Fabric. You could spend hours
talking about it. You could
spend lots of time and money collecting it (and you will!). As
your first assignment, find your nearest high-end designer fabric store
that actually labels the fabrics. This is what you're going to do:
1) Leave your wallet in the car. Don't buy anything
here. Don't even look at the prices or you will get a headache.
2) Walk around the store. Pet all the different kind of
fabrics. Note how they feel to the touch, and how they
drape. Pay special attention to the differences between wool,
linen and cotton.
3) For extra credit, spend some time feeling different kinds of the
same fabric. Examine silk charmeuse, silk noil, and silk
taffeta. They hardly seem like the same fiber, do they? The
magic is in the weaving and the finishing.
As you can imagine, the more shiny and slippery a fabric, the harder it
is to sew, and the more you should avoid it for now. The same
goes for velvet--don't go there yet.
Now you can get back in the car, grab your wallet and go to a low-end
place like Jo-Ann's. What should we choose?
To boil it down for the reenactor, there were three main types of
fibers used: linen, wool, and silk. Yes, cotton does exist in the
medieval
period, but it was not cheap and it was not used in the way we use
cotton today. Linen served the function more commonly filled by
cotton in the modern era (undergarments and everything cheap!).
If you
have never sewn before, you want to start with a fabric that's 1)
cheap, 2) readily available, and 3) forgiving of mistakes. This
essentially eliminates the big three, since neither linen nor wool is
cheap nor readily available locally in most places (yes, you can mail
order it, but for this phase you should be at the fabric store, petting
the cloth!). Silk essentially fails on all three fronts. So
unless you're fortunate enough to have a stash of linen already, I
would recommend using some good old cotton broadcloth until you feel
comfortable. ALWAYS check the label on the end of the fabric bolt
for content and for cleaning recommendations. Plenty of
'broadcloth' is actually 60% polyester, 40% cotton, and you should
avoid it. So go ahead and buy a couple of yards of cotton
broadcloth. Color doesn't matter too much...there's a truly huge
range of colors achievable with natural dyes, and you have bigger fish
to fry. (Colorfastness of some of those bright natural dyes is a
whole other discussion. And skip the neon colors, please.)
Key
fact about cotton broadcloth: Cotton broadcloth is
great to learn on because it's dirt cheap and forgiving. But
please don't believe anyone who tells you that it looks like
linen. It doesn't, not even a little bit. Once you feel
comfortable sewing, move on to linen and don't look back.
How many yards should you buy? Ideally, you will have planned
ahead and know which pattern you're going to try. Always add
10-25% for shrinkage and screwups to the amount you calculate...leaning
towards the bigger number when you're less experienced. If you
haven't planned ahead, five yards should be adequate to excessive for
virtually anything you're going to try, and the extra fabric gives you
some practice fabric to work on your basic techniques. Make sure
to check the bolt end for the width of the fabric. Fabric usually
comes in one of three widths: 45", 54", and 60". Muslin and
sheeting sometimes come in ridiculously wide widths.
Key facts about
fabric width:
1) The yardage you need for a given pattern will be very
different if you buy 45" fabric than if you buy 60" fabric.
2) Bolts labeled 60" are often really 58"...and they will shrink
more when you wash them! (the same is true of other fabric
widths)
Now you're home with your new treasure. Put down the scissors and
step away from the sewing machine! You're not ready to sew
yet. You cannot pass go or collect $200 until you wash your
fabric. Linen and cotton (the two fabrics you should be using!)
can be tossed in the washing machine and dryer. The idea here is
to shrink the fabric. Don't believe 'preshrunk' fabric, unless
you want to cry after you wash your finished garment. After the
fabric is dry, it will require ironing. The entire length of
fabric...all five yards...will require ironing. This is the part
of sewing that most makes me want to give it all up due to the
spectacular tedium, but don't try to get away without pressing.
Small wrinkles that 'aren't that bad' will cause your pattern pieces to
be slightly different shapes, which will cause you aggravation and
fitting problems. This is much less severe with loose, nonfitted
styles of clothing, but you should learn good habits now to avoid
problems later (and there is absolutely no way you can get around
pressing linen...it wrinkles when you look sideways at it.)
Key
facts about washing fabric:
1) Never, ever assume that your pretty fabric is colorfast.
Reds are particularly bad about bleeding. Wash all fabric by
itself or with old towels. Red fabric and garments may require
multiple laundry cycles before they finish bleeding. Put an old
white sock or rag into the wash with it to assess how much dye is still
leaking. This can be really critical if, for example, you want to
trim a nice red tunic with white bands. In this case you will
need to wash the fabric repeatedly until it doesn't bleed, or your
white bands will turn a pretty pink the first time you wash the tunic.
2) Spray starch! Spray starch! My kingdom for spray
starch! Seriously. Buy a big can. You can use it on
linen, cotton, and wool (with caution). It makes ironing much
much better, and it's virtually essential for linen. And you can
use it for setting ruffs, and ironing garments after you wash
them. I go through a can every two months or so.
3) If you are using wool, don't wash and dry it unless you want a
practical demonstration of felting/fulling. It needs steam
pressing for shrinkage. Your dry cleaner can do it; just be
really really clear that you want steam pressing and not cleaning.
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