Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Side by Side!
I thought it would be fun to share another of my Brownie photos. As I was having my picture taken with the Brownie, I was also having a digital picture taken. I did the same thing with the tintype taken ages ago. See that here. This one is a little less different, I think :)
Monday, March 18, 2013
Brownie Pictures!
Last year at Costume College, a group of us used my c. 1919-1924 Brownie No. 2E camera at the beach and at the Huntington. I finally developed the pictures! I present some of them here without comment--the rest, including the cats, of course, are in the Flickr set!
The camera is incredibly easy to use. This model uses 120 roll film which is still made. Just load it according to the manual, available here online, rest the camera against your stomach, look in the viewfinder, and move the shutter. It's that easy! There are three apertures, and the manual explains when to use them. The main page also has a list of cameras and the film they take. Very useful if you want to use the camera itself!
The camera is incredibly easy to use. This model uses 120 roll film which is still made. Just load it according to the manual, available here online, rest the camera against your stomach, look in the viewfinder, and move the shutter. It's that easy! There are three apertures, and the manual explains when to use them. The main page also has a list of cameras and the film they take. Very useful if you want to use the camera itself!
Friday, March 8, 2013
18th Century Short Cloak--A Tutorial!
As I was browsing 18th century cloaks online, I came across a great page at The Hive Online about short cloaks. The page, as 17 April 2016, is now a gardening site.
My finished cloak!
Making the cloak is very, very easy. Mine took about an hour and a twenty minutes, and had I been happy with the ties, would've taken an hour and two minutes. Yes, I did time it :)
For information on patterning, do visit the above website. I did a pattern in muslin first, not so much because you need to, but because wool is $20 a yard, and I didn't want to make a mistake. I bought 1 1/4 yards.
Here we have the pattern pieces--one cloak, two collars. The cloak body is essentially a stretched half circle. Please note that I'm the "very short and skinny" person mentioned in the article and I didn't have to piece it. I did though shorten it one inch on each side from my pattern. I wasn't about to piece one inch by about 4 inch pieces. It was much easier to make it slightly less full. I don't think such a small piece would even hang correctly in such a thick fabric. I have seen originals with much smaller pieces pieced, but losing a part of a sleeve is much different than a cloak!
Gather the neckline and pin the collar into place, right side of the cloak to wrong side of the collar (not that it really matters with many wools!), with the collar pointing down. Sew with a backstitch.
Pin the second half of the collar into place, wrong side of the cloak to wrong side of the collar, with the collar pointing up. Sew into place with a whipstitch. (I used backstitch. In typical me fashion, I read the article, read Costume Close-Up, and then did my own thing stitch wise because I forgot what I read and didn't recheck the stitch until I was done.) This will fold over, and the gathered neckline of the cloak will be sandwiched between the two layers of collar.
Sew the ties in (I used black wool twill tape), and you have a cloak! So easy, and it really was nice and warm to wear. Of course, it was about 40 degrees when I wore it, which I normally don't consider warm enough for outer wear, even in the real world, but it was still much warmer with it on than with it off :)
My finished cloak!
Making the cloak is very, very easy. Mine took about an hour and a twenty minutes, and had I been happy with the ties, would've taken an hour and two minutes. Yes, I did time it :)
For information on patterning, do visit the above website. I did a pattern in muslin first, not so much because you need to, but because wool is $20 a yard, and I didn't want to make a mistake. I bought 1 1/4 yards.
Here we have the pattern pieces--one cloak, two collars. The cloak body is essentially a stretched half circle. Please note that I'm the "very short and skinny" person mentioned in the article and I didn't have to piece it. I did though shorten it one inch on each side from my pattern. I wasn't about to piece one inch by about 4 inch pieces. It was much easier to make it slightly less full. I don't think such a small piece would even hang correctly in such a thick fabric. I have seen originals with much smaller pieces pieced, but losing a part of a sleeve is much different than a cloak!
Gather the neckline and pin the collar into place, right side of the cloak to wrong side of the collar (not that it really matters with many wools!), with the collar pointing down. Sew with a backstitch.
Pin the second half of the collar into place, wrong side of the cloak to wrong side of the collar, with the collar pointing up. Sew into place with a whipstitch. (I used backstitch. In typical me fashion, I read the article, read Costume Close-Up, and then did my own thing stitch wise because I forgot what I read and didn't recheck the stitch until I was done.) This will fold over, and the gathered neckline of the cloak will be sandwiched between the two layers of collar.
Sew the ties in (I used black wool twill tape), and you have a cloak! So easy, and it really was nice and warm to wear. Of course, it was about 40 degrees when I wore it, which I normally don't consider warm enough for outer wear, even in the real world, but it was still much warmer with it on than with it off :)
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