The Project

Sorry to have kept everyone in such suspense. No torture was intended, and I'll try to make up for it today with a nice, long post. For those of you who guessed I was making costumes - Bing! You are correct!

Oakland is the sight of the only legal trial in which Lincoln represented a slave owner, and last weekend a wonderful event was held in town commemorating the trial, the people involved, and what seems to have been a turning point in Lincoln's life. The event itself featured first person interpreters at historic locations, a short lecture on Lincoln, an 1847 style meal, and a play about the trial. That's where my part came in, as I was in charge of the costumes.

I wish I could go into the story more (it's really quite fascinating) but since I don't have time to explain it all here, matson1847.blogspot.com has links to articles with some pictures, more about the event and story, and a copy of the article about the costumes.

All of the costumes for the interpreters and actors were rented for this year, except for three 1840s dresses. I made two of them, and Katrina (one of the actresses) made her own. When I had finished the dress pictured above, we discovered that the original beige fabric (what you saw in my last post) was too bright onstage, so . . .

. . . Katrina dyed all the fabric! We were a bit nervous about dying the completed dress, but that and the un-sewn fabric all turned out a lovely shade of grayish lavender - much less conspicuous onstage.

Alaina was my supervisor, attending all the fittings, picking up my fabric scraps, and providing motivation for me to make sure that EVERY SINGLE PIN was present and accounted for in the pincushion and out of reach!

The second dress. Both were great fun to make, and fairly easy, although it took a lot of time. Kyle tried to get me to guess at the number of hours it would take, but I really don't have a clue. I was too busy doing all I could before Alaina woke up to keep track of my time!

Ta da! L-R Katrina Bohn (who made her own dress and dyed all of the fabric), April Lee and Stephanie Borntreger.

The cast at the first dress rehearsal. Once we had everyone's measurements, I got to select all the costumes! That made for a very fun afternoon.

Kyle and I got to attend on Saturday night, but unfortunately, we forgot the camera! :-( I would have loved to post some pictures of the different interpreters and locations. Oh well.

It was a very fun project and well run event!

Over the weekend we also had Keller family over. Ron is a Lincoln scholar and was in town for Trial and Tribulations where he did several presentations on Lincoln. Kyle and Ron used to teach together, and I got to meet the family when they put us up in their lovely home a couple months ago. We had great fun with Cindy and the kids (Ethan, Anna Grace and Josiah).

Alaina was thoroughly entertained the whole time playing with and watching the children. Anna Grace was especially attentive and interested in everything Alaina did.

It was great to have you guys!


There you have it. :-)