grnvixen

Had leftover salmon for lunch today, felt like quite the gourmet :). D and I have a salmon recipe we really like but it involved fresh spinach, which was not on the menu a lot last year (duh). I found spinach fettucine noodles at Wild Oats last week so we gave it a try; very doable alternative! Of course fresh salmon is best but when you get a good deal on frozen at Sam's I'll take it.

And why does it take me so long to catch-up from the weekend: cut for costuming indulgence This weekend was the 22nd Clothiers Seminar in the local SCA group. I have a real fondness for this event since myself and another friend (who has moved to Seattle and is now Laurel Queen of Arms) started it. We thought the first one would be a nice little event with a few dozen costumers in attendance, we had almost a hundred and it has been rolling along every since. This year I taught a class on 16th century hand-sewn linen shirts. There has been a lot of interest lately in SCA, and other costuming venues, in rediscovering hand-sewing. My interest however was sparked by a family find; a completely hand-sewn linen shirt that has been dependably dated to about the 1820's. So far it seems it was sewn by my 3-greats grandmother.

The stitching on the shirt is just exquisite, tiny and undetectable in some places. Every seam is finished with gussets on the side and a small needlelace insert in the neck opening for reinforcement. The pleating on the sleeves and collar look like the tiniest cartridge pleats in existence! (I have since been told this is called stacked pleating). There are two red initials cross stitched on the front: H S. The 3-GGM's maiden name started with an S and that is the only one I can find down any branches on that side of the family. She was born in 1813 which would make her about the right age to have stiched the shirt in the 1820's (young girls did a lot more, and finer stitching, than those now-a-days). I started doing some research and found that the basic shirt pattern had really not changed that much between the 16th and 19th centuries. Mass-market manufacturing started in the mid-1800's and with it came a lot of the features we are now used to, like shaped armsyces. I had a very good class and they all seemed to really enjoy getting a chance to examine a piece like this up close and personal. I hope some day I am able to reliably identify the stitcher