My 1860 Prairie Dress and Oatland Harvest Festival

I am so lucky to have an amazing fiber guild in Savannah. My guild, the Fiber Guild of the Savannahs, has a wonderful relationship with Oatland Island Wildlife Center.   Oatland allows use of their facilities for meetings and a weaving room/studio, has an annual Cane Grinding and Harvest Festival at the end of November every year. The guild  has a table with items for sale in front of an old cabin, members bring their spinning wheels, and we demonstrate different fiber arts.  There are also some interactive textile activities for kids.

I decided to make myself a period prairie dress for this event.  I used Past Patterns 1860 Homestead Dress, supposedly based on a historical garment, and used some reproduction civil war era fabric. I found some vintage lace from my old sewing box and added a muslin apron. 

Underneath I am wearing a rope hoop skirt purchased from Heather at Treadle Treasures

Had a grand day...I got some very useful advice on getting my old spinning wheel going from Ruth

saw the wool wheel in use...

And I remembered the words to "Erie Canal" when I met this sweet mule who was part of the cane grinding operation. I have been reading Rinker Buck's "The Oregon Trail" in which Buck and his brother take on the Oregon Trail with a wagon and a mule team, so this meetup with a real mule was timely...

Here's the cane grinder