Month: August 2024

Everything is changing so fast.

Most everyone today has heard the above phrase. At times if feels like it comes from the older generation more than the younger.

But wait a minute — this “older generation” you refer too lived through great changes. Computers were developed. Jet airplanes went into wide use. Fabrics changed from natural fiber to wash & wear blends to knits predominating over woven for everyday use. Cars are safer. Household appliances are smarter (at times too complicated). Yes, the second half of the 20th century demonstrated great technology change.

But what about previous generations and eras? Great changes happened during the middle decades of the 19-century also.

In the 1850’s households were glad for the technology change from fireplace to stove. Cooking was easier – you needed flat bottom kettles and pans — a change from three-legged cast iron pots. But the heat was more even and easier to control. The same with warming the room — a stove brought more heat to a larger portion of the room. And another bonus — a stove used approximately one-third the wood of a fireplace.

Polly Black (and the other women) in fictional Elm Ridge, Illinois often had a soup or stew simmering on the stove for the evening meal. Also on the stove would be a teakettle — not only for brewing a warm drink — but a bit of hot water for the wash basin or to clean the dishes.

Learn Polly’s story in the sweet, historical romance, Stitching a Dream. The book is available at all the popular on-line retailers as ebook or print.

This link takes you to Kindle: https://amzn.to/3VwoeFh

Perhaps you heard your grandmother refer to the mending basket. Or sewing basket. Or darning basket.

In many mid-19th century households, this would have been a literal basket — not the toffee tin, cigar box, or shoebox of my childhood.

After the workday, and time spend on orders for the shop, Polly Black, a seamstress, also had household mending waiting for her needle and thread. A garment or two would require new buttons. A small tear needed to be mended. A stocking waited to be darned.

A household of one adult and one child (almost as small as a household could be in 1851) continued to have items to mend. Polly put other things in her generous sewing basket also — including a storybook saved as a surprised.

What sort of tales do you think a young boy enjoyed in 1850’s Illinois?

Check out Stitching a Dream, a sweet historical romance, for one answer to this and many other questions. Here’s a link to the Kindle edition: https://amzn.to/3VwoeFh

and then you press.

No matter the century, the sewing of a fine seam was followed by pressing the fabric flat.

In the mid-to-late 20th century (when I did most of my sewing) this involved setting up the ironing board and plugging in the iron to heat. If it was a steam iron a small amount of either distilled or tap water was added.

Seams were pressed either open or to lie in the proper direction to give the garment the proper shape.

A century earlier — actually until electricity came to a home — the task was more complicated.

Irons, yes they were often cast iron, were heated on your wood or coal-burning stove. You pressed your seams while the iron was warm. When it cooled, you returned it to the stove. Perhaps you grabbed a second one which was ready to go. They even made detachable handles so you could have two or three actual irons and one comfortable wood and metal handle.

One of the irons in the photo above would have held hot coals instead of only the heat from sitting on the flat stovetop.

Polly, the seamstress in the sweet historical romance, Stitching a Dream, may have used irons similar to these. No wash-n-wear fabric blends in 1851. Find her adventure, without hot irons, click on this link: https://amzn.to/3VwoeFh

Put on your shoes, or slippers, or boots. Hurry now, we’ve no time to waste.

Can’t tell your left from your right? No problem if you lived in the early or mid-19th century. These were decades when the shoemaker (or cordwainer) used a straight last to shape the shoe. Left and right were identical when new. Only after you had worn them many weeks, consistently putting the same one of the left (and the opposite on the right) did the shoe shape a little to your unique foot.

Step into the past and absorb the sights, sounds, and scents of the shoemaker’s shop. Do you smell leather? Glue? Are the awls and knives stored to keep them sharp? How many lasts are hanging on the wall?

Kurt Tafel moves from Pennsylvania to Illinois to set up his own shoemaking and cobbler shop. He both made new shoes and repaired those in need of new heels, soles, or stitching. To discover what he finds after arriving in fictional Elm Ridge during the autumn of 1851, check out the sweet historical romance, Stitching a Dream.

This link will connect you with the Kindle edition: https://amzn.to/3VwoeFh