4.1 how can I start sewing my own gothic clothing?


From: StrangeGirl
I cannot emphasize it enough: Get a basic sewing book. Look through several in the store, find one that has instructions and illustrations that are clear *to you*. If necessary, buy two (I have two basic sewing manuals, which have different strong points).

Symptoms: These are going to sound silly, but I have been coaching friends through learning to sew for quite some time, and I came up with these symptoms while *I* was learning how to sew.

Also, prewash and dry your fabric if you will wash/dry your garment. Press the fabric before cutting. Use hand-sewing where machine sewing is difficult or not recommended.


From: Trystan L. Bass
For all kinds of gothic clothing patterns, try looking through commercial pattern books. But, you may protest, they don't have patterns for *gothic clothing.*

Well, my friends, just try to imagine their bland pastel pictures in black velvet and purple lace!

A ruffled blouse shown tucked into a preppy pair of chinos would look *much better* when made (a few sizes larger) for a man who wears it with tight vinyl pants. A long evening tunic meant for the mother of the bride could look oh-so-gothic when made out of drapey layers of black satin and lace. The cape that goes with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers costume might just be suited to burgundy crushed velvet with a silk lining. These are just examples, mind you.

There are *so many* very cool commercial patterns available easily to anyone who sews. All you need to do is look in the obvious places, but rethink the patterns in gothic terms. Don't be afraid to add or delete features to a pattern -- stitch a jagged Morticia ruffle to the hem of a straight skirt, widen the sleeves of a blouse to make them floppy and romantic. Even if you don't change the patterns, you can just change the 'suggested' fabrics to what you want and love.

Also, if you're looking thru commercial pattern books in search of "gothic" clothing patterns, look thru the Vogue Patterns book because that company tends to picture the patterns in fancier fabrics (velvet, lace, etc.) and in darker colors. While all the pattern books may have a flared princess-seamed dress, Vogue will show it made in burgundy velvet and worn by a model posing at a crumbling stone bridge; other companies might show it made in pink floral prints and worn by a perky teenager and her middle-aged mom. Get the *ideas* from Vogue, but you then look for a similar, much less expensive patterns from another pattern book.


From: Cairo
I design and make a lot of my own clothes. I went to "fashion skool" to learn pattern drafting and have been sewing for more than half of my life (I'm 26). Pattern drafting is a great big pain the ass, I won't lie to you, but I really encourage you and anyone else who's interested to learn to do this. Paying $300+ dollars for badly made cloaks is outrageous, but you'll be forced to pay their prices until you learn to do it on your own! I recommend the following books:

Patterns for Theatrical Design by K. Holkboer, Drama Books, $35

Readers Digest Guide to Sewing

Patternless Fashions (may be out of print)

Sewing is not impossible, it just seems that way at first. Take it slow, cut carefully, and try to think of it as fun. It's not, but try to fool yourself, the results are going to be worth it if you work with patience!

For specific tips and suggestions, check out Six Feet Under -- a clever do-it-yourself guide to gothic fashion, for aspiring SewingGoths, plus archived info. from a.g.f.


From: Christabel La Motte
If you're a complete beginner, I'd second Cairo's recommendation of the Readers Digest Sewing Guide. It's a good starter text: very clear and well-illustrated. Cut your teeth on this, then move on up to Vogue's massive sewing guide.

Secondly, look into classes. Fabric stores, sewing machine dealers, and community colleges often offer beginning sewing courses: if this whole sphere is new to you, a good course can be a big help. Advanced sewers may wish to investigate pattern drafting or design courses.

Third, look for alternative fabric sources. Many of the big fabric chain stores can be disappointing: poor service, poorer selection, and high prices. Look through your local phone directory: in most larger cities, the odds are that you'll find a garment district filled with tiny little independent shops, which are in turn filled with the most AMAZING fabrics... often for much less than you'd expect. (In Philly, for example, the blocks around 4th and 5th, just south of South St., are a fabric junkie's heaven.) Be prepared, however, the little stores probably won't have the convenient hours of the big chains and may not accept all forms of payment. Calling in advance is a Good Idea.

But you say you're in a small town that doesn't even have a chain fabric store? Or NONE of the stores in town have quite what you want? Look into mail-order. Sewing and textile mags. (like Threads, Sew News, and the various publications put out by the pattern manufacturers) are generally chock-full of ads from mail-order suppliers of specialty fabrics and notions.

Also, be creative: learn to look at unwanted items as sources for cheap recycled fabric. That fabulous thrift store dress that doesn't fit could be cut down into a skirt, the silk shirt with holes in the sleeves can be cut down and recycled into a vest lining.

Finally, don't expect that sewing will automatically be cheaper than buying garments. If you have an eye for top-notch fabric and trims, you may sometimes find that you're spending more on raw materials than a similar garment in a store. But if you look at the ready-to-wear garment closely, you'll very often find that it's a vastly poorer quality fabric, shoddily assembled. With a little care given to fabric selection and construction, you can easily create something that will look and fit better and last MUCH longer than the ready-made garment. Speaking from my own personal experience, I've seldom if ever had a garment I made wear out: they tend to hold up so well that I just plain get bored with them and give them away after several years. (And I'm *rough* on my clothes... )


From: Mary-Suzanne
My Caveats About Sewing in General: That dress you see in the window may be quite simple to recreate, but the fabric might be impossible to find. Materials like panne velvet are easy to get, but if the attraction to is to the interesting fabric, it may be better just to buy the dress.

On the other hand, if you find some gorgeous fabric and you have the money, it's worth getting about 4 or 5 yards even if you don't know what to make with it yet. Occasionally I wake up at 2am and have to sketch out my idea of what to do with that gorgeous brocade I got two years ago.

If you are ever going to make fitted or tailored clothes, I recommend buying a few cheap cotton sheets at Goodwill for use as muslins, and practise a few slopers before you start. Learning to fit a basic sloper properly (especially darts and princess seams, which are tricky) will teach you quite a bit about the whole process. If you don't want to draft a sloper, most of the big-name pattern companies have basic sloper patterns -- look in the back of their catalogs.

Learn what fits you and what looks good on you BEFORE you learn to sew. it's so disheartening to work for ages on something just to find that it's just not flattering or comfortable. For comfort, check in particular the ease in the collar and armsyce. I tend to through my closet and figure out what I like about the things I wear most often.

Don't feel bad if you can't master buttonholes. I DESPISE buttonholes. I try to get around them whenever possible. My favorite workaround is to use thread loops -- they look fancy and aren't very hard to do. Look in pattern magazines, they have tricks and tips for that sort of thing.

Ruffles!! My favorite way to get killer flouncy ruffles is NOT to just cut a strip of fabric and gather it, as we were all taught. IMHO, what looks much nicer is to cut an arc with the inside edge equal to the finished length you want the ruffle to be. Lay it out with the inside edge straight -- see, the outside edge ruffles really nicely. For light ruffle, it will work to cut a rectangle of paper the size you want the end result to be, and then "slash-and-spread" until you have a smooth arc. For extreme ruffles, cut a donut of the proper dimensions: The inside circle should have a diameter such that the circumference is equal to the length of ruffle needed. The outer circle should have a diameter equal to the width of the ruffle plus the diameter of the inner circle. Try this on scrap fabric first to see how much flounce you need. Also, remember you are dealing with bias, so cut and pin carefully -- don't stretch.

About Pattern Drafting
First of all, about two years ago I bought a Bonfit Pattern Drafter and I just love it. I spend hours playing with it -- I end up drafting more patterns than I will ever make. It's not simple, so I would recommend it more to those of you who really love to sew, spend a lot of time at it, and are interested in how patterns are created, or else it may end up just sitting on the shelf. Also, it is not cheap -- I think I spent about $120 for the whole kit, which has complete drafters for pant, skirt, and both standard and advanced (with darts) bodice. However, I have only purchased TWO commercial patterns since buying the Bonfit, and those were for reference (one was FolkWear). I used to spend at least as much on paper patterns, which I still spent as much time adjusting. I've seen another brand of a similar idea at one fabric store -- it is cheaper, but I haven't looked at it closely so I can't say how good it is. It may be just as good as the Bonfit, but the Bonfit has the advantage of documentation.

Collars -- the bane of my existence. My patterner has direction on how to draft any collar, but I am very intimidated by anything but a simple one. My advice is to invest (what, like $4?) in a cheap vest pattern with many different collar options, and keep it around as a reference as you draft your collar.

Hacking store-bought patterns -- I look in pattern magazines (Vogue and Burda) and fashmags (Elle and W are my favorites) but basically, anything you can get a decent picture of -- or better, examine in person -- s you can recreate with a bit of thought, and in black instead of light green! I always make copious notes and sketches whenever I shop -- it scares the salesbimbos too, which I love. A comment for print ads: look at the way the model stands -- it's a clue to the unflattering parts of the piece. For instance, if she is turned sideways in a strange way, it could mean that she looks like a barrel from the front!

Doctoring Up Store-Bought Clothes
My favorite trick of all time -- women's tops are generally designed for B or C cups. If the blouse or jacket fits everywhere except it won't button at the bust (whiiiine!) removing the shoulder pads will usually give you the inch or so that you sometimes need to button it all the way up.

One of my favorite alterations is to malign an oversized shirt.

  • First of all, if there is an attached shirt collar, making it a mandarin collar is usually as simple as clipping it off carefully above the band.
  • Gather the cuffs: If the cuff is more structured -- more expensive dress shirts have stiffer cuffs -- and the sleeve is long enough, clip off the cuff completely, re-hem, and stitch elastic a few inches up. If you have a sewing machine, use a zig-zag stitch, and I recommend the clear tape elastic, it goes with everything. If you want to get quite fancy, use the collar you just cut off to make a casing for the elastic.
  • If the shirt has an unstructured cuff -- silk blouses, for instance -- you can leave the cuff on, sew up the placket and put elastic around the inside of the cuff. It won't puff as much, but it's faster.
  • If you have a shirt with french cuffs -- for ***'s sake, DON'T chop them off! Learn to use cufflinks! :)

Wrong length skirt -- it's a gorgeous skirt but it's (egad) KNEE length! If it's unlined, it's fairly simple to chop off about 6 inches, turn the hem under, and stitch it up. My advanced trick is to take the fabric you just chopped off, slice it into wedges, and use them to add flares to the skirt. This takes a bit more planning -- make sure the amount you chop off is enough to add to the rest of the skirt... but skirts are fairly easy. (Remember, it's basically just a tube.)

Recycle! When you shorten a skirt, save the hem and make ruffles to attach to something else. If the shirt is long enough, you can take off a few inches in the bottom hem to use for ruffles at the collar or cuff. And when you outgrow something, you can turn it into something else or give it to a friend.


From: LadyRhye
[on learning to make your own patterns] It's pretty easy. Get a book like The Costumer's Handbook (Rosemary Ingham and Liz Covey) and it will tell you all you need to know. It's been invaluable and things fit SO much better when they're tailored to your exact proportions.


From: Lady Ada
i recently made a full oval long skirt (2 yds required, but i'm small). the picture isn't clear but what you probably want to do is tie a string around your waist to determine where you want it to sit, then measure the front (to your knees) and the back (i did mine to my ankles and it looks cool :) then find our your waist measurement. cut out a rectangle of newspaper as long as half your waist measurement and like, er, 6" wide. now cut it into an even number of strips, something like 2" wide

            waist/2
-----------------------------------------
|    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
|    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  6"
|    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
-----------------------------------------

now cut out a square of newspaper (or tape together more likely) that is front length + back length + (waist measurement / 3.14) long and (front length + back length) / 2 + (waist measurement / 3.14 /2 ) wide [ the avg of the two] then [radius of the waist-hole]. this is going to be your half-circle.

now on the left side of the rectangle mark the middle of the waist (i.e. front length + (waist measurement / 3.14 / 2) or back length + (waist measurement / 3.14 / 2) ) for sanity checking, maybe you should do both, they should come out to the same spot. now fold the paper there.

    width
---------------
|             | 
|             |
|             | l
|             | e
|             | n
|             | g
|\   crease   | t
| |...........| h
|/            |
|             |
|             |
|             |
---------------

i can't draw it, but arrange your strips so that they form a star burst with the 2" edges making a half circle around the crease so that you'll get the above. (you're trying to accurately make a half circle whose circumference is the same as half your waist. this doesn't have to be wikkid accurate. it's just good to be close.)

now here's the tricky part. you have to draw an ovalish curve starting at the bottom left corner, touching the point where the crease hits the right edge and then continuing to the top left corner. you'll want the curve to look like a demented semicircle. now cut. you may also want to cut on the crease.

also cut out a strip of newspaper your waist length long by 4" long. this will be your waistband. if you want to have a pointy waistband, that's a little harder, but possible. if you want a button or hook & eye make the band another 2" long. otherwise, i'm assuming you want a zipper. (zipper should be something like 8" long (?)

now cut two semicircles of this fabric, with the waist circle cut out. sew it all together except leaving a 6" unsewed part on the back seam. fold the waistband in half and attach to the waist-hole in your desired manner. sew in zipper to the back. finish off bottom hem (if you feel ambitious, may i suggest lace?).

wear!



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