Fort Frederick Market Faire

Finally getting around to posting our 18th century clothing from our trip to Fort Frederick Market Fair last month.  It was our first foray into American history and anything not SCA related, so it was a lot of fun to play with something completely different.

Adam made his own coat, and I did the shirt, vest and pants.  The pants gave us a little bit of trouble, as we were using a Simplicity pattern and the first try was huge on him.  He definitely had saggy diaper butt syndrome.  We had to take it in a lot.  The vest was made out of a really beautiful plaid wool he had been hiding in the stash for awhile and the pants were black wool.  We got the buttons from Jas Townsend, pewter on the vest and black horn on the pants.  The shirt is plain white linen.

His shoes we got on Amazon for less than $30.  They reek of whatever synthetic stuff they're made of, but they look pretty decent.  

His coat is entirely out of linen and he did everything himself, other than a couple minutes of help with the sewing machine and figuring out the pattern. The pattern was not very well written.

My stuff was a bit more complicated.  I started with the stays and even made a muslin out of duck cloth and tried it all on and made adjustments.  The only problem was that my muslin lacked the bones.  I didn't think it'd be a big deal at the time, but because of my spinal cord injury, my core is very weak.  The corset supported me, but when I was sitting up properly in it, I was stretched taller than I can accomplish otherwise.  So it was too big on me.  Not a huge amount, but enough it wasn't supportive anymore.  I honestly tried to make a new set of stays with two weeks left to go, but they didn't get finished in time.  I ended up making a bed jacket instead and wearing it without stays, which I think was both period accurate and not.  As a married middle class woman, I wouldn't have been traipsing about without my proper undergarments in public.  However, being wheelchair bound,  I probably would have been considered an "invalid" and thus it might have been more socially acceptable.  

The jacket is made from a Waverly upholstery cotton, lined with linen.  The trim was dark green ribbon I got at Walmart for 10 cents and ruffled and then stitched down the light green satin ribbon in the center.  My chemise is cotton.  There are two skirts, one cream and one red, both out of linen.  

I really liked how it came together, but here's the downside.  It was freezing.  It was barely 50 degrees with a lot of wind, so I was very very cold. I had planned on late spring in Maryland and assumed it would have been just a bit warmer.  I bought the hand warmers out of desperation!  So maybe next year my dress will be wool.  And have long sleeves.  

My shoes came from Fugawee.  I went about a size and a half too big, because I wanted to be able to wear warm socks with them (which I wish I had thought to bring).  They're actually pretty comfortable, but I'm not walking in them, so I'm not a great judge.  But it was a lot of fun and we're excited to go back next year.