That’s a good point. Curtain panels can be crazy expensive, and pillows can certainly be made for a fraction of the price. And you can customize exactly to your taste.
WhyNot, you mentioned upthread that most of the women at Faires have their bodices laced wrong. Can you explain to me or show me what’s right? I’ve just got into this in the last few years, largely by myself, so I don’t exactly have someone around here to ask.
And I’m thinking of making the boys outfits this year, since they had a surprising amount of fun renting them last year. I’m a novice at making garments, although I am a quilter, which really only means that I can sew straight lines. Does this place look like a good source for patterns? There’s a children’s kit down on the page that looks like it can work for both of my kids.
I feel confident enough to start with kids clothes, although I won’t be making any dresses any time soon. I had one made last summer, lost weight, and had it altered. Now I’ve lost more weight, and I’m afraid that I won’t be able to have it taken in any more, which is a bummer considering how much it cost.
Dharma Trading Company, perhaps? They’re the ones I use. Great folks.
The main problem most gals have is leaving a gap in front, ESPECIALLY an uneven gap - tight at the bottom and loose up top. Not only does this give the wrong sillhouette (triangular torso instead of tube shaped), it gives less support. Remember, in the time, nothing was prefab - everything was cut to measure. A proper supporting and fitting bodice would be snug, but would close at the front. I’m willing to forgive a little gapping, whatwith how expensive bodices are and the way people change size from one summer to the next, but if you absolutely can’t squeeze your bodice closed and don’t have time to take it out, then make sure the gap is equal down the front.
Secondly, a bodice should lace top to bottom. If you look around, most women lace theirs bottom to top. Three reasons for top to bottom: one and two, it supports better that way and you avoid the not-period boobage overflow. Three, lacing tied into a bow on the top tends to become undone or snag on things, especially if you indulge in little anachronisms like the cleavage dagger or roses in the bodice. Only a whore, or a woman who otherwise needed her breasts to be presented at a moment’s notice (like a breastfeeding mom), would wear the bow on top, so she could unleash the sisters quickly and without removing her whole bodice.
The peasant bodice, basically, only had lacing in front because those people were too poor to be sewn into their tops by ladies’ maids every morning. The court ones were fastened in the back, usually with thread and needle, 'though most court performers today use hidden zippers instead. Any bodice, regardless of class, should look as much like the intact full top of a dress as possible. It should not look like it’s falling off or could be quickly ripped off by a passing sailor.
However, you should remember that even today, Ren Faires have fashions and fads, and I’m not totally opposed to creative anachronism. Heck, many Faires have fairies and elves and encourage kilts, even! Mine (Bristol) is pretty strict about their performers staying relatively period, although the patrons dress as they wish, of course.
Thanks, WhyNot! Your earlier explanation of a tube-shaped midsection reassured me too. That’s what I have, wearing the bodice that I had made for me, and by looking around at the other patrons, I felt like it was wrong. Glad to know I don’t *have * to have my boobage spilling out all over the place.
I will lace it the other way; I did notice it catching on things, and that’s a pain.
WhyNot - Like I said, I’m not big on the whole “historically accurate” thing unless I’m doing an SCA event. For renaissance fairs, I just want to look good and have fun. I basically made my (bodice? Yes, bodice) to be something akin to an invisible underwire bra. It came out pretty good and worked well.
I have another one that’s a little more historically accurate in that it’s a peasant outfit, but the one I’m talking about was just a general wenchy looking thing so I could strut my stuff. That was back when I was single, of course.
The shoulder thing I know about. I got into an argument with a “nun” at a ren fair one year about how a woman of ill repute did not show off her shoulders, as that was inappropriate even for a whore. She didn’t believe me.
We should totally start a pattern thread. Like, not actual patterns. I rarely use patterns; I make all my own stuff from my imagination. I visualize what I want and imagine what it looks like taken apart, and then I make it. Does anyone else do that?
~Tasha
WhyNot, wow. You know your stuff! I am really not into the whole Ren-Faire thing, but my husband likes going, so we go. I never pay much attention to the other women’s dress, as I just kind of figure it’s how they get to dress like whores with their boobs hanging out and call it “period.”
ratatoskK, I have never bought fabric online. I guess I am funny about it, but being as how I have a mild form of Aspergers or OCD (no one has ever really figured it out and it’s just not that big of a deal for me to seek help for it), I have to feel fabrics before I can buy them. The only exception to this, obviously, is blue jeans. I could never buy clothing or fabric online for that reason.
Me? I don’t really care if my stuff is really true to period or not, so long as it looks nice and is somewhat comfortable. I do try to get fabrics that are relatively period. Well, I used to – this year, my fabrics are as anachronistic as my language! Such is life, eh?
This thread does have me thinking that it might be fun to do a fabric swap sometime. Sounds like a lot of us have a lot of remnants that we might have fun trading out. I, too, do a lot of my own pillows, curtains, etc and have a boatload of gorgeous upholstery-type fabrics as well as various and sundry remnants from costumes past. Maybe that would be fun to do closer to Halloween?
I have a friend who does; she makes all sorts of wild stuff, and belongs to a sort of textile artists’ group. I am very pattern-dependent! But then, I don’t usually sew for myself–I make quilts and kids’ clothing for the most part. And I don’t have a designers’ imagination; I have to see something before I think of it, and I have to work pretty hard to visualize a different take on it.