The corded petticoat and the horrible workdress

First, my brand new corded petticoat.  It's ~94 inches in circumference. 

 Made from cotton with cotton crochet cord.

Next, the work dress.  The lady who makes the dresses charges $150 for a dress with no back stitching anywhere on the whole thing.  My sleeve has come undone, but I really don't feel like fixing it.

 Complete with odd wrinkles in the back because it doesn't fit properly, not to mention the back is about two inches lower at the waistline than the front.

 The front, with really ugly darts to "shape" the bodice.

 The super flimsy skirt with no petticoats or anything

 The skirt with my new petticoat under it.

 And a third version with a flounced petticoat over the corded one

Below you can see the weird tilt of the waistline that makes the dress rather unflattering.  Just imagine it with the apron we're all required to wear.  Ugh.

Sacky looking I think.

And now you've all shared the horrors that are the dresses made for the state park.  The best part, the woman's little page on the the official park website states that they are "1870s Pioneer Dresses."  Last I checked the heyday of the "pioneer" age was more 18302-40s.  Fortunately I have started patterning my dress and and will be doing a bodice mock up soon.  Really makes me sad that this woman makes so much money making such shoddy examples of women's clothing.

Finalized dress plan!

So excited right now, the dress design got approved by the boss ladies today.  I'll be making this dress found here but adding sleeves similar to this dress (minus the pagoda sleeves).  As of now the plan is to go with a white cotton with a small floral print.  More specifics when I get the actual fabric shopping done.

There will also be a new petticoat to go with it and a nice collar too.

History FAIL

I made one today and I felt horrible.  Since I do not have appropriate footwear for 1852 I've been wearing a pair of little ballet flats (hey better than tennis shoes, right?).  Well today I was in such a rush to get going at work that I didn't bother to roll up my pants, put on a petticoat, and I forgot my shoes.  I felt bad none-the-less though.  Mostly because last weekend when I was sitting on a rock reading I was snickering into my book about a few women that only half-assed their outfits. Fortunately I'm getting enough hours now that I can actually continue on with making an appropriate outfit for work.

Which brings me to the real point of writing this.  Has anyone ever seen photos of or heard of a work dress for 1850-52 that had short sleeves?  I'm trying to be as accurate as possible and still maintain the ease of being able to do my job.

Some thoughts from a disgruntled young person

Today's economy is horrible.  I know we all already knew that, but I felt the need to say it again.  It's like there is no hope for young recent college graduates to find jobs that will provide for them in the future.  I know for me personally, if I knew now what I didn't as a high school senior I would have done things very different.  It does not matter if you went to college and got a degree of any kind unless it's something you can use.  I got a BA in History with the intention of someday teaching.  Not going to happen since they're firing teachers, not hiring them.

What got me even more is this.  I thought long and hard about what I could do to remedy the situation that I had no career.  I was working at the same job I was in high school and for the same wages.  Then I got a new job (which I still love) but am earning even less per week there than I did at the one I did in high school.  So I thought, hey, I'll go back and get an AA in business admin or an accounting certificate or something useful.  Nope.

Thwarted at every turn.  Come to find out there is no financial aid available to students seeking such a degree as I wanted to if you have already earned the illusive BA in (insert useless subject here) that provides you with no career/job prospects.  Isn't that cheerful?  I could possibly take out loans, but that doesn't help my current situation.  I'd have to pay out of pocket to take classes to get another piece of paper to possibly have a snowball's chance in hell for a career that might pay the bills.  The whole reason I wanted to go back to school was so I could get a job that did pay money since I am lacking that.  Come to find out you have to have money to do that, which is a self perpetuating cycle of fail for me.

I'm stuck.  I try to do something to better my chances in life and I'm blocked.  I'm not allowed to because I'm a broke college graduate with no career and no real chance of using the BA in History that I worked so hard for and paid so much for.  Maybe the FAFSA website should have a disclaimer to new college students: BE VERY SELECTIVE ABOUT WHAT SUBJECT YOU STUDY.  You will only get one chance and if you screw up then nobody cares.

Wish somebody had told me that.  It seems to me that we're setting some of the brightest young minds in the country up for failure because they chose to educate themselves about a subject they were interested in rather than one that would make them money.  So if everyone stops doing that will we forget our history?

Nice to know that education has become so restricted.

List of house things. lots of work ahead

Long-term plans
KITCHEN:
- Add yellow and white ceramic tile to counter tops and a back-splash to replace cheap OSH from 1990s remodel
- Embroider white linen curtains in yellow thread as a keepsake
- Redo the tile on the floor in either black or white.   completed April 2013
- New refrigerator in a vintage style that actually matches
- Acquire 1950s cooking implements (all Foley brand if possible with red wooden handles)
- Add Drawer pulls for cabinets and drawers       completed May 2011

BEDROOM
- Replace windows so they're not broken
- carpet
- new closet doors and organization system for closet

BATHROOM
- Remove plastic shower insert and retile in ceramic tile
- Redo flooring
- Remove counters and replace with pedestal sink, shelves, and tall cabinet piece
- Remove door to "closet" and replace with wall like it originally was
- Install a ventilation system
- Replace the window so it won't be rotten

SPARE BEDROOM
- Remove the wardrobe that was added in 1990s remodel
- Knock down the wall to gain access to the original closet

LIVING ROOM
- Recarpet
- Remove WalMart particle board bookshelves and replace with permanent wood ones that are attached to the wall (floor to ceiling)
- Arrange Mark's stereo stuff on the other wall
- Replace the window with better glass and weather stripping
- Replace door with a  new one so you can't see daylight around the perimeter

1852 dress decision

Very exciting news, I've picked a dress design finally.  I opted for a fashion plate (and I was bad and didn't get the site it was from :( so if you know, please share with me so I can properly credit that).  My hope is that it will start a sensation first at the Mercantile and then throughout the entire female employee mass at Columbia State Park to get away from cookie cutter dresses with pinned on aprons.

Thanks to one little facebook comment from  my friend Jenna, I'll be making the gold dress.  As of now the plan is to do the chemisette and false  undersleeves along with a new petticoat.  I'm going to do all the scalloping on the flounces, but edge them in a solid colored fabric.  I'm not sure on the overall dress color yet.  I still like the idea of using a white calico with little purple flowers; it's light and summery and still fits in with the whole "women in gold rush California all wore calico gowns because the fabric was cheap."  I'm just hoping that I won't have to make an apron for it to cover the front of the dress up.  We shall see though.  The boss ladies didn't have a problem with me not originally wearing one,  it was just a co-worker that did.

So the chemisette....I'm going to use style G from Janet Arnold (page 51) and do my own crochet pattern whne I get a chance.  The only difference is that I'll be adding little buttons  up the front.

And now I'm off to the garage to root through my fabric tubs to find enough white muslin to get this thing going.

A sure fire way

Just thought I'd share this little thought with everyone out there, specifically my fellow cavalier owners.

Recently I thought it'd be fun to get a second pup and possible get into showing them and one day breeding them.  Having toyed around with the idea for a few months, I was surprised to learn that the breeder I got Charlie from had taken her latest litter to the pet shop (also where I bought Charlie).  Our local pet shop is really nice and despite the hubbub about not buying dogs at petshops I still think they're okay.  They only sell local dogs so that they do meet the breeder and see the parents of the dogs, I know that's not stopping puppy mills though and well on withe point...

When I bought Charlie there I knew what I was getting into and I knew the stigmas.  To my surprise though, the pedigree I received when I bought Charlie (though not AKC) was surprisingly thorough and contained a number of respectable kennel names.  Most people that get a dog at a pet shop would probably put the pedigree away and never think of it again.  I had to keep picking though.  I wanted to know more.

Then once the idea of breeding popped up again, I needed to know more.  3/4 of Charlie's grandparents are AKC dogs.  They have numbers and all that checks out (granted I have not talked to those breeders).  Charlie's parents, however, are not AKC dogs.  I was confused.  In the instance of his father, how could two AKC dogs produce a dog that is not AKC?  I'm sure there are a number of ways, the most reasonable being that the littler that Charlie's sire (Tango of the Sierras) was in was never registered.  But again, why?  If he's eligable to be registered, why not do it?  Then I started thinking...what if the grandparents were sold as limited registration and never supposed to have been bred?  That would explain the problem about why the grandparents are AKC and the parents are not.

So I emailed the breeder that sold Charlie and his litter to the pet shop.  No response.  It's been several days now, and she's a local person.  My fiance has seen her driving around town.  In the email I had posed the same questions to her: why are his parents not registered?

The fact that she had not responded seems odd to me.  As a breeder that supposidly loves her dogs, shouldn't she be interested in the offspring?  Shouldn't she also be receptive to questions?  We even ran into her on one trip to the pet shop when we had Charlie with us.  We introduced ourselves and she seemed very disinterested, almost to the point of wanting to get away as quickly as possible.  It just seems odd.

Needless to say, I'm going to assume my assumptions about the pedigree are correct since she has chosen not to answer my questions.  I've also decided that I will be buying my next puppy from a breeder that is affiliated with the AKC.  It does not mean that Charlie is a bad dog or a waste of money though.  I won't be breeding him, but that means he's exactly what I bought him for: a lovable pet and good friend.

So I guess, breeders beware.  If you do not want to appear as though you have done something unscrupulous, perhaps there should be transparency of actions and an active dialogue between yourself and those who purchase puppies from you.  There comes a point where information such as lineage ceases to be private and can also be considered the property of those who buy from you since they too own a piece of that lineage.