Heritage Days 2016

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything, but I’ve been hard at work on different projects, especially ones leading up to this event.  Historic Mansker’s Station near Nashville, TN, is the site where I first started reenacting and it’s always held a special place in my heart.  Every year in early April they have a historical event focusing on historical trades, which I have attended for the last 3 years representing 18th century mantuamaking.

I had several examples of late 18th century style handsewn gowns and accessories on display.  Many of the attendees of this event (especially on the first day, which is primarily for school groups) are young children, and it was really fun to engage them in age- appropriate discussion about the intricacies of 18th century fashion.  There were several adults who stayed in our tent for quite some time, and we had very enjoyable and hopefully informative conversations about lots of commonly misunderstood things about historical fashion.

Also, for the first time ever, I got to do an 18th century hair demonstration on my very patient friend Rachel.  I used Heirloom Haircare’s pomade and powder, and various techniques I learned from the amazing book 18th Century Hair and Wig Styling by Kendra Van Cleave.

I kept my historical hairdressing tools out, and used them to explain 18th century hair care to visitors who didn’t get to see the hair demonstration.  It was a really fun event (especially the second day when it wasn’t so cold), and I am looking forward to next year’s where I am planning on a dress-in-a-day demonstration.

Rebecca

(All photos in this post were provided by my sister Hannah who wore an jacket I made for her that is based on Claire’s jackets from Outlander.  I will do a post on that soon!)

Remembering WWII 2015

Last year I heard about a somewhat local event in Linden, Tennessee called Remembering WWII.  With such fantastic posts from Atlanta at Story of a Seamstress and Lily at Mode de Lis, I knew that we had to go in 2015.

So we got a small group together who all wanted to dress in 1940’s clothes, and made plans to go.  Between everyone going, it wasn’t hard to outfit everyone in vintage or vintage-inspired clothing from head to toe.

I got my hair cut in a middy style especially for this occasion, because it has not been shorter than shoulder length since I was a sophomore in high school.  I practiced wet sets for awhile beforehand to get the hair just right.

This is the results of the first hairstyle I tried.  Success!

I took these two pictures the morning of the event to show my sister and her friends whose hair I also did, so they wouldn’t freak out at the mass of curls that happens when you start taking all the curlers out!  You can see the curler that was a dud right in the front there.  I pinned that side behind my ear, which worked well to hide it.

We got to Linden just as they started the first reenactment. It was sprinkling rain for most of the time we were there, which caused everyone’s hair and hats to droop a bit, but it all worked out in the end!

My husband and I standing in front of one of the many vintage cars that were parked along the street.

My sister and I. She is wearing a dress I made a few years ago, and my dress was made for this event from fabric I had bought years ago to make a 40’s dress. You can see my shoes in this picture, they are vintage style shoes I got from eBay.  They are pretty comfortable, but I may bring other shoes to change into next year, there is a lot of walking involved in this event if you want to see everything.

These are my sister and two of her friends, and they looked adorable all day long!  They got a lot of attention from other attendees.  I am still trying to track down some of the pictures that were taken of us all by different people there.
Somehow I managed not to get any photos of my other friends that went, but they looked great as well!

It was a really fun day!  I did not manage to take any pictures of the other goings on, but we got to see two veterans telling their stories about the war, a reenactment, some swing dancing, and some musical performances that were all really enjoyable.  My favorite part was just walking around the town.  The people who live there had done so much work to give the town the proper ambiance of a WWII era small town.  There were lots of other reenactors dressed to the nines, even whole families all in their Sunday best!  I think this is definitely an event we will be attending again, and hopefully with a larger group next time!

Rebecca