Port Townsend Victorian Festival 2016/ PART I

My watch presentation on March 19, 2016

I feel like I do a lot of “costumers out-reach” when I go out of state on costuming adventures. I make an effort to bring along information with me about my blog, my pattern group on Facebook, our guilds, and Costume College, so that I can share it with anyone who shows an interest.

Case in point: I just went to Port Townsend, WA for their annual Victorian Festival. Each year I coordinate my visit to see my Mom who lives near there, around the same time as the Festival. I’ve been in the Festival fashion show for the last 6 years now, and many of the Seattle and Puget Sound-based costume guilds have shown up and added to it. We like to think we’ve raised the costuming level in the tiny seaport town, whose main focus is preserving their Victorian homes and history. There are streets upon streets of adorable little Victorian houses.  All funds from the festival go to supporting their historical society, and a scholarship for the school. The Festival is primarily a group of 6-8 historical interest presentations, lectures, or entertainment, walking tours of the town, history displays and demonstrations in the American Legion building, some Civil War demonstrations, afternoon teas at some local B&Bs, and the fashion show.

 

This year on top of being in the fashion show, I was lucky to be one of those that got to do a presentation for the Festival. I had offered last year to do my Watches & How Women Wore Them class for the two guilds there the next time I came up. We were trying to figure out a central location to do it and we thought since they were talking about coming to the Festival that there might be a location we could do it there. I even offered my Mom’s house. But then one of their members, Mara, said she was going to be volunteering at the Festival and could contact one of the coordinators to ask if they would like me to present my class there. She talked me up quite a bit too. After they contacted me, and I gave a summary of my class, and my credentials & resume, I got an overwhelming YES! from them. Later I learned it’s a very tight-knit community, and my being an “outsider” was unusual to be part of it.

The logistics of bringing everything with me on the plane: laptop, watch display case, handouts, and digital projector, was frustrating and would be heavy, but they found a projector in town for me to use. They went back and forth on its availability, and finally got the make & model # for me so I could download the driver to my laptop before I flew up there. The day before it looked like I would still have to bring mine but got a last minute reprieve. However when I got there it wouldn’t connect to mine due to its cable size. I sent up an “oh crap” prayer, and then suddenly next to me an attendee sitting there put her laptop on the table, hooked it up, popped in my thumb drive, and we were off. She was my angel and I wish I knew who she was.

*Here’s another background story: I had my Powerpoint slide show on my thumb drive. I know I did, because I had used it at Costume College a few months ago. When I got up to WA, I plugged my thumb drive into my laptop, and it wasn’t there. Did I bring the wrong thumb drive?!!  There was one Powerpoint program on it, along with my narrative and photo files, but that one said it needed an app to open it. Panic ensued! I didn’t have the internet so phoned hubby at home to see if he could find it on my computer there, and email it to me. Then I would find a Starbucks with WiFi. But after he found it, the file was too big to email. So I spent 8 hours recreating my Powerpoint show from memory, although changing up a few photos and text on them. In the end I decided it would work.   ---Back to the day of my presentation, when my “angel” popped in my thumb drive and I told her click there to open my PP. I started talking, then indicated to her to advance the slide. It was not the one I expected. It was one of my originals. Next slide; and then I realized this was my original PP presentation! Where the heck did that come from? *breeeeathe* My presentation is mostly self-guiding so I just followed it.  Later I plugged in my thumb drive to my laptop, found the file and again it wouldn’t open. So there’s a problem, possibly with it being made on my old Windows 8.5, maybe. I guess I’ll be redoing that one. *

*My thanks to my friend Sue for taking these photos of me, and one from Julie, at my presentation.*

I was pleased to see almost all 60 seats were taken, and was told later that there were people standing in the back that I never saw. The lady taking tickets said it was the largest attendance she'd ever seen. I had lots of questions about the history of the watch chains and got a few laughs too. Later people approached me on the street and complimented my class, and said they had learned a lot. During our afternoon tea at a B&B the next day, the owner told me all her customers on the previous day from both seatings were talking about my class. So I think I made a good impression. I brought a lot of copies of the Costumers Guild West Squeals newsletters with me that had articles in them that I had written, and handed those out in class, along with my own handouts. I know there were some people who hadn’t heard about Costume College, and one girl who came up to me dressed in a corset and skirt was really excited to see how I was dressed and wanted to find out more about historical costuming. *YES!* *fist bump*

There were a couple ladies in the audience I had taken photos of earlier just before it was my turn to set up. I thought the lady in black looked very elegant with her antique hat and mantle but never got a front view of her. The other lady had a chatelaine on her skirt, and I hoped she would be staying for my class. She obviously had an interest.

As you can see in some of the photos during my class some of the ladies were wearing their corsets on the outside. There’s a very large group of Steampunks in the area and many events created for them locally. Later in the week I stopped at one store called World’s End, when I saw Victorian Steampunk on the window. *BTW, the second photo is of a stairway entrance to some shops down below the street. I remember the first time I visited Port Townsend, I went down there and found a small antique shop that had walls of large stones and dirt. It’s a fascinating walk if you ever get down there.*

Just the word Victorian drew me into World's End but it was all Steampunk-type clothing and accessories, nothing a historical costumer would use. But I got in a long conversation with the owner, and she told me about her website that she writes short informative articles on it. She asked if I would write a short one explaining how watches & chains were worn, and tell about fobs. I never turn down an opportunity to write so I got that written up and sent it off to her, with photos, after I got back home.  Keep an eye out in the “Ramblings” section on her website for that.  http://www.worldsendporttownsend.com/

Afterwards I went walking around and found a tintype photographer set up by the Foreign Legion building and decided to try him out. He had a nice backdrop set up with props, which is better than just standing against a wall, and they actually posed me. I just sort of stand like a lump most of the time.  

While I was standing in place frozen for my photo, the two coordinators of the Festival, Nathan & Cindy, saw me and came up to thank me for a very well done presentation.

I picked up my tintype later in the week from Jason Bledsoe and it was really nice, the nicest one I’ve ever had taken. It’s not as blurry as the photo I took of it.

                                                                 ~~Val~~ 

My Wardrobe at Costume College PART ONE

   A week has passed since I got home from Costume College; most things are unpacked and put away. It took me two days to get all my photos weeded out, cropped, and uploaded to my online album. So now that I’ve gathered a few photos of me wearing my costumes, I can write my blogs about them. I wore five costumes, and my primary color this year was black. Unfortunately they don’t actually photograph well so the better ones are from home on my dress form.

 This is my photo album from the convention. Costume College 2014  

    I ended up trying not to kill myself and finish another gown, so I did a repeat of my Regency Red/White/Blue outfit and so did two of my friends. I wore two dresses on Friday; the Regency during the day, and my 1873 Dia de los Muertos mourning gown for our Murder of Crows theme that evening at the Ice Cream Social. On Saturday I wore my 1837 Midnight Mourning during the day and to teach my Watch class but so far only have one photo of me in it and none from my class. That evening I wore my 1837 Persimmon dress on the Red Carpet and for our UnGala Dinner at the hotel restaurant. On our final day I had a workshop in the morning where I had to fit myself for an Edwardian belt so I chose to wear my street clothes and later changed into my 1910 Black Ascot dress for the Sunday Tea, “Ladies Day at the Ascot Racecourse”. By that time it actually felt good just to put modern clothes on when we went to the Garment District the next day to shop for, you guessed it, MORE FABRIC.

   So to start with Friday, both of these dresses have been shown here before, so nothing new to write about them. But here are some photos. I added some more pleated blue ribbon along the top of my Regency bonnet but with my head up it’s hard to see. For my 1873 mourning, I wore an antique black Bebe bonnet (these are ones that are small and just fit on the back of your head) that only comes out on rare occasions and added my lace veil to it. It was nice for a change not to stress over getting something made.  And the good thing was, neither had been worn there before. 

 

   My black 1837 Midnight Mourning gown was finished in plenty of time but I left making the belt during the final week. It was made from two inch wide black velvet ribbon and I attached an antique belt buckle to it. I planned to tucked my watch into it but it kept sliding through. So a last minute addition was a small self-fabric pocket sewn to the dress that would be under the belt. 

   I couldn’t find any documentation of how the ladies kept their watches from sliding through so this seemed logical to me. Just in the last couple days while discussing watches on one Facebook group, one lady said she had an antique belt that had a watch pocket sewn to the back and is going to find it and share the photo of it. That’s what I did on my other belt for my Cranberry 1837 dress. So that’s awesome my brain is thinking the right way.

   This is my completed dress at home. I tried making a fichu out of a sheer polyester but it kept sliding against the cotton fabric and up around my neck. While at CoCo I asked a few knowledgeable people who suggested cotton mull. So we bought some in the Garment District for future use. 

 

   For my lace cap I called in my friend Cat ( aka Hatmaker Extraordinaire),

Minerva Manx on Etsy  for help in making that. We used the two paintings I had for inspiration, and she told me to wear it towards the back of my head.

 

   I used a stiff embroidered polyester I found at JoAnn’s that looked similar to the painting. It had enough body that it could almost stay up by itself. While she was testing the pattern she also made one in cotton for me that came in real handy wearing with my Regency bonnet.

 

   My wig was styled by Wig Creations by Conni, and it was her first time doing this time period. She mainly does wigs for cancer patients and for the La Jolla Playhouse. With me bringing in all kinds of requests for different time periods she’s having a great time doing them. I had her copy the hair style of the Lady in Black that I copied my dress from. She had tight curls up around her temples. I’ve been making an album up for her of many different time periods now for a reference guide. I think next up is an Edwardian Gibson Girl style because for some reason that’s one I’ve never had.

  So far this is the only photo I’ve found of me wearing my gown.  You can see my long watch chain hanging down from my neck and my watch tucked into it’s little pocket under my belt. And notice Cindy’s lace cap under her bonnet? That’s the white cotton one Cat also made for me.

   Just a note on my Watch class: as I mentioned I have no photos taken during my class because I was so busy I forgot to hand my camera to someone.  So this is what I have to share is my display case that I brought to show my watch chain collection.

 

   The night before I left for Costume College, I received my grandfather’s pocket watch that my Mom had just found three days earlier and shipped it down quickly for me to bring. This watch had been missing for a number of years and she accidently found it while going through some of my Dad’s things he had squirreled away. See? Squirrels run in the family. The watch was made in 1909, and it had my grandmother’s photo from 1911 in it. It was a lot of fun sharing it with the attendees in my class, and they spent a lot of time gathered around my table looking at everything I brought.  I had a lot of competition for classes that afternoon so it wasn’t as well attended as I’d hoped but afterwards students in the adjoining classes came in saying how sorry they couldn’t attend and would I repeat it next year. By all means I will send in my proposal and just may get that chance again. As I’ve said, it’s a little known bit of accessory women wore and quite a few of them did. I’m all about THE ACCESSORIES!  You need to decorate the cake!

     For my further adventures, I’m going to write another entry so this doesn’t get too long.

                                                                ~~Val~~

  

Down the Rabbit Hole--Watches

We’re just six days away from Costume College and I can’t contain myself much longer on sharing what I learned about ladies wearing watches and watch chains. So I’m going to share a little bit about my class, and will share more afterwards. My class is primarily a slideshow since you need to see REAL WOMEN in photos wearing them and how they wore them: this is honest to God documentation. You can’t get much better than that. So this makes it hard to be able to share that information in text other than dates. And that doesn’t always work because there were a variety of them worn all in a time period. But I can point you in the right direction so you don’t go too modern on your costume.

A few years back I was writing short blurbs on costuming research that I called “Down the Rabbit Hole”, because as the name implies, once you start you keep going and going and going. It was mostly links to photo albums and videos that showed REAL PEOPLE.  In my latest research, watches and how women wore them, I had no idea how deep that hole would be and that it would finally lead to me teaching a class on it at Costume College.

Watches & Watch Chains--  a Necessary Ladies Accessory

In the beginning…….I was innocently looking for some dress styles in the 1830s for a couple I wanted to make. I set on a couple in 1837 and once that was decided, I looked more closely at the accessories on them. These were actually paintings and a whole series was done by the same artist who apparently repeated his “stage” and seemingly the same dress, but different sitters. They all were wearing watches tucked into their belts that were attached to a long chain around their neck. Watches? Hmmm...

 So I kept looking and found more paintings with ladies wearing watches. At this time they were a few years away from the daguerreotype photographs (also called dags) of 1839. But I did start finding genuine photographic evidence of more women wearing watches. And then the snowball started rolling and down the Rabbit Hole I went. 1840s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and so on. Then backwards in time to 1820s, and further to the 1500s. Yeah, the 1500s! The first watch was made then, and the evidence of one dated 1530 proved it. One of my friends, Barbee, who works in Colonial Williamsburg, sent me a couple photos of paintings of ladies wearing watches in that earlier time period that added to my search. Then I got into the world of daguerrotypes, ambrotypes (gorgeous photos starting in the 1850s), tintypes, and CDVs (carte vistas or “calling cards”- small cards with photos), and later the larger version of CDVs, the cabinet cards. That’s an amazing detour off the Rabbit’s tunnel.

And you know what I discovered? A LOT OF LADIES WORE WATCHES! Much more than I ever thought, or noticed. And they weren’t the little petite ones that I was always looking for. They were the larger ones like your Grandpa used to carry. Are you old enough to remember those? They were about 2 inches across.

I can’t say whether more of them they wore the watches with a cover, or the open face one, since most of them are concealed on their dresses but it seems like both were used. I started talking to friends and one who used to be a jewelry dealer told me to come and look at some of her leftovers and see if I could use any of them. It was like looking through a treasure chest! She had some watch chains and fobs, a couple which I bought from her, and then told her I would try and sell the others for her. So I plan on bringing them with me to my class. In the past couple months I also have found a few more chains that fit right in my price point of $20 to try and resell also.

I also will be displaying my own collection of watch chains and found a nice display box at a store fixture shop to put them in.

This is just a quick overview of the time periods for the ladies. In my class the gents will be getting some attention too. I have almost 250 photos and that should tell you something about the reality of them.

1500s-1800:  equipage were worn, massive hangers that were clipped onto belts or waistbands, sometimes as a pair. (in 1820s the name became chatelaine).

                                                                                                   

1800s- 1830: Chains draped over their belts, some still wore the chatelaines.

1830s-1860: Long chains, metal, beaded or woven, hanging from the neck, watches tucked into belts or waistbands, or hidden pockets in the skirt.

1860s-1870:    Short chains, long chains, metal, beaded, woven hair, you name it. Hanging from the neck, the waistband, and now long chains with slides on them halfway down, which became very popular for more than 50 years.

  

1870s-1890:  Pockets for watches on the outside of the dresses were very popular, still using both long and short chains, both near the waist and some moving up. Concealed pockets were fitted into seams. And yes, some were still hanging onto Great Grandma’s chatelaine.

 

1890s-1900:  Still wearing long chains, tucked into belts and pockets but small watch brooches started to show up, some by themselves or attached to the chain.

1900-1910: Long chains and watch brooches continued to be worn interchangeably.

I pretty much stopped at 1913 because shortly after that wrist watches came into style during WWI. And that’s a whole ‘nuther tunnel to go down.

I hope you’re able to come to my class at Costume College, Saturday at 3pm, but if not, maybe this bit of information will help you in your search for accessories, because my favorite saying is “You can’t just bake the cake; you have to decorate it too.”

                                                             ~~Val