After several weeks of online discussion, I've decided to address this here on my blog. It is hotly debated in the Laura Ingalls Wilder (LIW) communities and I have remained teetering on the edge since I first heard about it. As a long time Laura fan, her books bring a lot of nostalgia for me. I felt conflicted because I wouldn't want to see parents and teachers banning these books. They are beautiful books and they truly are a product of the time they were written in. Stories about self-reliance, hard work, the importance of family, and yes, unfortunately, colonization. But we can love and adore the Little House books while addressing the many problematic parts of them. 

Taking LIW's name off of the award does not erase the history. This is the slippery slope argument: "If we take LIW's name off of a literary award are we blemishing her legacy and erasing her work from history? What's next?" LIW is a beloved author of many, many Americans. Taking her name off of one award isn't banning us from reading them. It isn't banning us from loving them just as we always do. It's reminding us that those are dated ideas and we should not be turning a blind eye to the fact that they existed and continued to exist. If we ignore them it allows for them to be perpetuated.

The ALSC says:
        "We acknowledge that Wilder’s books not only hold a significant place in the history of children’s literature and continue to be read today, but that they have been and continue to be deeply meaningful to many readers on a personal level. We also acknowledge that they have been deeply painful to many readers, and have been across decades alongside their popularity. Both of these things are true. Neither the option to rename the award nor the option to sunset the award and establish a new award demands that anyone change their personal relationship with or feelings about Wilder’s books."

The award itself is a stamp of recognition. It is impossible to print a disclaimer on every book which holds the stamp. While taking LIW's name off of it gives many of us a knee-jerk reaction it's also the beginning of a conversation. From here we can discuss how to present them to children going forward. The books should serve as a platform for conversation as well as a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining read.

I recently found THIS clip about dealing with racism in the books we love. Grace Lin says that we should treat these books like a racist relative. They aren't right, but we still love them. She says we should be keeping an ear out so that we can address the racism when it comes up, with children and with ourselves. I encourage you to watch the video yourself. She puts it clearly and beautifully in an easily approachable way. 
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I am sad to see Laura's name removed from the award. I love her dearly and it's hard to think about the complexities of something I love so much. That being said, I don't think it is wrong. As scholars of LIW we must step back and be willing to see the big picture. An 80+ year old book is going to be dated. Just look around and see how far we've come in science, law, and technology since the 1930s. The world has changed immensely, so it makes sense that the common idea of what is right and wrong has changed as well. We can still love and appreciate LIW's stories without ignoring the fact that they are racist.

       Last Monday (March 19th) I became Laura Ingalls for a half hour. I've been working on this project for almost a year now, but I feel like I've been working on it since I picked up the first Little House book. It was as if all my years of reading and studying this subject finally were coming together. And I was terrified. 
       I chose to perform for my homeschool co-op. This is a group of people who have known me for many years. In some ways this was great. It was all people who knew me very well and weren't going to be annoyed or unsupportive if I messed up. But it also made me more nervous because I knew every person in the room. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to stay in character when I looked at one of my friends, a parent, or a kid. Truthfully though, most of my worries were in the buildup. I'd put so much work into my costume and my research and now my vision was finally becoming real.
        So here are a few things I learned:

1. ​​Speak slooooowly - I already knew this, of course, but I still got nervous and sped up. When I slow down though, it gives me time to think about what I want to say and it gives the audience time to take in the information.
2. Choose the moments that will make the audience relate to you - There are always the little things that people find funny. I have learned this while giving tours at Storrowton Village. Always tell the funny stories! People love them, and it keeps them paying attention. Funny facts and emotional stories will always stick with the audience longer than names and dates. 
3. Remember the audience is hearing your story for the first time - I've listened to DOZENS of people tell me the same facts about the Ingalls family over and over again. I treat some information as "stuff everyone knows" but when dealing with a mixed audience, it's important to mention the little details. Things like how many sisters Laura had or the names of her parents. These are important details that can easily fall by the wayside!
4. Let people ask you questions in character - I decided to break character before I asked for questions. This was a mistake, I found out, because people didn't want to break character! They continued to ask me questions as Laura, so I would switch from answering in first person to answering as my 21st century self. I would have preferred to answer in first person and used that time to slowly break character rather than doing it bluntly by suddenly changing personas. 

       Those were the main things I learned. Overall, I was thrilled with how it went. I learned so many things that I cannot wait to apply to my next performance. I loved having an audience of many ages. The kids were so fun to talk to in character and the adults asked some really interesting questions that I was excited to talk about. I finished my presentation feeling confident and accomplished, which was really the best I could have asked for. I have so much more to learn and I am very excited go forth with this project. 

--Rosalie

      My 1880s dress is complete!!! (See part one here) After I finished the mockup of the bodice, the process was rather straight forward. I cut the pieces out of my fabric, flatlined them, and sewed them all together. After I put the pieces together, I left it alone until I could finish the skirt. That way I could be sure that the bodice would fit over the skirt properly.

        I cut out all the skirt pieces and sewed them together. It was pretty simple, almost all straight lines of sewing. The overskirt was the same, although the front draping was a little confusing at first. They are two different pieces, so they are put on separate.

       After finishing the skirt (I left the hemming and adding ruffles until the end), I tried the whole thing on. My bodice didn't have sleeves yet, which made it easier to figure out where the bottom should lay. After I pinned it at my waist, I took it off and added the boning. My pattern didn't have instructions to add boning, but I decided to add it after doing some research. Most bodices from the time period were boned, and I know what a huge difference it makes in fit. I wanted to have a perfect fit for my bodice, that was my main goal. Nothing bothers me more than a victorian bodice with too much room (or the wrong shape)! So I ended up hunting the internet for what sort of boning would be best. I finally settled on German plastic boning, also called "artificial whalebone." (I was convinced mostly by this post) I used some leftover twill tape as boning channels and sewed it to my seam allowance. I will NOT be using twill tape again for boning. I forgot how much that stuff frays! Plus, it's too thick and too wide. My boning was floating around in it's channels and I had to add flossing, which I'm terrible at. Needless to say, the inside of this bodice it not pretty. 

        Next I added the collar and sleeves. the collar came out beautifully and the sleeves were not half bad either. I don't have a pressboard for sleeves, so that made them a good deal more challenging. 

       I did all my buttonholes by hand. It definitely took a lot longer, but I would have felt like a terrible cheater if I'd done them by machine. My buttonholes definitely need practice, the first few ones were very messy, but they all came out functional in the end. :)

Finally I sewed on the buttons, finished off the sleeves, and added the ruffles. It was complete!!!! I kind of can't believe it. I've been planning this dress for about a year now and it's finally done. I figured I only spent about 20-25 hours on it total. The sewing was all pretty straight forward, the bodice was definitely most challenging and took up over half of my total time spent on the project. That was mostly all the fitting and handwork I had to do on it though. Overall, it was an immensely fun project and I'm already dreaming up what I'm going to make next. ;)

I have always been daunted by historical dress making. The moment I start considering dress construction, the perfectionist part of my brain chimes in and all of the sudden I find myself trying to find a way to make the PERFECT dress. Perfect seams, absolutely 100% historically accurate, exact fit, etc. etc. But, alas, this is not possible. I do not live in the 19th century, therefore I can never create the real thing. Still, I try to hold up to historical accuracy as much as I can. Perfect fit and seams will come with practice and patience (which I sometimes lack). 

I chose a pattern from Past Patterns. #905, #906, #907, three piece ensemble circa 1883-1884. It's basic, no frills and lace, just a simple ruffle in a few spots. 

So that wasn't too hard, but then I got stuck on fabric. I found a really lovely print on Reproduction Fabrics. I emailed Reproduction fabrics and they told me they decided to stop carrying it and gave me the manufacturer number. I googled it and found the exact fabric on a quilting website. 

I adore the pink clover against the brown. Clover is one of my favorite summertime flowers. Plus, I feel like Laura would love this fabric. It's simple and practical, but so beautiful. I love it. 

I did a mockup, which took me longer than I expected. It was difficult to reach behind me to smooth and fit the fabric. I traced the smallest size of the D cup pattern. My proportions mean that I had to take a LOT out of the body of the mockup. I ended up taking some out of every seam to make it fit, since the waist and hip were way to big.  

Now that's done, the next step is cutting the fabric. I'm using the mockup as my lining, so that eliminates using more muslin and I can just follow my pattern marks that I made during the fitting. 

I'll post another update further into the process!

Corsets in the 1880s were not considered optional. An 1880s dress would look very odd without the proper undergarments (The Pragmatic Costumer does a good job explaining this in her blog post). This is not very different from modern underwear. Most 21st century women don't go out in public without a bra of some sort. So, in many ways, the corset is not different from our modern bras. It provides support and shape and for our bodies and our clothing.

I ordered my corset kit from Sew Curvy Corsetry. It was the most affordable corset kit in the style I desired and had good reviews. I began my corset in April and it took me until November to complete. Because it was my first time sewing a corset, I would discover I needed a certain tool, piece of advice, or a tutorial before I could continue. Then my corset would stand untouched for a couple of weeks before I got back to it. For this reason, it took me much longer than I expected, or was necessary. 

I wanted a corset that fit well to my shape, which is why I opted to make my own. Because I was completely new at it, I chose a kit with full instructions and all the supplies. My corset kit came with white coutil, spiral boning, a regular flexible busk, eyelets and a setting tool, and laces. This corset had no lining. Prior to beginning the process, I watched a lot of videos and read blog posts on corset construction. There are a lot of great resources available, and whole blogs devoted to corsetry, both modern and historical. 

The most difficult part was probably the binding. I wouldn't have guessed, as I've done binding before. What I found was that I had not left enough excess at the top of my pattern, and my bones here slightly too long (they came pre-measured in with the kit). Also, I should have left the boning channel tape a little longer than the pattern. I didn't think about this until I was trying to stuff my boning into the channel so I could sew binding over top. As a result, my boning is now pushing on the binding. I tried a few different methods of fixing this, but its not an immediate issue, so I have just left it for now. Eventually it will probably push its way through the binding, but I can always add new binding. I'm not too worried, as this is my first corset and I feel certain I'll make a new, better constructed one in the future. ​