Living History from Seed to Spool

A highly abridged summary of my historical activities this year-to-date. I am deliberately omitting some things that will get their own full-length posts later.

In January, I more or less completed my early 17th-century English wardrobe with a “Sunday best” black gown. (This does not mean, of course, that I won’t continue making garments, merely that there are no obvious gaps in my collection.) Such a gown is typically worn with a ruff, but I strongly dislike anything touching my neck or throat, so I opted for a drawn threadwork falling band.

In March, I taught two classes at an SCA clothing seminar, on pad-stitching and historical laundering respectively. At the same event, I also got to be a living mannequin for a class on traditional Japanese court dress, which I knew absolutely nothing about going in and now know slightly more about.

In May, Warner’s Regiment spent a weekend at The Fort at #4 in Charlestown, NH, which may be my favorite historic site of them all. For three days we lived inside the fortified town, filling it with the hum of 18th-century activity. I was truly there in a way that’s hard to achieve. And I was very proud of my stalwart crew of women.

In June, I taught our captain’s daughters to do laundry, and they turned around and taught a bunch of other kids. It’s incredible how much kids love chores when they don’t realize it’s work.

I spent most of July either preparing for or recovering from Hubbardton. The Battle of Hubbardton (Vermont’s only Rev War land battle) is a maximum effort event for our regiment. For the past two years, I’ve been in charge of its field hospital. In real life, I know very little about nursing beyond the first-aid basics. This makes me a pretty realistic Rev War nurse interpreter: such a person was much more likely to be an ordinary soldier’s wife than any kind of trained professional. Survival owed far more to hygiene and decent nutrition than to any particular technique.

In August, I got super fancy with my Brit friends for our annual ladies’ picnic at Redcoats & Rebels in Sturbridge, MA. Redcoats and rebels truly do come together on this blessed weekend. I also got to put on a show as a grieving widow when my husband volunteered to die bloodily in a surgery demonstration. I spent my entire adolescence and half my 20s as a haunted house actor, so it’s nice to see I’ve still got it.

Also in August, I represented EAHM’s flax program at the Winooski Fiber Faire. And got to pet a sheep!

In September, I spoke about flax processing and my experiments in premodern menstrual management to the Vermont Archaelogical Society. A transcript is linked under Papers & Projects.

On September 19th (two days!), I’ll be attending the Old Stone House Museum’s third annual Fiber Fest, with my homegrown flax in tow. I will also be attempting to start and finish a new English gown before my own museum’s flax processing event on October 17th. Am I operating on sheer momentum? You bet. Will the results be entertaining if nothing else? Undoubtedly.