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mandie_rwI'm pretty sure that's a much better use of my time. But hey.
This is the one outfit for Gettysburg that I'm still excited about - probably because Gettysburg is incidental to it. Once I had the idea, I decided I'd make it regardless of where I can actually wear it, though Gettysburg will give me a nice excuse. I'm so enthused about it, I haven't posted about it (despite having cooked it up probably a month ago at least), because I was kicking around the idea of submitting a proposal for it to YWU. But I decided against it...partly because I'm going out on a not-really-based-on-research limb here (and people will totally judge me!1!), partly because corralling my ramblings into a publishable format sounds like work, and partly because I've heard from more than one person that they're rather bad at replying to emails, communicating, and even paying for articles lately. And that sounds like something I don't want to deal with.
So here, have my ramblings for free! You get what you pay for. ;)
I was inspired by hearing that there are several companies that do horseback riding tours in Gettysburg, which I thought sounded like Way Super Fun. I'm not sure we'll end up actually doing one when we're there for Remembrance Day (because they're not terribly cheap, and I don't want to bully anybody into doing one with me if they don't really want to, just because I think it'd be Way Super Fun), but anyway, that's what put the idea in my head.
Because, naturally, it's a weekend in costume, why would I want to be out of costume for a riding tour???
Yes...I'm weird. I do hope this is not news to anyone.
Now, obviously I can't make a riding habit. They aren't sidesaddle riding tours, duh. Not that I ever learned that, haha. (I haven't ridden in years, woe. If that Mysterious Wealthy Benefactor ever appears, first thing I'll do is go for riding lessons.) And I'm pretty sure trying to ride astride in a long habit-skirt would both look stupid and be a liability issue no tour company would deal with.
Enter Rational dress! And trousers!
Unknown lady, early 1860s
O hay. I bet I could ride in that.
Dr. Mary Walker, who is awesome. Go read about her right now. Seriously.
Mary Walker
Oneida community, c1865. Apparently The Worst Loser at croquet, hee hee.
From what I've seen, by the 1860s, women wearing Rational dress had mostly given over the Turkish-style trousers seen with the "Bloomer costume" of the 1850s, in favor of straighter-cut trousers, very much of the sort men wore. In most ways, a Rational dress just seems to be a normal, fashionably styled bodice with a short skirt! Nobody seems to know with any certainty whether ladies in Rational dress discarded their corsets as well - my instinct says probably not. Most images I've come across (including those above) show fairly smooth and well-fitted bodices, that make me suspect some kind of supportive garment underneath. A tightly laced, heavily boned corset, I doubt (because that would defeat the purpose of "rational" dress, wouldn't it?), but I know that even today many women, regardless of bust size, feel uncomfortable without some sort of support garment. It varies from individual to individual, of course, and I'm sure it did back then too.
Especially as Rational dress was uncommon enough that each costume would have been made specifically for the wearer (barring perhaps communities like Oneida), which brings me to my main disclaimer: I've never found an occasion of a woman wearing Rational dress for riding. It's not impossible (especially for women involved with the war, like Mary Walker) and it certainly is logical, but not documentable. And by the 1860s, many of the women who had donned the Bloomer costume of the 50s had given it up, so there was a much smaller number of women in Rational dress, anyway.
But that's why I'm a costumer, not a reenactor! 3:) If I wanna wear Rational dress on a horse, then I get to wear Rational dress on a horse. (Or, not on a horse. Whatever.)
So, essentially, what I want is a Rational-riding-habit-dress. And I had the genius (?) idea to make a normal skirt as well, so I can wear it when I don't feel like being a weirdo, even by 19thc standards. ;) Early 1860s riding habit bodices look very like fashionable dress bodices - in lots of plates you can really only tell it's a lady in a riding habit by the extra length of the skirt puddling on the ground, and a riding whip in one hand. And, similarly to the 18thc, there seems to be quite a bit of overlap between riding habits actually used for riding, and smart, masculine-styled "traveling" dress. So I feel quite secure in using my "riding habit" bodice as regular daywear as well.
early 1860s
Green! With all the perfectly acceptable wools I have in the Stash, I somehow got very very set on a hunter green outfit early on, and I refuse to give it up. Naturally I have no green wool. I have brown wool, and bright red wool, and dark red wool, and dark blue wool, and grey wool...but no green wool. (Look, when a store closes or they discontinue a color of wool at J, I have to buy it. It's a compulsion.) And I didn't want to use the blue or grey, because, well, Gettysburg. There's enough blue and grey around.
1863
1857
early 1860s
I've got an eyeball on some beautiful hunter green green flannel for this (aieee! ALL the moneys!), but am going to wait til after Fort Fred market fair to buy it, just in case I see something there. Because not paying for shipping is always nice.
I haven't decided on the exact style yet, but I'm very much leaning toward a coat-looking style, like the center lady in the last plate, or this jacket on the right. Lapels are awesome! (Until I have to fit them, HA HA.)
Riding jackets, 1863. "Two styles of riding jackets, made of cloth or alpaca. The vest was of the same material as the jacket, or of pique."
And a cute hat, wearable with both versions of the outfit. Cannot forget a cute hat.
Having a day-dress version of this outfit will cut out my idea for the Swiss waist silk dress, but some quick math-ing showed it'll be cheaper to buy the wool for both versions of this, than wool for the riding outfit and silk for the other dress. Plus, remember: enthusiasm for this outfit. We like enthusiasm!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SO, I have in fact started the corset for the Rational aspect of this outfit. I plan to fit the bodice over my usual 1860s corset so I can wear it with that for daywear...and let's be honest. my figure doesn't need much controlling... but I wanted something a little more comfortable for riding. Compared to my other 19thc corsets, the 1860 one is pretty short, but I suspect the bones over my hips might still poke. So I cut the same pattern, just two inches shorter at the CF and an inch shorter at CB, from a cotton twill I think qualifies as "drab". A lot of riding corsets have a normal busk, but I don't have another short busk laying around, so I'm just going to use hooks. Boning: cable ties at CF and CB, with the rest of it corded. That should be non-poky enough!
The pieces are cut out and sewn together - next time I work on it, I can start with the cording. Provided I still have some cording. Must go dig that up...
This is the one outfit for Gettysburg that I'm still excited about - probably because Gettysburg is incidental to it. Once I had the idea, I decided I'd make it regardless of where I can actually wear it, though Gettysburg will give me a nice excuse. I'm so enthused about it, I haven't posted about it (despite having cooked it up probably a month ago at least), because I was kicking around the idea of submitting a proposal for it to YWU. But I decided against it...partly because I'm going out on a not-really-based-on-research limb here (and people will totally judge me!1!), partly because corralling my ramblings into a publishable format sounds like work, and partly because I've heard from more than one person that they're rather bad at replying to emails, communicating, and even paying for articles lately. And that sounds like something I don't want to deal with.
So here, have my ramblings for free! You get what you pay for. ;)
I was inspired by hearing that there are several companies that do horseback riding tours in Gettysburg, which I thought sounded like Way Super Fun. I'm not sure we'll end up actually doing one when we're there for Remembrance Day (because they're not terribly cheap, and I don't want to bully anybody into doing one with me if they don't really want to, just because I think it'd be Way Super Fun), but anyway, that's what put the idea in my head.
Because, naturally, it's a weekend in costume, why would I want to be out of costume for a riding tour???
Yes...I'm weird. I do hope this is not news to anyone.
Now, obviously I can't make a riding habit. They aren't sidesaddle riding tours, duh. Not that I ever learned that, haha. (I haven't ridden in years, woe. If that Mysterious Wealthy Benefactor ever appears, first thing I'll do is go for riding lessons.) And I'm pretty sure trying to ride astride in a long habit-skirt would both look stupid and be a liability issue no tour company would deal with.
Enter Rational dress! And trousers!
Unknown lady, early 1860s
O hay. I bet I could ride in that.
Dr. Mary Walker, who is awesome. Go read about her right now. Seriously.
Mary Walker
Oneida community, c1865. Apparently The Worst Loser at croquet, hee hee.
From what I've seen, by the 1860s, women wearing Rational dress had mostly given over the Turkish-style trousers seen with the "Bloomer costume" of the 1850s, in favor of straighter-cut trousers, very much of the sort men wore. In most ways, a Rational dress just seems to be a normal, fashionably styled bodice with a short skirt! Nobody seems to know with any certainty whether ladies in Rational dress discarded their corsets as well - my instinct says probably not. Most images I've come across (including those above) show fairly smooth and well-fitted bodices, that make me suspect some kind of supportive garment underneath. A tightly laced, heavily boned corset, I doubt (because that would defeat the purpose of "rational" dress, wouldn't it?), but I know that even today many women, regardless of bust size, feel uncomfortable without some sort of support garment. It varies from individual to individual, of course, and I'm sure it did back then too.
Especially as Rational dress was uncommon enough that each costume would have been made specifically for the wearer (barring perhaps communities like Oneida), which brings me to my main disclaimer: I've never found an occasion of a woman wearing Rational dress for riding. It's not impossible (especially for women involved with the war, like Mary Walker) and it certainly is logical, but not documentable. And by the 1860s, many of the women who had donned the Bloomer costume of the 50s had given it up, so there was a much smaller number of women in Rational dress, anyway.
But that's why I'm a costumer, not a reenactor! 3:) If I wanna wear Rational dress on a horse, then I get to wear Rational dress on a horse. (Or, not on a horse. Whatever.)
So, essentially, what I want is a Rational-riding-habit-dress. And I had the genius (?) idea to make a normal skirt as well, so I can wear it when I don't feel like being a weirdo, even by 19thc standards. ;) Early 1860s riding habit bodices look very like fashionable dress bodices - in lots of plates you can really only tell it's a lady in a riding habit by the extra length of the skirt puddling on the ground, and a riding whip in one hand. And, similarly to the 18thc, there seems to be quite a bit of overlap between riding habits actually used for riding, and smart, masculine-styled "traveling" dress. So I feel quite secure in using my "riding habit" bodice as regular daywear as well.
early 1860s
Green! With all the perfectly acceptable wools I have in the Stash, I somehow got very very set on a hunter green outfit early on, and I refuse to give it up. Naturally I have no green wool. I have brown wool, and bright red wool, and dark red wool, and dark blue wool, and grey wool...but no green wool. (Look, when a store closes or they discontinue a color of wool at J, I have to buy it. It's a compulsion.) And I didn't want to use the blue or grey, because, well, Gettysburg. There's enough blue and grey around.
1863
1857
early 1860s
I've got an eyeball on some beautiful hunter green green flannel for this (aieee! ALL the moneys!), but am going to wait til after Fort Fred market fair to buy it, just in case I see something there. Because not paying for shipping is always nice.
I haven't decided on the exact style yet, but I'm very much leaning toward a coat-looking style, like the center lady in the last plate, or this jacket on the right. Lapels are awesome! (Until I have to fit them, HA HA.)
Riding jackets, 1863. "Two styles of riding jackets, made of cloth or alpaca. The vest was of the same material as the jacket, or of pique."
And a cute hat, wearable with both versions of the outfit. Cannot forget a cute hat.
Having a day-dress version of this outfit will cut out my idea for the Swiss waist silk dress, but some quick math-ing showed it'll be cheaper to buy the wool for both versions of this, than wool for the riding outfit and silk for the other dress. Plus, remember: enthusiasm for this outfit. We like enthusiasm!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SO, I have in fact started the corset for the Rational aspect of this outfit. I plan to fit the bodice over my usual 1860s corset so I can wear it with that for daywear...and let's be honest. my figure doesn't need much controlling... but I wanted something a little more comfortable for riding. Compared to my other 19thc corsets, the 1860 one is pretty short, but I suspect the bones over my hips might still poke. So I cut the same pattern, just two inches shorter at the CF and an inch shorter at CB, from a cotton twill I think qualifies as "drab". A lot of riding corsets have a normal busk, but I don't have another short busk laying around, so I'm just going to use hooks. Boning: cable ties at CF and CB, with the rest of it corded. That should be non-poky enough!
The pieces are cut out and sewn together - next time I work on it, I can start with the cording. Provided I still have some cording. Must go dig that up...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-04-09 05:27 am (UTC)... and I am much better at talking about and planning sewing than I am actually sewing. *oops*
no subject
Date: 2015-04-10 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-09 01:48 pm (UTC)I should really be going there before I move. There's also an 18th century fort, and a roller derby team that wasn't that good (last time I saw them, it was years ago, maybe they got better).
no subject
Date: 2015-04-09 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-10 02:45 pm (UTC)