Sewing/Soft Parts Costume for Renaissance Faire
- Thread starter Mommabear
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@Mommabear - would you mind sharing some details for people that might have questions?
What pattern did you use for the underpinnings? Just for reference, underpinnings are used throughout history to be not only the easier layers closest to your skin to wash, but also to give your gown the appropriate shape of the time. Without going in to skads of detail, most because I'm no expert, but each time period had it's own shape and the underpinnings were used to give that shape. Those underpinnings have three parts. The stays, the bum roll and the hoop skirt. Today we can use all sorts of things to bone the stays. I typically use steel boning, but on a stay like this with so many channels, I tend to use reeds. You can also use commercial made plastic boning that you can get at a fabric store or wide cable ties that you can get from the hardware store. The most important thing I've found is to make sure that you have a really sturdy layer as part of you inner structure and that you finish the ends of your boning so it doesn't poke holes. For the hoop skirt I've always used steel but there are definitely other options for this as well. The best part is that once you've made a set for a time period, you never have to make another one as it will work under any dress of that time period. They are all time consuming but definitely worth it.
How are you finding this particular patten so far? Easy to put together or is it difficult to understand?
Why are you serging it? Isn't just for stretchy fabrics? I'll give my two cents on this one - lots of fabric, especially fabrics used for this type of purpose will fray. And there is nothing worse that spending all of that time sewing something, only to have it fray. Of course, serging is absolutely not historically accurate. So you have to decide what your level of accuracy you want to achieve. Personally I always serge fabrics. I'm not overly bothered by making sure to use historical methods when I'm certainly not using accurate fabrics. Having said that, I took a course once called "Hand Sewing for Haters" and it opened my eyes to the benefit of adding that skill in to finish off items that just wouldn't look great with machine sewing. As well, I did sew the entirety of my Nutcracker costume by hand and it was very rewarding, but I don't really have a desire, at least at this moment, to do that again.. The point is, no judgement here regardless of what you choose.
Are you a crazy coconut for wanting to use this combination of fabrics for an event in the middle of summer....outdoors? I'll answer that one...yes...yes you are. hahahaha But I can't wait to see it all come together!!!
Also, if you want to let me know what part of uploading photos was giving you issues, I'll see what I can figure out.
What pattern did you use for the underpinnings? Just for reference, underpinnings are used throughout history to be not only the easier layers closest to your skin to wash, but also to give your gown the appropriate shape of the time. Without going in to skads of detail, most because I'm no expert, but each time period had it's own shape and the underpinnings were used to give that shape. Those underpinnings have three parts. The stays, the bum roll and the hoop skirt. Today we can use all sorts of things to bone the stays. I typically use steel boning, but on a stay like this with so many channels, I tend to use reeds. You can also use commercial made plastic boning that you can get at a fabric store or wide cable ties that you can get from the hardware store. The most important thing I've found is to make sure that you have a really sturdy layer as part of you inner structure and that you finish the ends of your boning so it doesn't poke holes. For the hoop skirt I've always used steel but there are definitely other options for this as well. The best part is that once you've made a set for a time period, you never have to make another one as it will work under any dress of that time period. They are all time consuming but definitely worth it.
How are you finding this particular patten so far? Easy to put together or is it difficult to understand?
Why are you serging it? Isn't just for stretchy fabrics? I'll give my two cents on this one - lots of fabric, especially fabrics used for this type of purpose will fray. And there is nothing worse that spending all of that time sewing something, only to have it fray. Of course, serging is absolutely not historically accurate. So you have to decide what your level of accuracy you want to achieve. Personally I always serge fabrics. I'm not overly bothered by making sure to use historical methods when I'm certainly not using accurate fabrics. Having said that, I took a course once called "Hand Sewing for Haters" and it opened my eyes to the benefit of adding that skill in to finish off items that just wouldn't look great with machine sewing. As well, I did sew the entirety of my Nutcracker costume by hand and it was very rewarding, but I don't really have a desire, at least at this moment, to do that again.. The point is, no judgement here regardless of what you choose.
Are you a crazy coconut for wanting to use this combination of fabrics for an event in the middle of summer....outdoors? I'll answer that one...yes...yes you are. hahahaha But I can't wait to see it all come together!!!
Also, if you want to let me know what part of uploading photos was giving you issues, I'll see what I can figure out.