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Thursday 24 August 2017

Some yardsale fun...

One of the things I find really fun in the summer is yardsales. I ended up at a couple this summer and scored some amazing things!
Candlestick, wind-up travel clock, mini teapot and pepper grind, from the sale in my laneway.
I really loved the painting on this candlestick, and I've got a beeswax candle that will look very nice on it in the wintertime. The clock too will come in very useful, I think. I like that it's small and folds up, and I've been looking for a windup clock for my room for a while. Yes, they're noisy and have to be wound every day, but it somehow seems easier than having to go out and buy replacement batteries after a year! As for the mini teapot and pepper grind, I thought they were really pretty! The kid gloves (in the picture below) I also picked up here. They seem to just fit, and although the embroidered pair is a little stained, they're both so beautiful.
Coral necklace, some really groovy clip-on earrings, an antique crochet hook, hair curler and glove stretcher,  from the Kensington Market street sale, and two sets of kid gloves from the laneway.
I also ended up going to the very first Kensington Market Pedestrian Sunday of the season. For anyone who doesn't know, this is where they close off the streets of the Kensington Market neighbourhood one Sunday of each month through the summer and fall, and there are often different things going on in the street, like buskers playing. On this particular Sunday, because it was the first, the residents had a whole bunch of yardsales on the street. From this sale I got jewellry (coral necklace and gold clip-on's in the photo above) and some really neat vintage textile/clothing-related bits!

Wednesday 23 August 2017

A looming project

I'm sorry, I simply couldn't resist the pun. There is a new (ok, within the past six months kind of new) arrival in my room... a loom! Today I finally got around to warping it and beginning to weave for the first time! It's kind of exciting to see actual textile forming before your very eyes. Here it is.


Wednesday 2 August 2017

Socks and Sandals, Roman Egypt-style

Some of my favourite extant historical garments are the kind that make you do a double take; the kind of garments that don't normally come to mind when thinking of clothing in a given historical era. These were, for me, one of those pieces. These, ladies and gentlemen, are the Egyptian toe socks of Oxyrynchus. (drumroll).


These red woolen socks date from the 4th to 5th century A.D., and were found in Egypt, near the ruins of the Hellenistic town of Oxyrynchus (yes, the same place as the Oxyrynchus Papyri came from, if anyone was wondering). I love to imagine who might have worn these fabulous socks over 1500 years ago. The split toe is made so they can be worn under a pair of sandals.*
They were constructed with a technique we now refer to as nalbinding- a precursor to knitting which involves a single large sewing needle.

*In fact, in Japan today split toe socks are very popular, and are made to be worn with traditional geta sandals.

Source: The V&A website's write-up on these socks and their construction, available here.

Tuesday 1 August 2017

Costume Blog Writing Month 1- Introduction


So for anyone not already in the know, August is the Costume Blog Writing Month! This means that there are going to be daily blog writing prompts during the month of August. Knowing me (and the fact that I am currently out of town, and will be for another week) I probably won't get all of the posts done, let alone in a timely fashion. With that said, I'm going to do my very best, and I look forward to meeting everyone else who is participating! Posts done in the context of this writing challenge will be tagged for it at the bottom of the post.




I realize that I have not really told any of the few lucky readers who have followed my blog this far much about myself at all, even on the "About" page. My name is Morag, and I live in Toronto, Canada. I'm currently doing a double major undergrad degree in History and Classical Studies, and I hope to go into Museum Studies in the future. As for my creations, I have always loved crafting. I began to dabble in historical sewing in middle school- the first ensemble I sewed was inspired by the paintings of Brueghel and the like (that's 16th century Dutch, for anyone not up on their art history). My historical sewing specifically took off though when I began volunteering at a local history museum centred around a log cabin that had been restored to the 1860's and which was the home (and workspace) of the Bathurst Rd. tollkeeper and his family in what was once Toronto's suburbs.* Part of my job was as a costumed interpreter in the log cabin, and so I eagerly went on my way to try to research/sew something appropriate (you can see the HSM post for the gown I made for this here).**

An interior of the Tolkeeper's Cottage Museum where I volunteered. Source: http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/05/inside_the_tollkeepers_cottage_at_bathurst_and_davenport/



Although I no longer volunteer at the museum, I continue to do historical sewing, but my preferred time period now is late 18th century. However, given that I'm involved in a Regency dance group, and a friend has recently started an official Regency reenactment group, I am beginning to delve into this era as well- in fact, stay tuned for a post on fitting gussets on 1810's stays! (oh, puns!)

Anyway, that's all for now- hope you enjoyed the post, and look forward to seeing those of others who are participating!


* For anyone curious, the museum is called Tollkeeper's Cottage Museum. Their website is here.


**More difficult than it seems...One does not simply google "what did people living in rural areas but within an hour's walk of the city of Toronto in the 1860's wear?" It just doesn't work that way.