madPete

written in blood...

This one is trouble... Welcome Carol! 😁

LOL. Most of em in the desk are your designs, except the steampunk and Buckaroo Bonzai

looking good!

That striped material is hard to come by, makes good sacks too

Only if you are cooking it in an entree! Otherwise you have a start on a demo!

There's your first vict... er... client Stynky!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday the Mercury crew will be provided meals at minimal cost. Edit [Sorry - if this was not clear - This is Mercury crew participants - we have limited cooking resources as we are flying in...] Breakfasts: Stynky and volunteers are cooking breakfast Sat, Sun. Sounds pretty deluxe with waffles, eggs, bacon, etc.. Lunch: there will be coldcuts, fruit, salad, bread, cheese, greens etc available for lunches I'm told the fort provides lunch one day, but I have minimal information on that so we wil be prepared if it doesnt happen Dinners: madPete and volunteers will be cooking Friday Dinner "Ragoo and Salt Pork" (i.e. mashed potatoes ,ragoo'd French green beans and a ham) along with bread and greens Saturday Dinner is a potluck prior to the auction, bring something to pass - there is a separate thread on the potluck Sunday no formal Dinner as it is teardown. We can provide what is leftover for cold cuts, bread, fruit etc... Please consider a $10 donation for each prepared meal for breakfast and dinner (i.e. $30 total). We're hoping this covers lunch costs as well without additional $. Please let madPete know which meals you are interested in so we can plan numbers. Payable at the fort only.

Sounds interesting! I'm not ruling it out but I'm on the other side of the country. So flights, rental cars etc... require an established event for that kind of outlay.

got it and added to the list!

And we owe him thanks big time... powder has gone way up, i think its closer to $30-35 a can now

Chris made some cartridge rolls as well! Much safer loading on the field this way.

Wow. I have so much sweat equity and experimentation time in this I almost dont want to share it, so I'm abbreviating it here... You need the kit in the picture. They are $40-$70 depending where you get it. Mine was around $40 on Ebay. I bought the 1-1/8 inch tap kit. When tapping the hole use a liberal amount of tung oil or some equal kind of lubricant. Soak the ends of the dowels in tung oil for 10 minutes before threading those. Go slow and smooth.

It's half-pint sized too!

$20 a can. He has 3 cans of 3F and 1 of reenactor grade (mixed 2F/3f). He needs one can for himself so we can get up to 3 cans if needed...

LOL and I never made them before! There's enough parts to make 1 more, but another one wont fit in the box for the implements. Maybe I can assemble it there if I take the ends off and fit it in one of the duffels. I'm not sure how to get them back unless we stop at the post office which might be tight on Monday morning before the flight. Maybe we could auction 1 off in the dead man's auction and then dis-assemble the other two for duffel bag If I'm not over the weight limit.

Wow. I thought I posted another pic of the 2nd completed one last week. I dont see it here tho. Maybe I put it in the wrong thread... I was searching for a specific size Oak dowel, which I never found, so I got one a bit larger and whittled it down for the Metal ends. We have two completed. I was going to ship these to Chris along with the Cannon implements for Brien's friend. Was just waiting til we were a bit closer to the date to ship them...

I believe it was $20-25 for a can. I'll have to check with him I dont recall

TBD - More to Follow...

Lay each side of the body flat on the floor or table. right-side of fabric up. Pin the ends and the center of the waistband to the body. Material right-side to right-side. On the fly and back opening pin the waistband flat for about an inch from each end. If you do gathers the traditional way, now is the time. I dont do gathers the traditional way, so what follows is just my method.. I then split the difference on the extra material and pin again in the center of waistband that is still loose.. basicaly splitting the difference each time. Then I proceed to bunch the fabric every 1/4 to 1/2 inch and pin. This is the way I do gathers. Once you have this pinned, you can hand stitch or machine stitch (1/4 to 3/8 inch from the edge). Up to you, because this ends up hidden inside the waistband. Note: I flipped one side over after I pinned both.

Next is handstitching, although you can do this with a machine. Its one of the few parts that may be visible at times. Before you stitch make sure you've pinned them on the proper side of the body, so that you have two halves mirror image of each other. Hand stitch the inside of the fly on the right and left main body Hand stitch the back opening on the right and left main body.

Turn the waistband right-side out and flatten. spray with a spray bottle and iron the waistband flat. I didnt have a spray bottle so I got a little crazy splashing water on the waistbands. trim any excess from the hems so its fairly even. you can shorten the height of the waistband at this point if you wish. I try to keep them about 1 to 1-1/2 inches wide plus the hem width.

Cut two waistbands approx 2 1/2 inches wide, and 1 inch longer than half your total waist size. This allows a half inch hem and each end of the waistband. Cut a second set for the inside of the waistband. I always use a softer linen on the inside, sometimes the heavy linen is a bit scratchy. Often I'll used striped linen as a lining for the waistband. pin them together right-side to right-side (if there is one, most linen is the same either side) The waist bands are then exactly half the total waist size. 1 for each half of the main body of the slops., right side and left side. When you put a button hole in the front left of the waistband, the waistband will overlap and inch or so. This opens a slight gap in back where the tie will go and leaves a small amount of adjustment with the ties in back. Stitch starting at one end. I backstitch at the ends and every 3-4 inches over the entire length. Then if a thread breaks it only unravels to the point of the backstitch and is easily repaired. Not that this is a problem, but slops are made for heavy work, so... Stitch the length of the waistband on one side only. Stitch both ends. Trim the corners, so when it is turned right-side out, the corners are not bunched together.

Now left side front and left side back get stitched together at the side seam. Same with right side front and right back. I machine stitched this portion. stitch sides together right side to right side. fold hems over on the inside (wrong side). Lay down on the fabric and stitch through the edge of the hem and the main body. Optionally you can stitch just the edge of the hem. French seam diagram for clarity...

Here are the main sections pinned and ready to hand stitch fly and back opening. make sure to do opposites on right and left sides (i.e. a mirror image)!!