On the odd occasion when I cannot sleep I make mental lists of things we will need. Clothes are preoccupying my mind at the moment, primarily underwear.
I watched the episode of Edwardian Farm again this morning when you see Ruth getting dressed which is really useful. I need to make (probably...ha ha, I cannot make clothes to save my life!) some drawers. Apparently they were often crotchless to make going to the loo easier under layers of petticoats....hmmmm. I can't quite get my head round the concept of crotchless knickers outside of an Anne Summers context! And do I get Hannah to wear crotchless knickers as well???? That just seems so wrong, making crotchless drawers for a small child! In fact when I googled Edwardian children's underwear on my work pc (it *is* for an educational project) it came up blocked as pornography...oops!
Once we sort that out, at least for Hannah it is fairly straight forward, vest, stockings, petticoat, all of which should be easy to make or acquire.
But I need to find a corset somewhere, somehow! It would probably help if I could lose some weight between now and then, whenever then is. If I lost enough, the basque I had for my wedding would fit and although it isn't authentic, it would do, although it needs to fit over a chemise, which women wore under corsets because chemises were easy to wash and corsets were not.
Some intensive googling turned up this site www.cornucopiacostume.com and I have ordered Hannah a girl's underwear set consisting of drawers, chemise and petticoat. I could really use at least 2 of each so I can have one on and one in the wash, but if I have one pair I may be able to get a friend with a sewing machine to run up a couple of extra pairs of drawers. The site also sells chemise and drawers in my size but at £60 the set I am hoping to be able to work something out cheaper. I am sure that a pattern must exist somewhere for drawers and I am planning to ask on our local Freegle site for any old cotton sheets etc and scour charity shops for fabrics. But if we get to the last days and I need stuff, at least this would provide me with undies and a blouse. I have one skirt in my own wardrobe which would work and a petticoat would be easy enough to make.
I have a friend who knits socks so am hoping to commission her to knit us each a pair or more of woollen stockings.
And finally, not at all to do with underwear, but useful, Next have a pair of boots in this season's range which looks exactly like an Edwardian child's lace up boot! Yay. Think I am off to spend the money I have saved so far in Next! Oh I also have hats as the two hats I have bought for weddings over the years, worn once and stuffed in the wardrobe are very Edwardian in style so may as well earn their keep. i can add feathers, fabric and possibly stuffed birds as necessary!
Monday, 27 December 2010
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Books
One of the many lists I am compiling is of reading material for the week. Obviously they have to have been published in or before 1908 and since there will not be the 21st century distractions from reading time it seems to be a good time to read some of those things I've had on my reading list for ages and never got round to, or have started and not finished. So far my list includes:
Vanity Fair (started, never finished)
Ruth by Mrs Gaskell. The reason for this novel rather than the better known Cranford which I've also started and not finished despite liking it is that I noticed today that my mum has it in a World Library edition published in 1906, where most of my books are more modern editions.
Persuasion (for if I discover that even with fewer distractions I still can;t finish the above)
Wind in the Willows for Hannah
Then something E Nesbit. We have read The Phoenix and the Carpet so probably Five Children and It, although I love The Story of the Treasure Seekers which was always my favourite. I don't think The Railway Children will appeal to her.
I will be reading to her, I should think. She can read well, but still gets daunted by pages of dense text. I've never read Wind in the Willows so am looking forward to that.
Vanity Fair (started, never finished)
Ruth by Mrs Gaskell. The reason for this novel rather than the better known Cranford which I've also started and not finished despite liking it is that I noticed today that my mum has it in a World Library edition published in 1906, where most of my books are more modern editions.
Persuasion (for if I discover that even with fewer distractions I still can;t finish the above)
Wind in the Willows for Hannah
Then something E Nesbit. We have read The Phoenix and the Carpet so probably Five Children and It, although I love The Story of the Treasure Seekers which was always my favourite. I don't think The Railway Children will appeal to her.
I will be reading to her, I should think. She can read well, but still gets daunted by pages of dense text. I've never read Wind in the Willows so am looking forward to that.
How it started
A week or so ago Hannah watched Edwardian Farm and decided that she would like to "do that too". Now the farm aspect of it is out of my power to organise, not being a major tv company, but I read a blog recently about a family who had a Georgian house and spent some time living as Georgians so I knew it could be done on that sort of scale. It cannot, however, be done in our home which is a mid-30s terrace. And doing it at home will be boring apparently. So this is the plan. At some point in the future, when we can afford it, we will rent (or borrow) a house from an appropriate period and spend a week living in 1908.
We have chosen 1908 for two reasons, other than that it falls between 1901 and 1910. One is that it was a year in which the WSPU became more active in their campaign for women's suffrage and started chaining themselves to railings, breaking windows etc and of course, if I am going to live in the early years of the 20th century, there can be no doubt that I will be a suffragette.
The other is that Wind in the Willows, which has long been on our "books to read" list was published in 1908 so will be our bedtime (and no doubt other times) reading material for the week.
We are very excited planning what we will need to get and doing a lot of research reading, watching and visiting. First up is probably a visit to the Geffreye Museum http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/period-rooms-and-gardens/explore-rooms/drawing-room-1910/ to have a look at what furniture etc we would have had and although we probably can't replicate this in our project, it will be helpful to know. We are also lucky enough to be near the Museum of Childhood so can look not only at what she would have played with at that time but useful exhibitions like this http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/whats_on/exhibitions_and_displays/food_glorious_food/index.html.
We already have a couple of books from the library and are compiling lists of clothes (arrghhh, corsets!!!), toys (teddy bear, board games, hoop, paper theatre), food etc that we will need. I'm planning to use this blog to help with the planning and (after the event obviously...no internet in 1908!!!) will post the diary of our week in the past.
We have chosen 1908 for two reasons, other than that it falls between 1901 and 1910. One is that it was a year in which the WSPU became more active in their campaign for women's suffrage and started chaining themselves to railings, breaking windows etc and of course, if I am going to live in the early years of the 20th century, there can be no doubt that I will be a suffragette.
The other is that Wind in the Willows, which has long been on our "books to read" list was published in 1908 so will be our bedtime (and no doubt other times) reading material for the week.
We are very excited planning what we will need to get and doing a lot of research reading, watching and visiting. First up is probably a visit to the Geffreye Museum http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/period-rooms-and-gardens/explore-rooms/drawing-room-1910/ to have a look at what furniture etc we would have had and although we probably can't replicate this in our project, it will be helpful to know. We are also lucky enough to be near the Museum of Childhood so can look not only at what she would have played with at that time but useful exhibitions like this http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/whats_on/exhibitions_and_displays/food_glorious_food/index.html.
We already have a couple of books from the library and are compiling lists of clothes (arrghhh, corsets!!!), toys (teddy bear, board games, hoop, paper theatre), food etc that we will need. I'm planning to use this blog to help with the planning and (after the event obviously...no internet in 1908!!!) will post the diary of our week in the past.
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