Winter Sewing List

Caps for the Boys
Nightshirt for my Best Beloved
Paletot for me
Wool dress for me
Finish Pookie's wool dress
Little Bear's wool tunic and trousers
Maybe vest and coats for older boys?
Maybe coat for Charlie?
remake Pookie's sortie cap-- I don't like the way hers came out. 

More Mechanic Caps



From The boy's own book
1829
http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA5&id=XiMOAAAAQAAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (1860)

 

Boy's Caps- Caps without a brim

I have also come across quite a few images from brimless caps.  These seem to be for younger boys still in dresses or tunics.  Several of the images are Glengary style caps and demonstrate the interest in things Scottish started by Queen Victoria.

New York Public Library

New York Public Library

New York Public Library

Los Angles Public Library
I love these color images!



Los Angles Public Library

Boy's Caps-- Mechanic's or Wheel caps

Until the recent past people wore all types of headwear.  Nightcaps, hoods, bonnets, and hats-- the vaiety is mind boggling.  Today wearing a hat is relegated to old men and British royality.

As renactors our children frequently get the short end of the stick. They get the make do, make shift, and good enough.  They get faux leather Target lace ups because even if anyone reproduced accurate 19 century shoes, no one would spring $140 for them.  By the same token, my boys are not getting a $120 reproduction nutria felt bowler to go on their unappreciative heads.  Especially since they won't wear it anyway.

I do want the boys to have something on their heads, and this quest has led me to the cloth cap.  Its benefits are many:  It is inexpensive (unlike a felt hat), made of easily attained materials (see earlier comment) and is crushable.  (So is a straw hat . . .  but only once.)





Metropolitian Museum of Art, 1862

 
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/80030456?rpp=20&pg=2&ft=caps&when=A.D.+1800-1900&where=United+States&what=Costume&pos=37

Cornelius Krieghoff - 1860

Instruction on how to make a cap:

http://theyoungcampaigner.typepad.com/the_young_campaigner/2007/10/make-your-own-m.html

Boy's Caps- Another Common Cap

 

I was searching for original images of boy's caps, I was surprised that the most common style was what we call a "cadet cap." today.  It consist of a band and two peice crown.  The top of the crown in a circle and the side piece is a stright peice the same size as the band.

 

 

Front View
Peterson's Magazine 1859
image found in the Los Angles Public Library

Another front view
New York Public Library

 

 

 

Side View
New youk Public Library

Another side view
Los Angles Public Library

 

BREAD PUDDING.—Take light white bread and cut into slices. Put into a pudding shape a layer of any sort of pr serves, then a slice of bread and repeat until the mould is three parts full. Pour over all a pint of warm milk, in which four well-beaten eggs have been mixed; cover the mould with a piece of linen, and place it in a saucepan with a little boiling water, let it boil twenty minute., and serve with pudding sauce.

The What-not; or Ladies' Handybook
1861


We made this today and I got a thumbs up from all of the children.  I made it exactly as described in the recipe, except that I baked in in the oven in a water bath. I used white sandwich bread, which i normally wouldn't use but was limited by what Target had at the moment.  I think that it would be very simple to make it over a campfire.  We'll be trying it in the spring.

POTATO SALAD.

Boil some potatoes with the rind on until nicely done, then pare and cut them into slices about the thickness of a penny, and let them remain until nearly cold, then add three table spoonfuls of vinegar and two of oil, with a little salt and pepper. Serve with cold meat.

 

The What-not; or Ladies' Handybook

1861