drainboard pattern and some of the drainboard wood bits under its hooves.

Woodgrain model after woodgrain model,

I would see that black paint under the hooves, some with more, others with less like this Semi Rearing Mustang.

Having said that, my Brahma Bull did not have black hooves.

The drainboard pattern is much easier to see on him.

 

Same with my no muscle Clydesdale.

He's got lots of patterning and shelf bits on his hooves.

 

The Family Arabian Mare with brown hooves.

All four feet are like this. (The first time I saw a woodgrain's feet in this shape, I thought it was dirt, not drainboard detritus. And honestly, it does still look like dirt to me even though I know it's not.) 

While examining my Family Arabian Stallion, I got got a sad surprise and something I'd never seen before on a model.

A layer of the paint was lifting up and peeling off. That is a first for me with any model.

Front hooves of the FAS. (With apologies for photo quality.)

My Family Arabian Foal has drainboard hooves but I noticed something else about him as I examined him.

The belly spot is commonly found in woodgrain models, but this foal has a chin spot, too!

When I flipped my Shetland Pony to check her feet,

 

I got all three - drainboarding, belly spot, and chin spot.

More black hooves (usually found when the piece has white socks)

and we see black paint puddling a bit, drainboarding, belly spot, and chin spot. 

The Running Mare is an exception - she has the black hooves but no white socks.

Paint puddling, drain boarding, belly spot, and chin spot.

Her foal (my first woodgrain and a gift from my dad when I got my braces on in 6th grade) is another exception to the white socks.

 

Lots of paint puddling but you can still see drainboarding, and a belly spot but no chin spot.

Finding the drainboard pattern on the hooves of the Fighting Stallion is a challenge regardless of whether he is a woodgrain or a realistically painted piece.

The early pieces came with foam pads on the hooves and tail. These were added after the painting process and cover most of each hoof and the bottom of the tail.

My first woodgrain Five Gaiter

Paint puddling, belly spot, chin spot, and drainboard pattern.

Five Gaiter number two

No paint puddling, drainboarding, belly spot, and chin spot.

Those are all the vintage woodgrains in my collection. Missing are the Stretch Morgan, Donkey, Belgian, Western Pony, Polled Hereford, Longhorn, Walking Hereford, Buffalo, Elephant, Poodle, and Boxer but they are on my list of things I am looking for. (Especially that Stretch Morgan!)

While it was interesting taking a closer look at the drainboard patterns found on vintage Breyers, I had not expected to find chin spots on some of the woodgrains. The belly spot is commonly known among hobbyists, but I'd not heard anything about chin spots. I'd like to do some research and see if I can find any information about them.

It's quirky things like chin and belly spots, drainboarding, hand painted mane tendrils, and more that make collecting vintage Breyers so fascinating!

Collections within My Collection: Woodgrains

One of my earliest Breyers was a woodgrain and a gift from my dad.

I'd just gotten braces and Dad, knowing that my mouth was hurting and that I didn't feel well, surprised me when he got home from work that afternoon, handing me this Running Foal and suggesting I name him "Needles" after the famous racehorse and because dentists use needles. 

(Sometimes I think the term "dad joke" was coined because of my father. One of his jokes is still being perpetuated in our family and resides with the grands' generation now.)

 I last pulled all my woodies out five years ago. I knew I had accumulated quite a few, but when they are scattered throughout a collection that is housed in four rooms of the house, it's easy to lose track of what you have.

 

These were all my Breyers at the time plus a 1997 Equilocity Breakfast Stone Drafter.

Opinion of the Jolly Cholly varies as to whether he is a woodgrain or just a brown model, but there are hobby references that state that he was listed as a woodgrain when advertised by Breyer when he was first produced. Personally, I've always considered him a woodgrain piece.

I'd inadvertently left out my other Stone woodgrain, the Ideal Stock Horse, that was produced 1999-2000. Isn't that mold beautiful in that colorway and gloss?

And more recently, Breyer released Woodstock and her Stablemate counterpart, Mini Woodstock, in 2022 as part of the Vintage Club. 

Hartland also produced what they called "woodcuts" in the early days of its company. 

 Walnut woodcut TWH, Mustang, and Three Gaiter Saddlebred.

 Cherry woodcut TWH and mustangs. (I think this is my favorite woodcut color.)

Ebony woodcut TWH, Mustang, and rare Thoroughbred Mare and Foal. The ebony woodcut Mare and Foal are very hard to find and highly collectible. (These two are from Leslie's carpet herd. She gave me her models in the 1980s.)

Trust Liz to find things out of the ordinary.

A Red Mill Arabian "Abu" is now in my woodgrain collection.

He was a gift from her at a Happy Trails show. I'd heard of Red Mill, but never seen one in-hand prior to that. Thanks, Liz!

The group shot could stand some updating, but with the exception of the Woodstocks and the Stone Ideal Stock Horse, they all are here.

I don't actively seek for woodgrains anymore, but I would love to find a woodgrain Stretch Morgan. I have hopes of finding one some day.

But in the meantime, I have plenty of woodies to enjoy!

My Guess - The Winnowing Out Process

After posting my guess for the Mystery Surprise Horse last year, I made some changes to that guess. This year, I'm not making any changes, but I am making a correction* and I am sharing my thought process and how I winnowed out a whole lot of possible, even deserving, models.

I'd mentioned that I had walked around and taken a look at my shelves, looking for possibilities. These are the models that I considered but did not make it onto any of yesterday's lists:

Family Arabian Stallion 

Family Arabian Mare 

Family Arabian Foal 

Man O' War

5 Gaiter

Pacer

Sham

Proud Arabian Stallion

Proud Arabian Foal

Grazing Mare

Grazing Foal

Misty

Shetland Pony

Big Ben

Cantering Welsh Pony

Saddlebred Weanling

Gem Twist

Hanoverian

Jumping Horse

Donkey

Brighty

Wixom

Stud Spider

Stock Horse Stallion

Stock Horse Mare

Smoky

Sherman Morgan

John Henry

Quarter Horse Yearling

Quarter Horse Gelding

Missouri Fox Trotter

Secretariat

Scratching Foal

Lying Foal

Roy

El Pastor

Hackney

From that list of 37 molds, almost half were eliminated immediately due to popularity, conformation issues, and other things:

Family Arabian Stallion 

Family Arabian Mare 

Family Arabian Foal 

Pacer

Grazing Mare (a personal favorite)

Grazing Foal

Gem Twist

Jumping Horse

Stock Horse Stallion

Stock Horse Mare

Smoky

Sherman Morgan

Quarter Horse Yearling

Quarter Horse Gelding (iconic, but not very popular)

Secretariat

Roy

El Pastor

Hackney

*Silver (I'd forgotten that he was appearing as the special run, To the Ties that Bind Us so he would've been eliminated, too)

That left these models on the list of possibilities:

Man O' War

5 Gaiter

Sham

Proud Arabian Stallion

Proud Arabian Foal

Misty

Shetland Pony

Big Ben

Cantering Welsh Pony

Hanoverian

Donkey

Brighty

Wixom

Stud Spider

John Henry

Missouri Fox Trotter

Scratching Foal

Lying Foal

The price point on the Mystery Surprise Horse is high and in my opinion, using a smaller mold would make many hobbyists unhappy, so these molds were eliminated from my list. 

Proud Arabian Foal

Misty (an iconic mold and deserving to be used)

Shetland Pony

Donkey

Brighty

Scratching Foal

Lying Foal

Cantering Welsh Pony (very borderline in the too-small category)

Leaving these models still in contention:

Man O' War

5 Gaiter

Sham

Proud Arabian Stallion

Big Ben

Hanoverian

Wixom

Stud Spider

John Henry

Missouri Fox Trotter (another personal favorite)

There were still some on the list that I felt were highly unlikely, either because they'd been used recently or didn't have hobbyists' hearts as much as others. I removed those, and the Final Four of the "left on the shelves" were:

Man o' War

5 Gaiter

Proud Arabian Stallion

Big Ben

All have their fans, but I am looking for the iconic, something that truly represents Breyer over the course of 75 years. And just as it did yesterday, one model jumped out at me and fit that well. 

The 5 Gaiter

My much loved carpet herd Sham and one of my most favorite molds. In fact, the 5 Gaiter mold is the third largest conga in my collection at 28 pieces.

The mold was introduced in 1962 and was produced in the Big Four decorator colors and in woodgrain.

It's also one of the few molds that received the very early gold tenite sticker.

Early glossy palomino (a member of Leslie's carpet herd), alabaster with black eyes, and alabaster with red eyes.

I love this mold so much. (Liz found this piece at BreyerFest 2023 and brought it home for me. Thanks, Liz!)

So, why didn't I put it on the list of possibilities for this year's Mystery Surprise Horse?

It was just used in April for the Vintage Club pairing of Admiral and Wings.

Plus, the Five Gaiter has already been released in all of the Big Four decorator colors and I think there is a strong chance that those deco colors will be used for the Mystery Surprise Horse.

That was enough to take it out of contention for me. (Photo used with permission.)

I'm standing by the Proud Arabian Mare as the Mystery Surprise Horse for 2025 with the Fighting Stallion as a strong possibility. But if it's not one of them, there are several others that would also make me happy.

Now, we just have to stay 'tooned until July!