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Period Sewing Technique

 

Since this site is organised by eras, the sewing tips are somewhat dispersed, depending on which era they apply to (mainly 18th century and very early 20th, the latter also being releavnt for the late 19th century.

However, there are some things that are common to all eras. They're mostly about how sewing period costume is different from sewing modern garments using modern, multisize patterns.

For example, you often have to scale patterns from a book or from this site up, from a printable to a usable size. There's an extra page for that.

Next, you have to resize the pattern to fit you, unless you're very lucky. Every good tailoring book will tell you the general technique - for modern patterns, but the principle is the same. You should always make a muslin (AKA mock-up) of at least the bodice, which in most cases is meant to be close-fitting, try it on (over the proper underwear for the period, of course) and check the fit. Put the muslin on left side out so that it's easier to pin the seams and darts. Ideally, you should have someone with sewing know-how handy to do the pinning, but in a pinch, a dummy will do. The problem with dummies is that they're all modeled on the modern body shape, so they can't mimick the push-up or waist-cinching effects of period corsets. It may work if you choose the dummy a size or two smaller than you'd normally need, put the corset on it and stuff any gaps with fabric or the like. Anyway, if the muslin fitting results in new seamlines, copy them back onto the paper pattern so that you can use it again next time.

Speaking of dummies, there are some tricks for getting a cheap dummy that actually fits your corseted shape. One goes by the name of "duct tape dummy". I'm sure you'll find good instructions if you feed that exact phrase to a search engine. In a nutshell, you lace yourself, put an old T-shirt over it and have yourself wrapped in duct tape. Then you cut the tape and the T-shirt along some strategic lines to get out of it and put them back together. However, I have no idea how that soft stuff can be made stiff enough.

A second method is something I've thought up but have never tried. The difference is that you have yourself wrapped in the kind of plaster tapes that casts are made of. Simple wrapping would be hard to cut, I think, so there have to be seam lines somehow. You don't use the cast as the dummy - first, it has more circumference than you, second, it's too hard to stick pins into. The trick is to use it as a mould that you fill with the kind of foam that is used to seal window and door frames. I have no idea what it's called... I remember it as yellowish stuff that comes in aluminium bottles and blows up so much immediately after leaving the bottle that you could bend the door frame out of shape if you weren't careful. When the foam has dried, you take the mould off and voilà, you have a foam dummy.

Visible seams are the horror of anyone who has been taught sewing during the last 150 years or so. Sewing books and teachers have done their best to make us shudder at the thought. Before the 19th century, however, stitching was allowed to be visible and even used decoratively - of course, the stitches should be small and regular.

Un-neatened edges are also something that you may have to get used to, or welcome as a relief. If the fabric doesn't fray very easily, it's OK to leave the edges that are turned inside un-neatened. But more importantly, it was quite normal to have visible cut edges, at least since the cut-and-slash fashion of the early 16th century when the fabric was deliberately cut or holes punched into it. The edges of ruffles and ruchings of the 17th and 18th century were often pinked into zig-zag or scalloped shapes which prevent fraying to a certain extent.

Sewing by hand is something that most of us today aren't used to. I often hear reactions like "Dear god, I'll nver get finished if I do that!" That's not true! Okay, if it's a long, straight seam where the stitches aren't inside, only a fundamentalist would demand that you sew it by hand. But apart from that, I can only recommend that you simply try sitting down in front of the telly with a good film on and sew away. The stitches don't have to be perfect, and in many cases not even very strong, so it can be a lot quicker than you'd thought. Maybe you've once cursed when trying to sew something complicated, with lots of angles in, like a modern revers... noticed that it was wrong, picked it apart, tried again... try that kind of thing by hand and you'll see that sometimes, sewing by hand is quicker than by machine.

Stitches and seams are something that some, but not all, have had to learn, but apparently not all people call them by the same names. To prevent misunderstandings, I'll quickly outline what I mean by each name:

Genauere Anleitungen dazu findest Du in jedem vernünftigen Schneidereilehrbuch.

 

 

 

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