Fort Taber, MA August 2007

The Fort Taber Event was a fun event. It was in New Bedford, MA so it wasn't too long of a drive to get there. However, it was right on the water, so the wind off the water was terrible the whole weekend. Somehow we managed to live through it all. Of course the drunken watermelon was a big help! :-) On Saturday night we had what I like to call "Hurricane Fort Taber." The wind really picked up as the night went on, and I thought for sure that our tent would blow over. In fact I was holding on to our center pole, much to the amusement of Kris, but I wasn't too keen on having the tent collapse right on top of us. Once the wind slowed a bit, I went out to pound in some more stakes, because of course I hadn't bothered to put them all in since we weren't expecting it to storm up like it did. When I went out, I discovered that unfortunately not everyone was as lucky as we were to have our tent still standing. Most of the smaller tents that were held down with ropes had collapsed and been abandoned. The owners, must have gone to their cars to sleep. We had a few close calls with our kitchen fly as well that weekend, but we managed to keep everything standing and had a great time despite the weather. It was quite an adventure and made the event quite memorable. Unfortunately I did not take one single picture from that day, and our website doesn't have any up as of yet, but I was able to find a pretty cool montage on YouTube from the event. I believe the pictures were taken by a visitor of the event, and there are a few in there from our group. Hope you enjoy!





Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel

The Stays

So ever since hearing that we were going to do RevWar, I knew that I wanted to wear stays. Call me weird, but I just think they look cool. I don’t think they are uncomfortable at all. (Okay well granted I had never worn any for extended periods of time, but I truly believe that if they were made to fit your body, they wouldn’t be uncomfortable.) I knew that I couldn’t afford to buy them right now because they usually cost close to $100 and that just wasn’t in the budget this year, so I decided to hold off and look around, do some research and see if I could make a pair. Seemed daunting, but I figured it might be worth a try.

So the first place I started my research was the Internet of course!! Here are a few sites that I found along the way:

Saga of the Stays

Good Directions on how to make Stays

Some good Articles

Timeline of Stays through History

And of course I just did some good old fashion asking around when we were at the events. Many of the women in my regiment don’t wear stays, but some of them had made them, so they had some good tips for me. I also asked Sutlers that I noticed had stays made up, ready to buy. One good tip that I got was to use ¼” reeding for the stays themselves, rather than the poly or metal ones that are sold. (More on this later.)

So now that I had an idea of what I wanted to do I had to find a pattern. The directions above had a drawn pattern, but I wanted something more rigid. I wanted to be able to cut it out easily, so I looked up patterns on Townsend and found a great one. It looked a little more complicated then some of the others I have seen around, but I felt it was one of the more accurate examples from all that I had seen. The one I picked can be found here.

Once it arrived, I sat on it for a while. I was trying to figure out the best fabric to use. I didn’t want anything too thin because I didn’t want the stays poking out at me, but I also didn’t want it to be too hot. One day we were out looking at yard sales and I stumbled upon a great find. Someone was getting rid of some bolts of fabric, I got a black cotton, which I wanted for a Halloween quilt I wanted to make, a black canvas, and two green cotton bolts. I got all of these for $25, which is significantly less then I would have paid for them by the yard, especially considering these bolts were full. I figured that the black canvas would be great for Kris’ gaiters and for the inner part of my stays. It is thick enough so nothing pokes out, and since another fabric would be on the outside, the black wouldn’t absorb heat as much. I picked a nice blue check fabric to go on the outside.

I cut out all the pieces, followed the directions and sewed it all up. I did my best to do channels that were slightly larger than a ¼” since the reeding would be a ¼” I figured it wouldn’t work if the channels were the same size. My lines were not the straightest since I am not a professional seamstress by any means, but I thought it turned out pretty good. The reeding I picked up is found here. It came in a huge bundle, way more then I needed, but it was cheap enough that I wasn’t too concerned. I soaked the reeding to help it uncurl, and I slid it in the channels. Since my channels weren’t perfect, I actually ended up having to trim down some of the pieces of reeding, but eventually they all fit in there. I dried it under something heavy and flat to make sure the reeding didn’t curl back up. The stays still needed a backing layer and the finishing around the edges, but I wanted to try wearing it once before I did that.

In order to wear my stays I had to punch holes in it so it could be laced. I actually used my anywhere eyelet punch that I had from my scrapbooking supplies. I punched the holes using the guide from the pattern, and then I hand overcast stitched each hole. This took quite a bit of time to do, but I think it looks really nice. They would not have used metal grommets in this time period, though I know some people use them and then cover them with thread, I figured that was just an extra step.

I tried them on and they fit fairly well. They only laced in the back, so I had to have my husband help me get them tied up. I wore them for one event, but quickly started to notice that the reeding went too far down. I had brought the reeding all the way down into the tabs, but I think it would have been better to stop right above the tabs. I took the stays off for that day and I went back and pulled the reeding out, trimmed it, and pushed it back in so it was now above the tabs. I wore that version for the last parade we had, and it wasn’t too bad. It was still slightly uncomfortable around the waist, but I was walking and sitting this day and really it was a lot better then the last time.

So that was as far as I got. I still haven’t finished off the stays because to be honest I dread putting the edging on there, and since they are still not quite right, I wonder if I should have made the pattern a little longer. And the thought of starting the whole thing over to try it a little longer makes me nauseous. I have all the materials, but the time it took to make it, is time I really only wanted to spend once. So I gave up, I set them aside. I love them, and I wish they were right, but I just can’t bring myself to finish them right now. Since it’s more of a matter of time then cost or materials, maybe someday in the near future I will try again.

Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel

Hubbardton, VT July 2007

Hubbardton was another fun event (okay I admit it, I thought they were all fun!). Since it was so close to July 4th, we got to see some nice fireworks over the tree line from a nearby town on Saturday night. The men had a nice hill to battle on. At one of the battles, they actually fought a good part of it on the other side of the hill, so we didn't get to see that part, but I am sure they had a blast! The video below is from the battle, you can hear Kolby talking, he was quite excited about this battle. After the battle was done, Kolby saw Kris laying dead on the ground (Kris enjoys playing dead sometimes). Kolby yelled out "There's my Daddy! He's dead!" It was quite funny for the crowd. If you want to see some more pictures from the day check them out in my album.



Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel

Strawberry Bank July 2007

On July 4th 2007we had a parade in Amherst, NH and right after the parade we headed over to Strawberry bank. The parade was fun, but Kolby had to go to the bathroom about half way through it, so I had to fall out of line and rush him to a bathroom (which they weren't even going to let me use until I explained it was for my son!). We tried to rush back to everyone, but that's hard to do with a four year old that is already tired. So we just met up with them at the end.



At Strawberry bank we got to do some living history demonstrations, which was interesting. I had actually never been to Strawberry Bank before, so it was really neat to walk around. They have reenactors from RevWar, Civil War, WWII, and other time periods. Getting lunch while we were there though was an ordeal and a half! I think a few of our members stood for over an hour outside the Mexican cart waiting for their lunch! But overall it was a good time. The video above is of Todd singing a song to Kolby. And the picture below is a picture of my whole family, we don't get very many family pictures, so it's neat to have one of us especially dressed in our RevWar clothes.



Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel

Bordentown, NJ June 2007

Bordentown, NJ ended up being our first overnight event. We arrived late at night because we had gotten stuck going through New York. We had to set our tent up for the very first time in the dark! Luckily we had some help from the other regiment members. A reenactment is something to be seen. I had never been to a RevWar reenactment before participating in them, and it is just awe inspiring. You really feel like you have gone back in time. I loved walking around and visiting the Sutlers, they are not allowed to sell anything modern day, which is great for us. The Sutlers are a wonderful way to pick up some different and unique period pieces. Unfortunately since I am writing about these events so long after they happened, it's hard for me to remember just what we did. I really hope to keep up with the blog better in 2008 so I can have a better record of the fun times that we really have at these events! (Hmmm or maybe some things are better left forgotten. Like a drunken watermelon in Fort Taber that shall remain nameless :) :)) The picture to the left is of June making us breakfast and the one to the right is of Kolby and Jeffrey shooting the British. If you want to see some more pictures from Bordentown, check them out here.

Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel

Other Camp Related Items

Now that we had our clothing and our tent, we needed to get all the other everyday stuff that was needed for in camp. We needed stuff for inside the tent (which luckily didn't have to be period as long as the tent was closed during the day) and stuff that we could use outside the tent (which did have to be period or as close as we could get). The first thing I started with was stuff to eat with.

Bowls and Plates
First off we needed something to eat off of. I asked around for a bit about what would be the best thing to use and it was suggested that plain metal bowls and plates would be fine. They would have used pewter ones I believe (I think I will research this more), but the pewter bowls were pretty expensive so I just went with plain stainless steel. I ordered the bowls at Townsend, but I decided to hold off on the plates. They weren't too too expensive, but I really just didn't want to spend the money at that point. We were fine with the bowls, the only time I had wished we could have had a plate was when we had corn on the cob, other than that the bowls worked great.

Utensils
I did a little research on utensils of the time, and it seemed that the general consensus is that they would have used a spoon made out of horn and a knife. Again I didn't want to invest a lot of money here, so after some suggestions from another member, I headed down to Wal-Mart and just picked up the plainest stainless steel spoons and forks I could find. They have no design on them at all. Although they could have had a small design, I went with plain because I couldn't find any others without roses or something. I could not find plain knives so we went without for a while until I bought a kitchen knife from a Sutler at one of the events.

Cups
We ended up buying 3 mugs at Fort 4. They are earthenware mugs with a white glaze and a blue design on them. They are the perfect size to have around. I haven't done a lot of research into what they would have used at the time, but I figure these are good enough for now.

Seating
Another big thing we needed was seating. This was a little bit harder to acquire. I was looking for plain colored canvas seats at Wal-Mart to use, but they only had small ones. We did get one of those for Kolby, but they were way too small for Kris and I to use. We tried to buy seats at a few events, but the Sutlers always seemed to be out by the time we got there. I was able to find a plain box that we kept under the dining fly, it held all of our stuff for the day, which was really nice to keep everything under control and the even better part was that it could double as seating. I was finally able to find a chair at one of the Sutlers, so I bought one for myself. So Kolby has his canvas seat, I have a wooden chair and Kris can use the box since he is in the camp the least.

Inside the Tent
We obviously needed to be able to sleep inside of our tent. Most people do not make the inside of the tent period by any means. Some do, and I think I would like to someday, but for now it was easier to just use what we had already. We did buy a tarp to go under everything so we wouldn't get wet if it rained. Then we used an air mattress that we already had around from when we went camping in the past. We just brought our regular pillows and blankets to sleep on the mattress with. For Kolby we have a mat that rolls out and he sleeps on that with his regular pillows and blankets as well. We also have a rubbermaid chest that we use to keep all of our clothing in. That's pretty much all we keep in our tent. We actually always forgot to bring our flashlight, but that would have been a good thing to have too.

Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel