NeedleCraft Plus/needlecraftplusvolume1.iso/misc/cost-a2m/authmod.faq

Text File | 1997-01-06 | 4KB | 85 lines

Tips for making authentic historic costumes from modern supplies.

One tactic for using scaled patterns to construct garments is to choose
a garment in a book, make a transparency of the pattern in the book,
and go buy a pattern as similar as possible.  Then project the
transparency on the wall and use it to adjust the bought pattern to the
style of the garment in the book.

Tom Apple and several other readers offer the following advice:

For those of you who make reproduction historical clothing, I have a few
tips for you.  I've made clothing ranging in periods from 800 AD to 1865,
some of which were for museums and interpretive programs.  I've learned
a few guidelines that aid in producing high quality, and highly
authentic, period garments.

1.  Always use natural fiber fabrics or mostly natural fiber blends.
2.  Always pre-shrink your fabrics (except silk) prior to using.
3.  Never use cotton in pre-18th century clothing, references to
cotton in these periods usually denote a type of wool.
4.  Often the colors of commercially dyed fabrics are too bright
to look like naturally dyed cloth, so additional washing or
dyeing may be required to tone down the colors.
5.  If using an untried or dubious pattern, make a mockup of the
garment using muslin or an old sheet and make adjustments to
the fit and cut to suit. Disassemble the mockup and use as your
pattern.
6.  Machine sew only the construction seams and hand sew all visible
stitching, buttonholes, and lacing holes on pre-1850's clothing.
On 1850-1880 clothing, hand sew the buttonholes and hand top
stitch only on confederate or country type clothing. If the
cloth has a coarse weave and is prone to ravelling, machine
sew the buttonhole once around then handstitch over top with
button and carpet thread of the same color.
7.  Also, when selecting fabric, make sure the weave is of a period
style. Colors other than black and sometimes blue should have a
slightly mottled or speckled look to them.
8.  If at all possible, inspect original garments of the period
to get a feel for the stitching, construction, and fabric.

Hopefully these tips will prove useful.  You would be amazed at how
observant the public can be on minute details of clothing and uniforms.
I've often had people comment on hand stitched buttonholes and the like
when doing historic interpretation.  Details like these add to your
credibility as a historian. Making your clothing right the first time
will save you money on progressive upgrades.

Regarding suggestion 3), Donna Holsten adds the following:

Cotton, although rare, was used in Europe in [medieval/Renaissance]
periods. It was usually used in combination with another fiber (wool or
linen)--so cotton broadcloth would not be appropriate for use in early
garb, but cotton as a fiber would be.  It would be used only in very
fancy outfits--worn by *very* rich people.  I like to parallel its use
in medieval/Renaissance Europe with the use of linen in modern America--
it's available, but not widely used and not inexpensive.

and Tom added the following additional comments:

The main reason I recommended avoiding cotton for pre-18th century
clothing is that most cotton available today is not like cotton fabrics
available then. I have a book called _Arts of the Anglo-American
Community in the Seventeenth Century_, a Winterthur Museum conference
report of 1974. In an article on Textile Trade in Boston, 1650-1700, by
Linda Baumgarten, it contains a glossary of fabrics. The cotton related
fabrics are as follows:

Cotton: a woolen fabric with long nap, which gave a soft, fuzzy
appearance. Kendal Cottons, Manchester Cottons, and Welsh cottons, named
for place of manufacture, were well known woolens. Inventory references
to cotton bedsheets mean Indian cotton or a cotton and linen mixture.

Other cotton (India) fabrics mentioned are: Calico, Rumal, Vermilion,
and Cotton-Linen (linen warp)

Generally the cotton I see people use is inappropriate stuff like
broadcloth, sport cloth, and cotton corduroy (Cul Duroy). For most
clothing linen is much more accurate to use. I concur that cotton was
used pre-18th century, but by very few people, and those who did were
quite wealthy.  I'm sure the cotton then looked a lot like the linen
did.

Thanks to: [e-mail] (Thomas Apple); Donna Holsten
<[e-mail]> ; [e-mail] (Susan Clark)