Danced my dance slow today. It was good. Not much else to say.
I’ve been hungering to do some sewing. The summer Renaissance Fair season is coming up, and as usual I have very little to wear that’s appropriate to festivals, other than the usual t-shirt and jeans for a very ordinary, modern look; or a kilt and sort of vaguely Renaissance-y shirt, and boots. Tedious.
But, I know how to sew. Yesterday I broke out my patterns, and my fabric, and made a couple of smaller pieces: a couple of pouches to hang on a belt, and a shoulder-poncho-and-hood combination that might have been worn by Lancelot or Robin Hood back in the day. While the pouches are fine… the hood is not. I made the largest size possible, and it still doesn’t fit over my shoulders. Instead, it looks ridiculous and small and mis-cut or mis-built, even though it’s about as well-made as I know how to make it.
This happens a lot: I use commercial patterns that I pick up on sale after Halloween: so far I’ve made a couple of shirts, and this hood, and a pair of drawstring medieval trousers from these patterns, and nearly nothing fits. I’m the wrong size and shape to be making my own costumes, apparently. Frankly, the only thing I have made (and now made more than once!) is a tunic design that came with a Jedi costume. That’s pretty much it.
But the nice thing is that I’m beginning to think I don’t mind.
[…] chi jacket pattern — I’ve never sewn my own tai chi jacket, although I made two tunics from the Jedi costume sewing kit that I use in rotation to wrap my body for tai chi in the morning. Neither is tradition. The […]
Hmmmm, sorry about that huge “by from amazon” banner there in my previous comment. I meant to paste links. I suspect links have changed lately as I have noticed some odd things like this recently. Guess I will have to remember to use tinyurl.com in the future.
I prefer you don’t use tinyrul, actually. I prefer links to show what they are either directly or through rollover. It makes clearer what we track to and how we link. Which I think is better for the internet.
Thank you for the suggestions. I’m more likely to go with the first than the second.
Well that was a happy accident then (whew!) It felt like I had pasted a huge, neon, billboard into your site without permission. And just as an aside, the difference in the look and feel of hand vs machine sewing is really quite unexpectedly great. If you get a chance to ever attend any historical reinaction event… you know, civil war, revolutionary war, etc. you can tell immediately which is which and you might find that you do care.
Perhaps it’s time for a Pattern Making course or book. You could then cheat and use your after-halloween patterns as a jumping off point, but alter them to actually fit the intended wearer properly.
“Pattern Making” on amazon brought up a bunch, but this one looks like it’s a favorite and I seem to have seen it around a lot, so it may have stood the test of time as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Sewing-Patterns-Donald-McCunn/dp/0932538002/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1401034077&sr=8-4&keywords=pattern+making
And here’s a book I have lusted after for years, but cannot make a priority enough to buy as I no long sew as much as I used to:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561584975/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2CLD3JJ66CP7L&coliid=I2TK09V16EPWKI
It’s about Couture sewing techniques, all hand sewing. I mention this to you because garments sewed by hand look and hang quite differently than those sewed by machine. I don’t know if you are quite that much of a stickler for authenticity, but just in case….