Quilchena Hotel 1908 Merritt, B.C.
Similar to my Chinese silk jacket in blue
Similar to my favourite old bloomers
Similar to my Chinese silk jacket in blue
Similar to my favourite old bloomersMichelle , my neice, arrived in town last night. I will be running around today building her costume for the Merrit Hotel party later this spring. The Hotel will be one hundred years old
and belongs to her beau's family.
It is a lovely old gold rush and early rancher's hotel that is incredibly well preserved because of care and the dry, desert like climate in Merrit. I used to look in the windows and check out the stuff stored inside. I wanted it. Now Michelle gets to spend time there.
So today I sew late Victorian undies like bustles and bloomers. I'll probably be at it for days!
What could be more fun than drowning in lace and silky things?
When my friend Peter and I were in New York a few years ago I found a table full of these special undies at the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market. The vendor selling them had found them at an old house up the Hudson River. Three sisters had lived in the big, old house and had lived to be extremely old. They had saved everything. They were also quite tiny when young and had collected and saved chemise covers, petticoats and bloomers of all sorts. I have no idea why I didn't buy them all except that I was still sick from cancer medications and not doing well that day. They certainly would have been perfect for the Merrit party!
I wonder if some young woman will find my undies after I am gone and think they are a treasure. They certainly aren't tiny. Some of them are bloomers and some of them are lovely black lace. I just have a hard time imagining people thinking they are precious and delicate in the same way I felt about the old bloomers in New York.
Funny to think about people collecting ancient undies. I have a few old bed jackets, a chemise cover, sleeping bonnets, and an old nightie. I collected old bloomers and wore them for clothing in the late sixties and early seventies. My friends and I also wore old corsets and slips for dresses and lusted after Victorian night gowns. These looked just right with gigantic hand embroidered piano shawls. Or 1930's men's smoking jackets. Mine was black silk and actually had brocade of a disembodied hand holding a smoking cigarette! Or old Chinese silk jackets. Mine was gold silk with jade embroidery. (I gave it to my mother and she gave it to my neice Brie). Dressed up with an old army jacket and army boots of course! Never paid more than $3.00 for anything!
We also collected wedding dresses, old or extreme and re-made them into other garments. The last set was shipped out to Polly's granddaughters and were turned into very gothic gowns for play three years ago.
There is a need to go thrift store shopping again because my tiny neices haven't yet pulled out the trunks and had a dig through. Why not collect some 90's stuff and stuff from the early 2000's for the new crop of children?
In the meantime I indulge Michelle's ancient underwear gene!
and belongs to her beau's family.
It is a lovely old gold rush and early rancher's hotel that is incredibly well preserved because of care and the dry, desert like climate in Merrit. I used to look in the windows and check out the stuff stored inside. I wanted it. Now Michelle gets to spend time there.
So today I sew late Victorian undies like bustles and bloomers. I'll probably be at it for days!
What could be more fun than drowning in lace and silky things?
When my friend Peter and I were in New York a few years ago I found a table full of these special undies at the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market. The vendor selling them had found them at an old house up the Hudson River. Three sisters had lived in the big, old house and had lived to be extremely old. They had saved everything. They were also quite tiny when young and had collected and saved chemise covers, petticoats and bloomers of all sorts. I have no idea why I didn't buy them all except that I was still sick from cancer medications and not doing well that day. They certainly would have been perfect for the Merrit party!
I wonder if some young woman will find my undies after I am gone and think they are a treasure. They certainly aren't tiny. Some of them are bloomers and some of them are lovely black lace. I just have a hard time imagining people thinking they are precious and delicate in the same way I felt about the old bloomers in New York.
Funny to think about people collecting ancient undies. I have a few old bed jackets, a chemise cover, sleeping bonnets, and an old nightie. I collected old bloomers and wore them for clothing in the late sixties and early seventies. My friends and I also wore old corsets and slips for dresses and lusted after Victorian night gowns. These looked just right with gigantic hand embroidered piano shawls. Or 1930's men's smoking jackets. Mine was black silk and actually had brocade of a disembodied hand holding a smoking cigarette! Or old Chinese silk jackets. Mine was gold silk with jade embroidery. (I gave it to my mother and she gave it to my neice Brie). Dressed up with an old army jacket and army boots of course! Never paid more than $3.00 for anything!
We also collected wedding dresses, old or extreme and re-made them into other garments. The last set was shipped out to Polly's granddaughters and were turned into very gothic gowns for play three years ago.
There is a need to go thrift store shopping again because my tiny neices haven't yet pulled out the trunks and had a dig through. Why not collect some 90's stuff and stuff from the early 2000's for the new crop of children?
In the meantime I indulge Michelle's ancient underwear gene!
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