Under the Redcoat 2011

This was the third year I attended (I avoided the heat last year), and was the best year yet.  There seemed to be a very fleshed out camp and swarms of guests with cameras (we stopped counting pictures taken after the first 15 minutes of attendance).  Gwendolyn and I arrived on Saturday morning and promenaded about the town.  In the afternoon we were fortunate enough to join an amazing team in serving the Officers Dinner.  The tradition of this is that the Ensign would set up a large meal to impress superiors.  The Ensign in real life is a food historian.  I can not begin to explain the enormity of this meal.  We served about 40 separate dishes to twelve officers.  Some had been baked ahead of time (the apple cake needs to sit in the cold for a while in order to be edible!), but a great deal of the dishes were cooked over the open fire outside that day.  I'm still in awe of the cooking team.  There was even ice cream!  I, of course, didn't get any pictures of that, but I know many other people did (and I think a CW guy was taking video of it as well).  It'll turn up somewhere and I'll share it then.  We also attending the evening behind Chownings Tavern, came back Sunday afternoon to watch the troops march out, and attended a harpsichord concert with some other beautiful costumers that evening (we were under dressed!).

I made two outfits for the weekend, day and evening.  I didn't start my evening jacket until late Saturday night to be honest, it was a last minute decision.  Fortunately there was a pause in shoe making on Sunday and Monday, so I was able to do all but trim and insert the sleeves then.

My day ensemble was a Polonaise jacket in cotton dimity (from B&T).  The trim was inspired by the portrait of the Duchess of Gordon.  It's all hand-rolled.  Pleated on the petticoat and sleeves, but gathered around the bodice.  There are silk gauze ruffles around the neck and sleeves as well.

There was also inspiration taken from this image which has a very nice length and balance.  The ribbon is wide silk satin which I dyed to go with my parasol.  You can also see my pretty yellow shoes poking out!

I think the back is my favorite part though.  It just fits so well and curves over the small bum roll perfectly.  I did my hair with rag curls, using a rat on top and three small hair pieces in back.  I was asked once if hedgehog type styles were use to cover up hair loss.  After the weekend, I'm more sure they caused it!

 My evening ensemble was of a caraco jacket and petticoat based on this extant.  I made the jacket from about 1 1/2 yards of 54" wide silk, so there was definitely not going to be a matching petticoat.  I didn't have any pieces larger than 2x2 left over!  It's a silk taffeta stripe, very light weight.  The trim is folded under at the edge and gathered.  The inside edge is tacked down with small pleats.

I tried to match the stripes to the originally as closely as I could manage.  There are three seams in the back, however I cut the bodice as only two pieces.  I would have made it one, but I needed 64" of width for the skirt.  There is also a pleat that runs from the top of the shoulder down to the waist in front, partially stitched down.

I'll be going more in-depth on the ensembles later and hopefully I'll stumble across some images of the camp area I can link you to.  Oh, and my shoes did wonderfully!  They still look great, the dust and dirt doesn't show on the fabric at all.  My feet are tired, but that's because I walked about for two days!  I will admit to adding a small insert for the ball of my foot on Sunday to help with fatigue.