An Overdue Post....

Hello to all who take the time to read my blog, much forgotten by its authoress for many months. I have been much overdue in my writing & beg your indulgence, as every time I planned to write, some other matter took precedence. I hope over the summer months to be more frequent & post at least once a week, but I am uncertain what will occur, what with graduations for many family & friends taking place over the next two months. I am also in the process of tutoring a fellow homeschooler, a task for which I am both overjoyed & anxious. In the interim of all other things important, I am attempting to create a Civil War wardrobe for summer, for which I have recently purchased five dress lengths of appropriate fabric, at a much lower price than I had hoped (Thank you, God). So, my schedule will hopefully open up for further posts, but I make no promises.







Isn't the above 1860s court dress simply stunning. It would be magnificent as a wedding gown in my opinion. God bless to everyone & have a joyous summer,
Sarah Grace

Wrappers..... Warmth, Function, & Style

For the play that I am costuming for my church I need to make a wrapper for one of the ladies. As I was in search of images, I came across quite a few that really stood out.


I never realized what amazingly loud fabrics they sometimes used for these garments. I love the colors & the fact that even though they provide warm & style, they are also functional & practical. I plan to make one for myself, hopefully soon.



The photos are from both the 1860s & the 1850s, as I found several articles from ladies magazines with simple lovely garments. I hope you all enjoy the photos & are inspired to perhaps make one for yourself.













I am off to do more sewing for the costumes. There is still quite alot to be done & I do have a deadline.

God bless,
Sarah

Thinking of Katharine....

I recently watched one of her movies, "The African Queen" & it got me to thinking about how much I truly admired her as an actress. I know that some people don't like her acting, because they think she is too independent or strong-willed. But I personally can identify with her on some levels, especially the strong-willed (or as my Mom calls it, bull-headedness, LOL)spirit. In my opinion, she was a wonderful actress, a gorgeous woman, intelligent, a very dry, almost satirical sense of humor, someone who knew what she wanted & stuck with it, a woman who cared about others. I have enjoyed every movie I have ever seen her act in, there are few that I don't absolutely love. She was raised in by her parents & her mother was a suffragette, so I am sure her independence stemmed from such. At the age of fourteen she found her brother, whom was to believed have committed suicide in the attic & as a result fell into a state of depression. She eventually came out of her shell. In my opinion, to have overcome such a devastating trama, to be able to have a sense of humor & not let that rule her entire life was something that should be admired. I apologize for the rather long rant. My Grandma was very much like Katharine & I believe that is another reason why I love watching her films. Below are some photos of Katharine.
She even had a pattern in the 1930s designed for her:





"Bringing Up Baby" is one of my absolute favorites, as it also stars Cary Grant & is very comical.


"Stage Door Canteen"


"The African Queen"


This brings a close to my rather long, slightly random post.

God bless,
Sarah Grace

In Search of Warmth

Where I live the weather has decided to become very cold. We are experiencing temperatures that are barely reaching the mid-teens during the day & dropping below 0 at night. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the snow, but I also like the temperature to stay around 20-25 degrees. While thinking about such cold (although for some, I know it probably sounds very mild), I decided to search for photos of firesides that would at least help me imagine that I was warm. I found somely lovely images. The one below caught my eye as it looked like such a loving family.


I just love this one. It reminds me of my German shepherd, Majesty & one of my former cat friends, Spitfire, who unfortunately died last year. They always seemed to get along well.


I then found this painting by Henry Salem Hubbell, which I think is beautiful, & along with it I found two others (although not really about firesides, they do look very warm & inviting). I especially love the colors he used.






We are supposed to be having a snowstorm coming in soon, but I am praying against it, as we have our Easter play auditions coming up this Saturday & we don't need another cancellation. I hope everyone is having a wonderful & blessed January. I thank God for giving us what we have that we so often take for granted, our salvation.

God bless,
Sarah

A Happy New Year & A Belated Merry Christmas!!

I am sorry that again I have fallen behind in my posting. So much has been going on, what with trying to sew the things I was making for Christmas for my family. My camera is out of whack & I have no other means of posting photos that are not already upon my computer. I am still finishing my parents quilt, but soon I hope to have it finished. I have finished writing the Easter play script & will be handing out copies to the cast on Sunday. We will be having auditions next Saturday, hopefully! After auditions, we will be having a celebration of sorts for the cast of our Christmas production for the good job they did & possibly after that begin practicing for the blacklight group signing. Well, I hope everyone had marvelous holidays. Mine were very nice & I am very grateful for my family & friends & for a loving & forgiving God. I leave you with a few winter photos that I found lovely & interesting while doing a search.







God bless to everyone during this lovely & joyous season,
Sarah

Housework.....

I have been so busy the last several nights, what with my church's Christmas play coming up. It finally took place yesterday (Sunday 13), & it turned out beautifully. I hope to be able to post photos soon, but I have to get them from my brother's camera, since I was so involved with directing & taking part in the production that I never had time for photos.

So, now that it is over & life is going back to normal for a few weeks before we begin auditions for the Easter production, I have some housework that needs to be done. While I was doing a few odd & end chores I began thinking about house dresses or work dresses as they are sometimes known. Below I have compiled a few pictures of house dresses from different time periods.



A 1770-1785 workdress & th color combination is very striking.

1799, I could easily imagine myself doing housework in this dress, sans shawl.

A wonderful adaptions of Jane Austen's novel & I simply love this outfit.

1798-1800, a dress that I personally would wear for very messy tasks.

Late 1830s to early 1840s workdress.



A simply georgeous 1860s pinner apron.
1860s cotton plaid workdress.

A very serviceable 1890s apron & the ruffles on the sleeves are fabulous.

A quite basic, but still beautiful 1930s housedress.


Simple, but pretty 1940s shirtwaist dress, a common housedress staple.

Don't you just love the ruffles on the sides of this 1940s housedress?

I personally enjoy most housework & sometimes I am not sure why. Perhaps it is the sense of accomplishment that I feel when I have completed a task. But for whatever reason, I feel blessed that God has seen fit to give me such a satisfaction in such simple things.

God bless to all in your homemaking endeavors,
Sarah.

Many Apologies.....

It has been a month since I last posted anything, but I have been so busy that I haven't even had much time for being on the computer, much less for writing a blog post. I will try in the future to be more constant with my posts, but during the holiday season, I am always so busy, what with Thanksgiving (by the by Happy Quite Belated Thanksgiving!), numerous Christmas parties, making presents for family & friends (which I hope to post photos of), sewing costumes for the upcoming Christmas play at church (which I am helping direct), & teaching American Sign Language to my church group for the Christmas program, I have been a little short on time for anything else.

I recently watched "The Thin Man" starring two of my many favorite 30s-40s actors/actresses, William Powell & Myrna Loy. It is the first in a series of films that are simply fabulous, from the dry satirical humor to the gorgeous clothes, to the plots that keep you guessing, they are a must see. As I was watching the particular film which was made & set in 1934, I had the desire to rummage through my stash of 1930s fashions. Below are just a few of the wonderful creations as well as several photos of William & Myrna:







The above three photos are of William Powell, Myrna Loy, & the terrier that played Asta in the Thin Man series. Below are some of the lovely clothes from the period.













I hope everyone has a wonderful week & that the above photos will inspire you to break out a new project or an abandoned one & enjoy yourself while sewing.

God bless,
Sarah