The History of a History Show

Second Post of the Day

My sister Leslie and her husband Rick owned and operated The Kalamazoo Living History Show from 2006 to 2025.

Larry and Carol Coin started the show in 1976 and ran it for 31 years. Ready to step down in 2006, they sent a letter to that effect in December of 2006 when normally they would have been sending out applications to the show. Leslie and Rick discussed helping out, stepped up, and offered to purchase the show and keep it running.

Two weeks later the Coins sent out a "the show is saved" letter which included applications for the coming year. Rick and Les have run the show ever since.

An early picture from 2009 of a staff meeting. Leslie is third from the left in the blue dress.

Rick is fifth from left, and my mother is sixth. (In the red jacket and gold petticoat.)

After a wonderful run of 19 years (which included the Covid year of 2020), Leslie and Rick were ready to hand the baton to someone else.

They sold the show to experienced reenactors Ethan Yazel and his wife, Paisley.

 The Yazels spent the 2025 show shadowing Leslie and Rick in preparation for this year's show. The show could not be in better hands.

Last November the Yazels brought a trailer to the farm and loaded all the show's supplies onto it. A bittersweet day, but it was time - running a living history show is a lot of work and Leslie and Rick were ready to step down.

They haven't stepped totally away from the show, though. At least not this year. They have been answering questions and providing support as Ethan and Paisley have put the 2026 show together.

Rick and Ethan in the farm's kitchen going over paperwork.

Rick looking at a map of vendor placements in one of the Expo's halls.

On the Friday before the event, the staff comes in early and has dinner and a meeting in preparation for the weekend's show.

Leslie and Ethan serving staff at the 2025 Friday night staff dinner.

Kind of the calm before the storm! Staffers listen and eat while directions are given, knowing that they won't be doing much sitting or eating over the next two days.

The last huzzah at the end of every show - the staff photo. This one was especially poignant since it was Leslie and Rick's last.

Already Ethan and Paisley have put their own brand on the show. Not only do things look promising, but they look exciting as well. The show's future is bright. 

Best of luck, Ethan and Paisley!

Be sure to comment if you want to enter the March Give Away!

Kalamazoo Week: Off We Go!

Second Post of the Day

I'm leaving this morning for Kalamazoo with my long time friend and Leslie's bestie, Gretchen.

Gretchen is also an event volunteer and has to be there early Friday and stay late Sunday. 

Lisa and Gretchen disrupting clowning around paying attention respectfully while attending a Feast meeting.

I hitched a ride with her last year and am doing so again. Which means we will arrive in Kalamazoo both hoarse from all the gabbing as we drove, but maybe some chocolate will remedy that, right Gretchen?

My Jolis Chevaux items rode up ahead of time on Wednesday.

Rick and Leslie have already brought my things into the North Expo and have begun setting up my booth for me. Mine are the three brown tables in the front; theirs are the other two and plus those in the back already covered with block print table covers.

Then they got out my block print table covers and put the clothing racks up for me, too.

They also hung my garment bags up on the racks. 

I am incredibly grateful to them for their help. I've got some fancy chocolates for them, but I think that after all that they've done, I will get them a gift card to their favorite restaurant, too.

Hard to believe that after the weeks and weeks of sewing and preparing, the event is finally here. I am so excited!

I have written some blog posts ahead of time and scheduled them to post on Saturday and Sunday. That way you will have more opportunities to comment and enter the March Give Away.

Stay 'tooned!

Presenting at Lisa's School

Just as I arrived at Lisa's school for our presentations, I got a text from Leslie and Rick. They live in Brookston, a small town north of West Lafayette, and a train was on the tracks and blocking their way!

Due to road construction also going on, seeking an alternative route that didn't take them miles out of their way wasn't an option.

Fortunately the train finally rolled through town and they made it to school with a few minutes to spare.

Lisa and her fellow 4th grade teachers had split their students into three groups, and they rotated through the presentations every twenty minutes. Part of Indiana's 4th grade Social Studies state standards is Indiana's history, and Fort Ouiatenon's story is an important part of that.

Leslie and Rick presented on what a day in the life of an 18th century nine year old would look like.

Lisa had lots of artifacts to share and discuss. The King's Rope is always popular. Made for me by a rope maker at the Feast years ago when I was teaching, it is a rope with a red thread embedded within it. That red thread indicated that the rope belonged to the King and was a way of preventing theft.

I taught the kids a little French, discussed the First Nations found in Indiana in the 18th century, and showed them period clothing. The Bum Rolls, Panniers, and Frances Rump were especially popular. Not really a surprise - they do seem funny to 21st century minds of all ages! 

The students in each of my sessions were fantastic and anxious to learn. I love teaching, and while I was tired when I finished, I came home happy. Some days I really, really miss teaching and being with kids all day.

On the docket for today is tent set-up. Curt is meeting Craig and me out at Ouiatenon at 1:30 and will help get it up. I'll stay after they leave and begin arranging things inside.  A customer is going to meet me and pick up an order, too.

I won't stay too long. I received a last minute order to sew a chemise and need to finish that plus I am really trying to conserve my energy by breaking things to do into small pieces. Regardless, it will be a busy day.

Before I go, here is a link to a reel from yesterday that takes a look at how the grounds are morphing into an 18th century outpost. Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2702250540114427

Stay 'tooned!

Teamwork Makes the Feast Work

No pictures yet, (the saddles are still in my car) but yesterday I went up to Leslie's farm and borrowed her two sidesaddles for my Feast School Day presentation. Oh, my, what treasures! As soon as I get them into the house, I will take some pics and share them here. You're in for a treat!

Leslie and I make a good team with our skill sets complementing the other's so we are helping each other a lot as we both prepare our booths for the Feast. Sewing buttonholes on older machines, Janome or not, was tricky for both of us in the past.  

Using sleeve buttons doubles the number of buttonholes that must be put into a trade shirt, but my new Janome makes them easily and beautifully. 

So, I offered to do the buttonholes on the trade shirts she is making to sell at her booth.

I put in different sets of sleeve buttons for her to choose from.

That enabled me to see how they looked across several different block print fabrics.

I had been thinking the brass and metal sleeve buttons would be best, but now I think the fancier ones will work well, too. 

The only clothing that I currently make that would use sleeve buttons are trade shirts (worn by men as well as some women who hunted and trapped in the wilderness)

and chemises (also called shifts.) EVERY woman wore a chemise, so that is the bigger market for the sleeve buttons I am making.

I have found three different smaller and more delicate buttons that are working really well for the chemises.

Because they have both been involved at the Feast for decades (they actually met there) Leslie and Rick are very well known.

People flock to their tent when it is open and they rarely get a moment to sit down and catch their breath. 

Me, I have a very loyal core group of customers and get lots of drop ins, but I am not nearly as well known as they are. 

So, when Leslie asked if she could take some of my sleeve buttons to display and sell in her booth, I jumped at the chance. It will be good exposure for me and my guess is that she will sell more of them than I do in my own tent. 

Like I said, we make a good team!

Leslie's New Feast Outfit

 Second Post of the Day

My sister Leslie has been attending The Feast of the Hunters' Moon since the mid 1970s. She's worn a variety of period clothing and interpreted many different lifestyles over the years. In the 1990s, she began wearing 18th century riding habits and has done so ever since.

Until this year. This year she is switching things up and has asked me to make all her clothing for her new interpretation.

I started with a brand new chemise

that has my favorite set of sleeve buttons in the sleeves.

Next, she chose the blue linen bed gown I'd made. Blue is her favorite color.

And last but not least, she asked me to make her a new petticoat, one that was pleated instead of gathered at the waist.

I am really pleased with how it turned out. 

Pleating can take three to four hours to do, but it is worth it in the finished product.

Can you see the three pleats in this photo? The print of the fabric hides it a bit - which made the pleating more difficult to do.

With pleating, you don't have the "give" that you get with gathering, so you have to measure not only each pleat, but then the row of pleats together to ensure it fits properly. (I measured repeatedly to get it right.)

Then you add twill tape for the waistband. I have bleached and unbleached; Leslie chose bleached. (I agree with her choice.)

When I know my measurements are correct (Leslie came over and tried the petticoat on to be sure), then I stitch one long side of the twill tape to the waist, flip it to the other side and hold it in place with fabric clips.

Finally, I hand stitch that side down, and the petticoat is finished.

She's going to put the clothes on and send me a picture. I'll post it when she does.

Any guesses as to who Leslie is interpreting this year? Here a hint: cheese.

Stay 'tooned!

The Next Day

Second Post of the Day

I'm tired and everything I took to Indy Blooms is still in the car. But what a fun day it was and I have a lot to share.

Leslie and I had a great time together, although I had to smile occasionally - every time she referred to a china horse, she used our childhood term of "glass horse." But I didn't mind. That phrase is a bond between us and harks back to when we were kids.

I'll write about the show tomorrow. My heart is more than a little low right now as I remember Abby on her gotcha day. (See previous post.) I just don't feel like writing much more today.

Losing JoAnn's

JoAnn's, the last of the big chain fabric stores, is closing its doors permanently. 

I wandered through my local store yesterday in search of buttons that I could make into sleeve buttons. 

I'd already braved the crowds once and gone through their button racks, but I was out running errands and stopped by. Glad I did.

JoAnn's will be missed. It met the needs of a big segment of the sewing community at large and has been a place where many beginning sewists came as they started out. 

Their fabrics were inexpensive and allowed a new sewist to learn without the worry about the investment that better quality fabrics are.

For experienced sewists, it was a good place to go for notions, patterns, and craft supplies, and I will miss being able to pop into the store, grab what I needed, and then returning home without losing too much sewing time.

So, what's left around town for sewists?

~ Hobby Lobby has a small fabric section. Their fabric quality is on par with JoAnn's and not what I would use, but I can get my notions and things there. 

~ I checked out Michaels a few weeks ago and was not impressed with the selection or the quality. 

~ Walmart? Nope. Never. They have a brand of thread whose name is VERY close to a major brand name thread. I fell for their ploy and discovered that the Walmart imitation thread was awful quality. It broke constantly as I tried to use it and finally I threw it away.

~ We do have a locally owned quilt shop but I refuse to go there. A few years ago I took one of my sewing machines in for a repair, and they lost my machine. A three week repair turned into MONTHS! They lied several times to me about where it was and finally quit returning my phone calls as I tried to get my machine back. That finally happened when I showed up in person, told them who I was and that I wanted my sewing machine back NOW. It took a while, but they finally found it. I will never, ever return to that store again. 

There was a time when we had more options for sewing supplies here in town. Sadly, JoAnn's put them all out of business.

Hancocks was one of them,

as was So-Fro Fabrics. 

Saddest of all was when Neuwelts closed. It was a two story, locally owned fabric shop here on the downtown square in Lafayette. It was chock full of all kinds of quality fabrics.

People came from out of state just to shop there. It was such an icon that I saved two bags that I found in my mother's fabric stash after she passed away.

A note pinned to a Neuwelt's bag from my mother. She was making chemises, too!

Since I buy better quality fabric than JoAnn's sells, my sources are not changing either for Horsiemama's Haversacks or for Jolis Chevaux. I already have some online sources plus there are sources for 18th century fabrics at events. 

In fact, Leslie came over yesterday and together we put together a big block print order from one of those online sources.

The Feast may be seven months away, but we are both sewing things now in preparation for it. (The obligatory sister selfie.)

Still, I will miss the opportunity to run over to JoAnn's and snag something I needed NOW and then be home and back at the sewing machine in less than an hour.

I sure hope that new sewists find another resource for inexpensive fabrics to learn on. For that, JoAnn's was unsurpassed.