Dearest Readers,
Once again, I am sorry for the lack of activity on this blog. The past few months were quite busy, as I was finishing up the school year. But I hope that at least over the summer I can keep up a steady pace of posts. But don’t get your hopes up, for my promises may be worth nothing at this point. 😬
Anyway, at the moment I can’t think of any projects that I finished since February, though I’m sure that there are some. But plenty of new projects(and some changes) have come to fruition. First of all, my friend Luiza and I decided to wait and make the Schuyler Sister’s gowns in a couple of years. This is because we both have bigger projects that we would like done sooner. Eventually, however, the gowns will happen.
But that doesn’t mean that all work on them as stopped. I will continue to periodically work on Luiza’s stays, but other projects will come first. However we decided that instead of those gowns, we would make regency ones using the 1790’s round gown instructions in the American Duchess’ Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking. It is very through, and so far the gowns are coming along nicely! Luiza is doing a from drawstring style, much like this extant garment, however not with as such a highly decorated silk. Luiza is also making puffed, short sleeves.
I am making my dress front in the manner the book instructs. We are both using sheer cottons, Luiza’s being a light green and mine an off-white ivory shade. It’s so close to being a brighter shade of white, however, that I didn’t realize it until I had to piece a bit of it with a different cut of white fabric. The difference is quite obvious, so I believe I’ll have to tea dye that piece at some point.
Another project that I’m working on is a 1903 corset, using the Truly Victorian pattern. I’m about halfway through it, with only the boning channels, boning, and grommets to go. The main body of it is assembled, and the busk is basted in, but if need be could serve as the final insertion stitches. I’m making it out of a green coutil that I got in the LA fabric district with a corset in mind, and the boning came from both Burnley & Trowbridge and eBay. The grommets and busk I got from Amazon.
Over the last few days, I was on vacation with my family in San Diego. There was a lot of old buildings and places that we got to see, and it was very interesting. We went to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, which is where a lot of the original buildings in San Diego are. Nearly all face the buildings face unto a plaza, where, according to a guidebook, "was the scene of Catholic processions, horse races, bullfights, fandangos, and military and political activities during the Mexican period." Then, after the war, "the nature of public activities on the plaza changed. Rifle and pistol shooting matches, Fourth of July celebrations, and mule team races reflected on the masculine frontier character."
We visited a few museums that were open, including the original office of the San Diego Union. Apparently, when the building was restored in 1967, they were able to place the original location of the printing press in the building by ink stains that were in the floor and even below the building. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the interiors of the buildings.
The Cosmopolitan Hotel, the bottom story was built by Juan Bandini in 1829 as a family home. Albert Seeley bought the building from Abel Stearns in 1869. Abel Stearns was Bandini's son-in-law. Albert Seeley built the second story and made it into a hotel.
We also went to Balboa Park, where we rode the carousel, which was built in 1910 by the Herchell-Spillmen company in New York. It was hand carved. The signs around the carousel said that the master carvers made the heads, the intermediate ones did the bodies, and the beginners did the legs, which I found very interesting. Then it was shipped to Los Angeles, where in 1915 it resided in Coronado, specifically at the summer resort area called Tent City. The carousel was only moved to Balboa Park in 1922. The merry-go-round also has a brass ring game, which is one of the few carousels that do still have brass rings. I was able to get one iron ring, and my father got three, but only the one brass ring at the end of the line counted for a free ride. It was quite fun though.
The last historic building that we went to was the Hotel Del Coronado, which opened in February of 1888. It's quite well known for it's red roof and white walls. Marilyn Monroe filmed Some Like It Hot there, in 1959.
A map of the grounds.
It was really interesting to see the details of the original building. There was a stained glass window that apparently had hung over a mantle in the lobby, but over the pandemic was restored and re-installed in the building.
As always, thank you for reading! I hope to post regular updates over the summer.
Sincerely,
Ardent Modiste
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