hangin' with the Redcoats

Since we've been loving Old Sturbridge Village's Redcoats and Rebels weekend for years now, you've seen plenty of pics of it before, but here are some highlights from yesterday's event.

Reenactor using a lucet to make a square cord. I've known about lucets, but never tried it and never seen one in action, so this was a fun thing to come upon.

My favorite independent reenactor, proudly wearing the dress she sewed specifically for this event. She started with this Simplicity pattern as a guideline, but modified the heck out of this thing because she had way less fabric, time, and experience than it called for. The pattern talks of boning, lining, bias tape -- all sorts of things Leah had no intention of fussing with, so she just skipped those parts of the instructions and made modifications where necessary. When it became clear that there wouldn't be enough time to finish her crocheted lace collar, she subbed in a fabric one. Cotton fabric and buttons from our stash, "petticoats" from my wedding dress storage box. :-) There's lots of room for improvement, of course, but she is ecstatic with the results and her mind is spinning with more sewing ideas. Given how many times she was stopped along the way at Sturbridge yesterday by people asking if they could take her picture (and given how many people in costume were there, the fact that she was picked out of the crowd so often is truly astounding), she certainly had a lot of encouragement as a result of her efforts!

Reenactors enjoying some shade near the blacksmith's shop while troops and spectators gather in the distance for the big battle.

Jesse with some tired reenactors after the battle, chatting it up about the weapons collections. This guy made his big gun from a kit and, like all enthusiasts, was happy to discuss its finer points as long as there was an interested audience. Jesse spent the early part of the way with the historic miniature gaming group from Boston. He discovered this group at Redcoats and Rebels last year and has since become involved with a group locally, some of whom are also members of the Boston group, so he enjoyed being welcomed back this year as an experienced historic gamer who could help other new folks learn the game.

A new experience for us this year was the comfortable feeling of being a part of it, not just visitors. We know some of the reenactors through the Nathan Hale Homestead and the fiber community, knew the gaming guys from last year and the local group, are recognized by some of the OSV staff because we've been going there forever, and just generally bumped into people we knew all over the place and found ourselves in pleasant conversation with other people everywhere we went. No doubt about it: this is one of our favorite events of the year.

Then we came home and I worked on my secret project, which hit a huge roadblock. I can't bring myself to look at it yet, but will re-evaluate later today and determine course of action. Let's just say that everybody 'round here wisely gave me lots of space by bedtime last night.