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A two month sewing
spree culminated in finishing enough pieces for the cast and
guide to be fully clothed for their first performance at
Salem's Pioneer Village on June 2, 2007. For information
about the village, visit Salem Preservation, Inc., the
current leaseholder, and learn more about their preservation
efforts to bring life back into the village. For additional
information about History Alive!, the professional acting
department at Gordon College, please visit their site.
Salem Preservation,
Inc.
www.salempreservation.org
Gordon College
www.gordon.edu/historyalive
The following pictures
will highlight the clothing of the actors & guides as seen
during their opening day performance on June 2. At the left,
is Nick, our tour guide for the two hour tour. The buildings
of Pioneer Village can be seen in the background. |
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Nick is wearing a
claret colored wool doublet laced with a woven grey tape.
One of the more fashionable ensembles, his sleeves and
the back of his doublet are split open to reveal his fine
white linen shirt beneath. His breeches are of matching
claret colored wool and are tied closed below the knee with
the same grey tape used for lace on the doublet. Both the
breeches & doublet close with hooks & eyes.
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| Here is Tori, portraying a servant
of a widow in town. She is washing herbs in the spring in
preparation for the next meal.
Her boned jacket and plain petticoat
reflect her lower social status as compared to some of the
others in the village. Both are wool and the petticoat
fabric was hand-dyed to achieve that shade of blue. The
petticoat is cartridge pleated to a waistband, which closes
with hooks & eyes. Her jacket has a lacing placket on the
inside and uses hooks & eyes to close the outer layer. The
hem of the jacket and the ends of the sleeves are also bound
with brown woolen tape. The sleeves tie shut below the
elbow. The jacket construction is very interesting - only
four main body pieces (2 front, 2 back) but an additional
seven gores were handsewn in place at the |
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lower edges to give
enough fullness to fit nicely over the hips. This is
one of my
favorite pieces. Next you can see Trisha, another villager - a rather
simple girl
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among the townsfolk. She is wearing a
plain grey woolen jacket and matching
petticoat. Her jacket bodice is boned
and laces closed at the back. Her wider
cut neckline & deep center front are
based upon examples from the early
1640s. |
| Black woolen
tape is used for lacing trim along the
front seams as well as outlining the hem
of her jacket skirts and sleeves.
All of the
garments, except petticoats, are fully lined and the
majority of the stitching was done by
hand. A few interior seams were done by
machine but due to the construction
methods required for clothing of this
period, even many of the hidden seams
were done by hand out of necessity.
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Trisha's
clothing was also made of hand-dyed wool. The wool
was a natural cream color to start with and was dyed
until reaching the soft grey that you see in the
images. The dyeing and drying of the wool was one of
the longest steps in the process. With all the wet
weather we've had - some of the fabrics took nearly
4 days to dry!
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Her simple ways (and too
much whispering) having gotten her into a spot of
trouble, Trisha's character was forced to wear a
slate round her neck which described her behavior.
David, portraying the
minister of the village, looks on with her as the
others continue their games. David's clothing is
identical to Nick's in style and cut, but is made of
somber black wool as befitting his station. His
doublet and breeches have no fashionable slashing
and he even wears black stockings to maintain his
dignified appearance. Once again, his breeches and
doublet close with hooks and eyes. The legs of the breeches close with black
woven tape that has been stitched to the hem and
left loose to tie at the outside of the leg.
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| The minister's
falling bands were the only the accessory piece that
was made for the program. Made of lightweight white
linen for the neck band and exquisitely fine white
linen for the falling bands - this piece sports some
fine handsewn details. And better yet, it provides
the perfect finish to the minister's ensemble.
I should mention that while
this page is focusing on the clothing - the
entire program was absolutely captivating! When we
arrived (Audrey was nice enough to join me for the
afternoon outing) we had some time to walk about the
village before the tour began. We then returned to
the entrance for the 1:30 tour to begin. Nick did a
fabulous job setting the scene for both what we
would be seeing staged by the actors, as well as the
history of both the museum and the town of Salem
itself. I was most impressed by his professionalism
and his knowledge - not to mention his willingness
to wear funny clothes while sharing it!
And the actors themselves -
I can't say enough good things! The tour we were on
lasted about two hours and although the first 20
minutes or so was Nick speaking with us - the
remaining time was well used by the others. Their
engaging stories wound around the tour and did a
great job of involving the gathered visitors. I
hadn't been sure what to expect in terms of theatre
vs. living history - but I think they nailed it
perfectly! In many cases I was left wondering if
something I had just seen or heard was scripted or
just improvised. The actors played the roles
perfectly - but more than that, they truly captured
the spirit of Salem village life in 1640. The
village will be open again the first Saturday of
July, August & September - and I highly recommend it
to anyone who can make the visit!
But back to the costumes.... |
| This is Liz, who was
portraying a widow in the town. Her mission seemed
to be to find a proper wife for her son - much to
the disappointment of a few of the girls in town who
might be considered less than proper candidates!
In any case, Liz's clothing was
comprised of three separate pieces: a boned jacket
with tabs, open petticoat and under petticoat. Her
boned jacket laces closed at the center back and is
made up of a beautiful navy woolen with a soft hand.
An open petticoat of matching wool hooks to the
jacket to keep it in place. Her black under
petticoat in this case was borrowed, a grey one will
complete the ensemble. Her sleeves are full length,
and have the characteristic fullness at the back of
the arm, tapering down to the wrist. Both cartridge
and knife pleats were in use during this period but
knife pleats were chosen for this ensemble. All of
the petticoats made for this program were cartridge
pleated before being attached to their waistbands.
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The constable character was played by Joseph, seen
in the image below. As an older member of the
village, his clothing is more typical of a slightly
earlier period. Made from deep brown wool, his
doublet has a high waist and deep basques, or
skirts. Epaulettes were added at the top of each
sleeve and the doublet bears a standing collar that
is shorter than that worn by the other men. |
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Like the others, his
doublet also closes with hooks and eyes. His
breeches are much fuller, again this in keeping with
a more old-fashioned style. They close below the
knee with a hook and eye on the outside of each leg.
Because of the high-waisted style of this doublet,
the breeches also hook to the inside of the doublet
to help keep everything looking neat. This also
prevents the shirt from peaking out at near the
waist. This was the
only photograph that I was able to take of Joseph -
so there are a few others in the background as a
result. As a kudos to the program, (and hopefully
history museums in general) the two young girls in
modern dress couldn't get enough of the village and
its villagers... even after three hours! |
And last, but certainly not least, is Anne -
portraying a vain young woman of Salem who is trying
to repent and be welcomed more openly to the town
and church. She wears a woolen gown of lavender with
a matching petticoat worn beneath. This is another
wool that was hand-dyed to achieve just the right
color. |
| Her gown laces up the
center front and the entire bodice is boned to
provide the proper silhouette of the period. For
reasons of cost, as well as ease of care and
cleaning, plastic boning was used for the boned
jackets and bodices.
Her gown has very full sleeves that are shaped by
pleats at the back of the shoulder and again at the
lower edge. A wide band forms a cuff at the lower
end of the sleeve, larger than her arm and typical
of the period. Her bodice style is similar to
Trisha's jacket and is in keeping with a 1640
silhouette. Gowns were less common than jackets, but
were in use in the colonies at the time. I'm hoping
to do more research into probate inventories of the
time... but that's one of many things on my to-do
list! |
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| A wide band of
lilac colored silk is tied around her waist with a
rosette formed to the side. This is another nod to
fashionable styles and the vanity of the character
being portrayed. And
that sums up the costumes used for the Folkways
program at Pioneer Village. There are three more
ensembles, two male and one female that will be used
at a later date. A few have yet to be finished
but will wrapped up over the next week. In addition,
all of the women will be receiving new shifts as
well, so there will be some changes to the necklines
of the clothing. Here is one final picture, taken at
the dress rehearsal the evening before, of all the
cast members except for Anne. The village
people look great, wouldn't you say?
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