Hi Ho, Hi Ho, a Thrifting I Will Go!

Because reenacting can be (ummm, IS) a very expensive hobby, I spend a great deal of time trying to be thrifty and creative to improvise and recreate as much as I can.  I am an omnivorous thrifter - I look for soft items such as clothing that I can use as is, primarily gloves, or cut up for the fabric and for hard items such as boxes and kitchen items.  Thrifting is a game of patience and skill.  Sometimes I leave stores empty handed and sometimes, like this last trip, I leave overflowing!  You need a trained eye to know what to look for so you can recognize appropriate materials and shapes.

My shopping trip yesterday resulted in an impressive haul.  First was this 2-qt salt-glazed crock.  Antique crocks are available at times, but the glazes you have to be careful with the glazes to be sure there is no lead.   The glaze can be tested with a lead-testing kit from the hardware store, but that's a different story.  In many cases, it's easier and safer to use a modern crock.

The crock has a Thanksgiving theme painted on it by the manufacturer.  A quick discreet check showed that the decorations were not under the glaze and so were removable.  I spent last night scraping and cleaning and wound up with a plain crock, totally usable for my Civil War kitchen foodstuffs.


Next was a large roll of heavy weight blue and white ticking.  Utility fabrics have gone up in price substantially in recent years, so I was happy to find it.  The width on this roll was the full 58", making is useful for a number of applications.  High on the list of possibilities is a new mattress ticking for my bed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Mid-Nineteenth Century Lady's Nightcap

Image
I decided I needed a lady's nightcap.  Not a fancy ornamental day cap, but a practical one that could stand washing, ironing, and wearing.  My criteria were that it be historically accurate,  that it would cover my ears and keep me warm, and that it not twist around or fall off while I was sleeping.  I sleep cold; when we camp out at a reenactment, I will wear a knit cap to sleep during the cold weather.  At the end of March we are going to participate in an immersion event, which is where everything must be as accurate as possible at all times, 24/7 (or in this case, 24/3).  We will be staying in an antique log cabin, so there is no heating other than the fireplace.  It's been a cold, windy winter with an over abundance of snow, so I wanted to make sure I stayed warm at night. In July 1859, Peterson's Magazine  (akin to Good Housekeeping or Better Homes and Gardens ) published a pattern for a lady's nightcap.  A number of reenactors have made it up and there
Read more
Image
Chocolate Cream Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #2 - Culinary Vices! The Challenge :   Culinary Vices (January 15 - January 28)   Some foods are really, really naughty. Globs of butter, lashings of sugar and syrup, decadent chocolate and wine. Bring out your naughty, indecorous side with foods associated with all the bad things, in the best ways. Being a child of the twentieth century, I know what I consider to be decadent (chocolate!  whipped cream!  rich creaminess!) and being a student of the nineteenth century, I know that my tastes do not necessarily align with theirs.  Many of their desserts are not as sweet and naturally, few rely on refrigeration - I do qualify "few," because there are desserts, such as ice cream, which require chilling. Boiled puddings there are aplenty on both shores of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as cakes like our fruit and pound cakes.   Mrs. Isabella Beeton That type of dessert didn't strike me as decadent.  I needed
Read more

Oiled Linen

Image
So, why would you want to make oiled linen? At reenactments I usually portray the president of a local Soldiers' Aid Society. I like bringing a display to engage the spectators and help them understand some of the items that were collected and sent to the armies. I also find that I learn a lot when I research and then recreate period items. The Annual Report, Issues 1-4, of the U.S. Christian Commission issues directions for packing supplies to be shipped. It mentions, "Stone jars of jellies should be corked and firmly bound with oiled linen or leather over the cork...." The Kentucky Housewife , by Lettice Byran, a cookbook published in 1839 suggests that many jars of food, especially pickles, be covered with leather. While I had already used leather as a cover for many of my jars, I wanted to add oiled linen for variety. First, I had to make oiled linen. Researching oiled linen, I learned that it was used in window panes as a substitute for glass, as an early umbrell
Read more