Clam Bake (and a Dress)

I realized that most of you probably have no idea what a New England clam bake is like.  I didn't until I started attending them five years ago!  If you're not interested in the details but like sewing, you can skip to the end where I have a dress to show you.

A clam bake is quite an affair, and it takes a lot of planning!  First, several people have to gather rock weed. There's a certain spot my family goes, and it has to be at low tide in order to get to the rock weed. This year, I think they got 14 bags full.

The morning of the bake, we build a large bonfire on the side of our concrete-lined clambake pit. Interspersed in the wood are rocks about the size of cantaloupes.

We light the fire in the morning, and then let it burn for about 4.5 hours.  By this time, the rocks have gotten very, very hot!  Several men dress up in long pants, long sleeves, and gloves to rake the rocks (but not the wood) into the pit. This is so hot that they can only do it for a few minutes at a time, and someone also has a hose to spray them down every once and awhile.

While the men are raking, a lot of us are preparing the food to go into the pit.  We put lobsters, mussels, salmon, corn and onions into wire baskets.

Once all of the rocks have been raked into the pit, we pour all of the rock weed on top of them.  The water stored in the rock weed immediately begins to steam. We start passing the food down a large assembly line to go into the pit.

We have enough food to almost completely fill up the pit.  The steam escaping from the rock weed is very hot, and it cooks the food.

Everything is covered up after this with wet burlap bags, old bedspreads, and a tarp.  We let the food bake for a little over an hour. 

After that, all the food comes out!  We eat the mussels first, as they aren't as good once they go cold.  And then?

Oh, it's a delicious day.  As it gets dark we throw more logs on the bonfire to enjoy its warmth.  We have an unspoken contest with the other houses around the pond to see who has the best fireworks.  We were the unquestionably the champions this year.

You might have spotted me in one of the photos above.  I was wearing what I feel to be proper clambake attire: a very picnic-y dress!

This is Butterick 4443. It came together easily and didn't use a huge amount of fabric given the fuller skirt.  My one problem with it is the wide neck.  It looks nice when it sits correctly, but when I wear the dress, the straps tend to edge away from the shoulders and make the neck look gappy.  I don't know how to fix this.

I love the fabric I used for this dress.  I think it's perfect for a perfect summer day! 

Comments

[Lindsay]

Very cute dress! You could try putting some kind of stiffener (ex. horsehair braid) along the neckline, which should stop it from buckling as much. I'm also a big fan of Hollywood Tape (on the notions wall near the bra-making supplies), which holds things firmly in place. I had a similar issue with a dress a couple months back as the fabric was very slippery and slinky, and a piece of Hollywood Tape on each shoulder kept everything in place through a night of dancing.

Also, the clam bake looks like quite a production! I didn't realize there was special architecture to go along with it. ;)

[Antoinette]

Wow, what an education -- I'd heard of clam bakes but had no idea! Sounds like a lot of work and a lot of fun. I am not sure about your sliding straps. I have a couple of dresses with wide necklines but have not had this happen. Did you interface the top couple of inches along the neckline? I've not tried the suggestions Lindsay left above but I could see those working, too. Cute dress!

[Kim]

It's a perfect clam bake dress! Boy, I had no clue that a clam bake was such an involved affair with a concrete pit and everything! Wow! I love me some lobster.

[Mary Beth]

Sewing 911 by Barbara Deckert has lots of great tips to fix this common neckling issue. Check it out at this link http://books.google.com/books?id=Qerw0CilbY0C&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=neckline+gap+fix&source=bl&ots=sulhf6mAim&sig=kx-e9lV_zhichNkqUW6abTJGV-0&hl=en&ei=u_NTSuYPiJ-2B4DSpJsI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 for tips. Your dress looks fab & I never knew a thing about a clam bake til now. Such work! Who knew.

[Jessica]

Interesting process for all that food. The lobster totally made me drool! We're going to the lobster fest in Maine at the end of the month and I can't wait. :)

Cute dress!

[Brenda]

I was in our high school musical production of "Carousel" and we sang about going to a clambake, but I had no idea how one worked. Looks like a lot of work, but very good food at the end! Perfect dress for a picnic.

[nova]

That is a lovely dress for a summer's day!

[Paula Boren]

What I would recommend if you use that pattern again is to fold over or slit the pattern at the neckline to take out some of the width. Maybe remove a couple of inches at the top, blending it back into the pattern like a dart.