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Sunday, November 22, 2015

Photos from November 21st Lord Craven Colonial Dames Chapter 17th Century Meeting


Guest speaker Darleen Osteen. Her program was on “17th Embroidery.”

Pat Gooding, Vice-President, Darleen Osteen, guest speaker and Ruth-Anne Bolz, President


Lord Craven members having lunch at the Hieronymus restaurant on November 21st in Wilmington, NC.

Photographs taken by Dale Spencer







Thursday, November 19, 2015

Lord Craven Colonial Dames Chapter 17th Century Meeting Scheduled for Saturday, November 21, 2015

Falling collar. England, 17th century


The next Lord Craven meeting will be held on Saturday, November 21, 2015 at Hieronymus, 5035 Market St. Wilmington, NC. The guest speaker will be Darleen Osteen. Her program will be on “17th Embroidery.” The time of the meeting is 11:00. Please bring your Christmas gifts for our Veterans to the meeting on Saturday.


Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Blog Manager Reports Important Information



          Phyllis Wilson, blog manager in her colonial dress.



Child's version of the dress that Phyllis ordered from Kelly's website mentioned below.

This is my 5th year as  manager for the Lord Craven Colonial Dames blog.  I enjoy blogging and hope to interest others in becoming involved with possibly starting their own blog or assisting with the maintenance of our Colonial Dames blog. If you are a committee chairman and would like to submit an article to me and if you don’t have photographs, I might have one that would work or we could get one from a free graphics site on line. Our blog now has “TABS for Easy Reference” in the upper right hand corner of the first page of the blog there is a Home Tab, Program and Events Tab and a Tab for New Officers Sworn in for Lord Craven Chapter. I know many of you belong to several organizations and they all have officers and different dates for meetings. It get rather confusing, so that is why I put the TABS on the blog. Each of the organizations that I belong to and maintain a blog all have TABS. So be sure and visit them. 

I just recently had a colonial dress made with a moppet hat and matching purse. I saw the child's version of the dress on line so I ordered my dress from Kelly's Costumers. Direct Link is: https://www.etsy.com/listing/45591339/wehavecostumes-handmade-historical-civil?ref=related-4. I needed to have chest and waist measurements then, I needed to have someone measure the length from my shoulder to the floor. You might want to ask a friend to measure this for you. I can provide you with additional information about my experience with Kelly the owner who lives in Arkansas and mother of 9 children. Kelly and I communicated directly through the website and texting. She made some changes in the dress for me. She lowered the neckline and added two pockets for me. One is a Velcro pocket on the inside of the dress and the other one is a hidden pocket accessible from the side of the dress. If you have a colonial dress send me a photo of you in it and supply information about where you purchased it from or what pattern did you use. I think this will be a fun addition to our blog.



Ruth-Anne Bolz sent me this photo of ladies in their colonial attire. 
L to R: Carol Jutte, Martha Koletar and Kathy Miller
Carol Jutte is wearing a Revolutionary dress that she made herself from a pattern. Butterick Pattern #3071, Simplicity #3723 and McCall's #9423. (Just as a side note the patterns if purchasing are $16.95 each so ladies may want to barrow mine) They are expensive. 

Martha Koletar purchased her Betsy Ross with flag from website; Amazon.  It came in only one size, but she noticed that there is one for sale at www.costumecraze.com that comes in different sizes. It is Item #TRAD746. As for the dress that Martha is wearing in the photo, it had no bust seams and lacked about 4 inches meeting in the back. It also was too long so she had it hemmed. Martha would advise anyone to get the largest size because these costumes tend to run small.

 Kathy Miller made part of her outfit and purchased other items from website: http://jas-townsend.com/womens-clothing-c-72_2.html  They do have a reenactment catalog and are located in Indiana.


Kathy Miller also made her jacket and apron. Kathy's costume consisted of a chemise, pockets, drawstring skirt, a fitted bodice or short gown, and a straw hat. Dressed in that order all items are historically correct for colonial America and Revolutionary War era. All are 100% cotton, as the only material they had at the time were cotton, wool and silk. No blended fabrics. Also, for that period there were no buttons, or zippersl They used brass pins, hook and eye fasteners, or laces to hold the garments together on women's clothing or as in the skirt twill tape was used. The apron Kathy made had no pattern, but an apron should cover most all of the skirt. All items are handmade in Indiana using authentic fabrics selected from Mr. Townsend himself. Kathy's outfit represents the "common woman". An outfit worn everyday by most women in Colonial times. Missing items from Kathy's outfit would be the stays and authentic stockings and shoes.


Pat Tucker, prospective member in her ball gown


Pat Tucker purchased her exquisite ball gown from a website:
She also purchased many other items to make this outfit

 a real eye catcher. This is a ball gown depicting the style that was prevalent in the colonial period. You will see similar design features in dresses from these times with the contrasting fabric inset in the front and a variation of the bodice facings. The bodice of the dresses were designed to be tight fitting with the skirts attached at the waistline. The fabrics and the more intricate deigns designated where the clothing was to be worn. This dress is a combination of taffeta and velveteen fabric with the gold tulle accents. Hoops were sewn into the petticoats and corsets and pantaloons of some type were worn underneath. The hair was styled high on top of the head, bushed upward off the forehead and some types of curls dangling along the neckline. The hair was adorned with dressings of ribbon, jewels, pearls, feathers and tulle fabrics. Wigs for women were also popular.

Be sure and send me photographs of you in your colonial attire and tell me where you purchased your dress or if you made it please let us know which pattern you used. I also look forward to receiving articles from committee chairs. 

You can e-mail me at par4wilson@gmail.com.