Good to Know Archives - Page 5 of 6

How to Sew a Chemise Really, Really Fast

How to Sew a Chemise Really, Really Fast

Published February 22, 2011 by missa

Sometimes, you need to sew a chemise and you don’t really want to spend a lot of time on it. Either you’re out of time, or the thought of sewing just one more chemise in your life inspires a sense of soul-crushing despair. Anyway, I’ve worked out a couple tricks over the years to get the stupid things sewn as quickly as possible, with a bare minimum of hand work, so that they still come out looking decent.

Warning: I’m about to go through a lot of things that are simply not best practices. (That’s why it’s called cheating.)

2 Comments

Why is an Underarm Gusset Good?

Why is an Underarm Gusset Good?

Published February 22, 2011 by missa

Here’s your 40 second visual rundown on just what an underarm gusset does in a simple smock/shift/chemise/shirt pattern. I have two very simple smocks here – one eleventh century style, a la Kohler, and the other more of a sixteenth century style, adapted from Arnold. There’s a drastic difference in the fit at the shoulder.

6 Comments

Pattern Cheat for Sewing Underarm Gussets Faster

Pattern Cheat for Sewing Underarm Gussets Faster

Published February 21, 2011 by missa

An underarm gusset is a square (usually) of fabric inserted between the body and sleeve of a shirt. They give you an improved range of motion without a lot of bulk around the arm. There are examples going back to the sixteenth century. My mother remembers by great-grandmother adding them to her husband’s shirts so he wouldn’t rip the seams under the arm. Just the other day, I saw directions in Threads magazine on adding a gusset to a shirt. The problem with gussets, though, is that they’re a pain in patouty to sew. If you need to do them fast (or really really small), there’s an easy way to cheat out your pattern.

8 Comments

More Shape Matters: Why the Same Waist Curve Doesn’t Work for Every Body

More Shape Matters: Why the Same Waist Curve Doesn’t Work for Every Body

Published February 10, 2011 by missa

I had this horrible, recurring experience with some of my oldest costumes: I’d put a zillion hours worth of work into making something, right, and lace myself into a corset to make me skinnier, and put on enormous skirts that should have dwarfed my waistline, and the bodice and the yadda yadda, and, like, fifty pounds of tightly laced clothing later, my torso looked stumpier and my waist looked wider than it had when I started. That’s a lot of work to go through to look shlumpy, you know? Fortunately, there’s a simple little trick you can play with the waistline on an Elizabethan dress that will help…

12 Comments

In Support of Hand Sewing

In Support of Hand Sewing

Published February 5, 2011 by missa

People have a lot of complaints about hand sewing. The more common ones include “it’s slow” and “it makes the hurty in my wrists”. There’s actually a really easy thing you can do to help speed up your hand sewing, and take some of the strain off your wrists….

3 Comments

The Easy Way to Tie a Knot at the End of Your Sewing Thread

The Easy Way to Tie a Knot at the End of Your Sewing Thread

Published January 25, 2011 by missa

This is a wonderful trick I learned in a millinery class. It’s one of those silly things that someone shows you and you wonder why you never thought of that…. It’s simply the fastest way to tie a knot at the end of your sewing thread. I mean, right at the end, every time, without the knot slipping off the end of the thread.

24 Comments

How Princess Seams Work

How Princess Seams Work

Published January 25, 2011 by missa

File this under, “Now that you mention it, it’s completely obvious…” Princess seams are long shaping seams often seen in women’s dresses. They create shape in a garment with curves that model the form of the body, particularly in the area between the bust and hip, and the area between the shoulder and bust. To work properly, these seams must run over the fullness of the breast.

3 Comments

An Artist Every Costumer Should Know: Gerard David

An Artist Every Costumer Should Know: Gerard David

Published January 23, 2011 by missa

If you do sixteenth century costume, you probably love Holbein and Hilliard. You love/hate/generally-have-a-complex-emotional-relationship-with Bruegel. (Really, Pieter? You’re going to show me all those seams and still make the dress as hopelessly dowdy as possible? What’s with the hate, man?) You might not know Gerard David. His name doesn’t get bandied about in costume circles as much as some others, and that’s just a gosh darned shame. Because, truly, if you’re interested in the transitional styles between medieval and Tudor, Gerard is a fellow you need to know…

2 Comments

How to Use All That Left-Over Wrapping Paper

How to Use All That Left-Over Wrapping Paper

Published January 1, 2011 by missa

I tend to theme my holiday wrapping paper/ribbon color scheme every year. I’m sure I’m not the only one. The problem is that every year, I end up with off bits of wrapping paper… The great thing is, wrapping paper makes dandy patterning paper!

2 Comments

Meet the Velvets

samples of four velvets of different fiber composition

Meet the Velvets

Published December 27, 2010 by missa

Velvet is always a fantastically period fabric choice for medieval and ren costuming, right? (Assuming, of course, that the character being costumed would have been allowed to wear velvet.) Annoyingly well legislated social norms to one side, velvet is great, isn’t it? Well, sadly, no… Not all velvets are created equally.

3 Comments

Category: Good to Know