Done & Moving On

 Second Post of the Day

The trade shirt marathon is finished!

Eighteen shirts, all new and all ready to be sold. 

The remnants from each shirt have all been measured, folded,

and tied into bundles. There is a lot of usable fabric for smaller projects in them and they tend to sell out quickly at the Feast and Kalamazoo.

The last two shirts that I made were from the same block print but in different colors. Both are size 3X.

The green shirt on my dressmaker's mannequin. The shoulders on the shirt are wider than the mannequin's shoulders, so the arms hang down and look much longer than they really are.

Rather than sleeve buttons, I did a single button/buttonhole on the cuffs. The green shirt has flat brass buttons.

The other shirt is in red. (This pattern also comes in blue - it's on my order list for next time.)

It has a horn button/buttonhole combination.

Now I am moving on to bed gowns. I have 4 in stock and while ideally I'd love to have as many bed gowns to sell as I do trade shirts, that's not going to happen before the Feast and maybe not even before Kalamazoo next March.

I've prewashed one of my favorite bed gown fabrics and have laid it out over the dining room game pattern-cutting table to keep it from getting wrinkled.

I made myself a bed gown from this fabric a few years ago. This version here is the block print with more teal than maroon. (That is also the version I am getting ready to cut out.)

And here is another bed gown I made where the maroon takes precedent over the teal. I like both fabrics.

It's a challenging fabric to use for a bed gown due to the block print pattern. If the two floral medallions don't match up in the center, it looks odd. But in the end, it's worth the extra effort.

I really need to make a few cloaks, too. And a couple more pockets. Two or three more petticoats...

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

Don't forget the September Give Away! Comment on any blog post starting today (September 13) through Tuesday, September 15, 11:59 PM ET.

A vintage The Black Stallion book is the prize!

Stay 'tooned!

Taking the Shortcuts or the Long Way?

I finished two orders for the Nebraska Contingent this week.

A trade shirt, size 3XL, with a hand finished collar, pleated cuffs, 

and sleeve buttons. (I made the sleeve buttons, too.)

Another trade shirt, XL, again with a hand finished collar, pleated cuffs, and sleeve buttons.

I love how nice pleated sleeves look - so much nicer than gathered ones.

I'm really happy with how both trade shirts turned out,

and their new owners are, too. I'll pack them up and take them to the package store on Monday.

Now I am moving on to fill in size gaps in my trade shirts. I made a list of what I had and what I'd like to make for the Feast of the Hunters' Moon.

I have four to six shirts to make, and at the current rate of two a week, I won't finish until mid September. That will leave me only a month to make some bedgowns and petticoats, plus a bunch of blackened beeswax ornaments.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

Yeah, I'm starting to feel the stress.

In various 18th century sewing groups online, some sewists post frequently about how much they've sewn each week. I read what they have done and I can't help but wonder, how do they get so much done?  

Here's an example.

She even made a 100% hand stitched shirt! 

Another sewist wrote,

I've considered messaging some of these sewists who get so much done and asking for tips on producing clothing more quickly. Do they have other sewists working for them? Do they cut out their own patterns or does someone else do that? Etc.?

There are some shortcuts that I could take but those would affect the quality of my work. Shortcuts are often visible in the finished work, and I don't want someone looking at my clothing and seeing shortcuts; I want them to see that I took care with what I made.

Some shortcuts that I could take:

~ Not preplanning the look of the garment and placing pattern pieces so that things line up together. Look again at the in-progress maroon shirt. See the repeating block print pattern that extends down from the neck to the hem? I had to think ahead and place the pattern carefully to achieve that look.

~ Not ironing much, if at all, as the garment is constructed or when it is finished.

~ Not pinning seams together; instead, grasping the fabric between my fingers to hold it together as it is stitched.

~ Machine finishing the collars and cuffs rather than hand stitching them (which hides the finishing stitches.)

~ Gathering the sleeves at the cuffs and shoulders rather than pleating them.

I am not willing to do any of those things. Not yet, at least. I am getting some arthritis in my thumbs and some of the hand stitching has begun to hurt. My hand finishing days may be numbered. But they aren't yet.

My plan is to just keep on sewing as I already do and bring what I've gotten finished to events. I truly feel that I am giving my customers my very best work, so does it matter how many I can turn out in a week? I'm not going to sacrifice quality in order to up production.

Stay 'tooned!

The Nebraska Contingent

The Nebraska Contingent began my very first year setting up Jolis Chevaux at the Feast of the Hunters' Moon. This very tall, friendly man walked into my tent and began looking through the trade shirts I had for sale.

We chatted just a bit as I rang up the sale, and then the next day Blake returned with his wife Carrie to show me how the shirt looked as he wore it. (I love it when customers do that!)

Blake and Carrie have returned to my tent every year to buy trade shirts and they are a highlight of my Feast - good people who have become good friends.

Blake and Carrie preparing to depart with the other voyageurs down the Wabash River. He's wearing another of my shirts.

Earlier this year I heard from a gentleman named Ryan who asked if I could make him a trade shirt in blue. Although I didn't know him, I sent him pictures of the fabrics I had on hand, he selected one, and when I asked where to send the completed shirt, it was to a town in Nebraska.

Nebraska?! He must be someone who comes to the Feast and had gotten my card, I surmised. Two more (also blue) shirts later along with a chemise, pocket, and a petticoat for his wife, Ryan commented that he'd never been to the Feast; he'd heard of me from his friend Blake.

Ryan's friend Blake and my customer Blake turned out to be one and the same person.

Then, earlier this month I was contacted by a woman who asked if I would make her a trade shirt and if she could see some fabric options for it. I sent her some photos of the block prints I had on hand along with my terms and asked if she'd like some references since I did not know her and figured that was mutual.

Her response caught me off guard.

"Well, thank you for the compliment," I thought, "but where on earth is the Grand Portage Reenactment?" And I did a search of living history events to find out - it's up on the northwest corner of Lake Superior in Minnesota.

I still did not know who was wearing my shirts up there, but then I got a message from Blake a few days ago.

Hey Lynn,

I hope all is well with you!

I’m reaching out because my wife and I won't be able to make it to the Feast this year, which means I’m going to miss out on picking up a new trade shirt in person.

With all the summer events we’re doing out west, a person can never have too many trade shirts—especially yours! I get so many compliments on them that I’ve actually run out of your business cards to pass out.

I’d love to see what you currently have in stock.  Looking forward to connecting and seeing what you have available!

Best,
Blake

There it was. In addition to wearing my shirts, Blake had been passing out my business cards. What a nice thing to do! I do put my cards out when Jolis Chevaux is set up for sales, and I don't mind a bit if people take multiples; I guess I just didn't realize that Blake was acting as a walking advertisement for me!

The two fabrics I showed yesterday are for trade shirts for Blake and Carrie.

I started with his shirt, a (Blake is tall; my dressmaker's mannequin is not. Hah!)

The sleeves are finished; I just need to attach them to the body of the shirt, stitch up the side seams, and hem the bottom.

I will finish that today and then start on Carrie's shirt.

Of course, I will tuck in some more business cards with their order and probably a beeswax ornament or two as a thank you gift.

There is another couple in the Nebraska Contingent - Chris the tinsmith and his wife, Linda. I'll share about them another time. (Do a search of the blog and you will see them.) They, too, are good friends.

Stay 'tooned!

Welcome, February!

Happy February, ya'll! Although Indiana is still in this kind of mode:

Does this place look familiar? 

Here's a look at it in October - I drive right down that drive in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-xxtHwRlPc&t=57s

The temperature when I let the dogs out this morning was -4 and we are under yet another cold weather advisory. With snow expected tomorrow. And an unexpected dusting of snow that occurred yesterday. (As I write, a snowplow just went by.)

February, please do better than January!!

The silver lining of a terrible month of weather is that I spent a lot of time sewing. I cut out and finished seven chemises

and six trade shirts, three of which I completed just this past week.

This one was finished yesterday afternoon, and an hour after I posted it, it sold to a re-enactor in Nebraska. I had intended to take it to Kalamazoo, but I'm not going to turn down a sale.

This block print was a little tricky because of the regularity of the floral pattern. I had to center the pattern on it and then, when I opened the neck, I had to be sure to cut right down the center of the flowers.

But it was this block print pattern that gave me the most difficulties of the week.

It is a fabulous print, but it, too, had to be carefully cut out so that the print was centered.

The fabric also felt heavy and almost a little "sticky." I knew what that meant, and immediately I covered my ironing board with an old pillowcase and prepared for dye transfer!

Sure enough, soon my fingers were turning blue.

Even my fingernails turned blue!

After I finished it, I washed it three times to get rid of the excess indigo and now I feel comfortable that any dye transfer is under control.

Despite the extra work, the shirt turned out really cool and I think it will sell quickly.

One last gasp from January about sewing - I got a top of the line pair of Italian sewing shears from Craig for Christmas.***  I'd been wanting to splurge and get them for a long time, and he made that happen for me. (Thanks, Craig!)

Yesterday I was preparing for a marathon pattern cutting out session of more 18th century trade shirts and I decided to try out my new shears. As I opened them, the note on the back of the box gave me pause and then made me laugh.

They really are exceptional shears, but I would never say that the "countless details" in what I sew "have been shaped to reflect" who I am. Nor do I think chemises and trade shirts are part of my "skill and passion for self expression..." Seriously, they're just fun to make!

I quickly discovered, though, that it is true that my new Italian shears "are ideal for crisp, clean cuts" so I guess I will ignore the rest of the hyperbole and just enjoy that.

Here's hoping for better weather for February. If that doesn't happen, well, at least it's a short month!

*** Cole and Emily also got me a pair of electric shears for Christmas. I haven't tried them yet but I will and will let you know how they work. Thanks, Cole and Emily!

Pink & Red & Candy Striped

Sweet little Elsie Mae is doing very well. Her parents have gotten the hang of parenthood and are adjusting to no sleep, interrupted meals, and lots of laundry.

The JCs^2 have a pink/strawberry theme going for Elsie Mae; I don't have any molds to make her a beeswax strawberry Christmas ornament, but maybe I can find one or pull out my embroidery machine and embroider one for her.

Family dog Oquirrh has adjusted well, too.

Have you been able to see the northern lights? They have been strikingly bright and beautiful here.

Craig took this photo from our patio. Just gorgeous.

I've begun my sewing for Kalamazoo - after selling out of almost all my clothing at the Feast, I have a lot to do before March.

This is a trade shirt in small, and a bonus one at that. I had leftover fabric from another shirt and thought I'd see if I could get a second shirt from the remnants. I did! And that means that essentially I didn't have to buy the fabric like I usually would for this shirt - I'd already done that with the first shirt.

I tried it again with another shirt's leftover fabric, and it worked again. That is really helpful to me - like everything else right now, the cost of fabric is rising. I really don't want to raise my prices, so if I can get two shirts from one piece of fabric, that helps me keep costs down.

The downside is that doing a second shirt from the first shirt's leftover fabric is tricky and takes time - I have to cut the first shirt out in a very specific way to avoid leaving lots of smaller pieces that cannot be reused in a second shirt. But it is worth the extra time and effort financially, so I intend to keep doing it.

Yesterday I ordered four of Breyer's  Short and Sweet Limited Edition Holiday Blind Bag Stablemate Zebras.

I have all of the Christmas Candy  Zebras that came out in 2019 (except for Coal) and I really, really like them.

So, when I got the notice that the Short and Sweets were available to Collectors Club members, I ordered them immediately - I figured they would sell out quickly.

And they did. Today Breyer was going to open them up to everyone, but the blind bags sold out before Breyer could do that. Club members could order up to four per account, and my guess is that many collectors did. 

Candy stripe is one of my favorite Breyer decorator colors so I ordered four, too. Let's hope that I don't have a repeat of the Breyer blanket debacle of 2024 with these Stablemates. (And I am also hoping that I don't get Coal. Give me those pretty stripes!)

Tomorrow I will share some new pieces in my collection. Stay 'tooned!