Wednesday, April 10, 2013

My Sweet Babboo Sews

The Flute Player left rehearsal last night feeling a little queasy.  Her brother had had a digestive bug over the weekend, but I hoped we were past the incubation period for that and she was just over tired.

No such luck; she got hit hard by the bug about 1:30 this morning.  So she stayed home today and, as she just has chorus parts, she was not absolutely necessary for rehearsal tonight so the director told me to keep her home in hopes of not infecting other cast members.   I haven't gotten sick (so far, anyway), but I hit a wall after pushing so hard to sew and get the data entry from Easter done; I picked up my stack of data entry at work and brought it home when I went out to restock the ginger ale, but I haven't touched it all day.  I'm going to head to bed before 10 PM tonight...and I honestly don't remember the last time I managed that.

So, some photos that have been waiting their turn for posting...that are not about ME sewing at all.  My Sweet Babboo is a recent inductee into Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship, the auxiliary service organization for Royal Rangers, the national boys ministry of the Assembly of God churches.  Our church is not AG, but we do use the curriculum and participate in the gatherings and so he found himself in need of period appropriate gear.

After his first  winter campout, one of the things that moved to the top of his 'need' list was a coat that would keep him warm and also be suitable for a  character from the late 1700's.  The garment of choice is a capote, a coat made from a wool blanket.  He managed to get a suitable blanket from ebay, a pattern from one of the other guys in FCF, and set about hand sewing it together.  I actually offered very little advice; he did this on his own over several weeks...



He used two sinew-threaded needles at a time, criss crossing the stitches on each seam.  Tedious, but correct.  He found that the sleeves were too short and had to improvise a solution  that lengthened them without being visually disruptive and figured out a way to add cuffs to the sleeves.He finished in time to use on last week's campout, which was chilly but not cold, and came back quite pleased.

I think he did well and I'm curious to see how much other sewing he's actually going to do...



7 comments:

  1. A nice job on the blanket coat and doing it by hand is quite an accomplishment. Maybe he'll try the sewing machine next?

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    1. Doubtful...all the period correct garments would've been hand sewn. If he gets machine-made things, I'll likely be making them for him just for the appearance; if he gets into any of the competitions they have, it'll have to be hand sewn and that will be his job! ;-)

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  2. Nice job - gotta love those Hudson Bay blankets, they make very warm coats :-)

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    1. I don't think this one is Hudson Bay; I know for a fact that he didn't pay a Hudson Bay price. I'll have to check the label and find out what it is for sure...

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    2. ...'Trapper Point' is the name on the label. But it's the same style.

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  3. I have a Sweet Babboo in my family too. And thanks for coming to my defence "out there."

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    1. I just caught a glimpse of what you were talking about :-)

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